Those
who have been following my blog know by now that I am not a bible-thumper. To
me the “good book” has some very good parts; others, not so much.
But
in the United States, whether on the left, center or right of the political
spectrum, a majority of people profess to be Christian. And considering the
animosity that both fringes have toward each other I sometimes wonder, not
whether they have read the entire Bible, because I am sure that most of them
have not, but whether they have even read Genesis, the first book.
So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed
them, and God said unto them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
(Genesis1:27-28)
Now
let me put that into perspective. Suppose that on the entire earth only one
person was made in the image of God. If you were to meet that person, how would
you treat him? I am sure that you would look at that person differently from
the way you would look at an ordinary, non-imaged person. At the very least,
you would probably treat that person with much more respect than you would treat anyone else.
But
Genesis says that God created man[kind] in his own image. Not just Adam and
Eve, but mankind. So if you would treat a single God-imaged person with
respect, then it follows that everyone, male, female, black, white, rich, poor,
Christian, Jew, liberal, conservative . . . is
to be treated with respect. And this implies, no, it demands, that every
member of mankind, should be treated equally.
I
realize that this is a bitter pill to swallow, particularly for politicians.
Whether you follow the mandates of the tea party or the labor unions, it’s OK
to disagree with the other side, but your Bible says you must treat them with
respect. Name-calling and otherwise denigrating them is not respect.
And
all your constituents must be considered equals – you cannot favor the rich
over the poor, or the straights over the gays, or the CEOs over the workers. They are all created in God’s image.
It does not matter how much lip
service you give to the Bible, or how regularly you attend church, or how much
you donate to charity – every act of disrespect or inequality you commit toward
any of God’s children is pure hypocrisy.
It’s in the book.
******
My books, “There Are Only Seven Jokes” and “The Spirit Runs Through
It” are available in paperback or Kindle at Amazon.
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