We have a long term spiritual sickness

One of the saddest parts about this time in the US is seeing people make excuses for the most heinous and inhumane acts.  

The only way I have been able to make any sense of this is to realize a few things.  First, in order to make excuses for heinous and inhumane acts, one must, at their core, reject the Imago Dei.  The Imago Dei is a doctrine based on Genesis 1:26–27 which asserts that that humans are created in God’s image and likeness and because of this, humans have inherent dignity, purpose, and value just for existing. The Imago Dei connects humanity to God by declaring that humanity reflects God’s nature and has similar characteristics as their creator – such as rational thought, creativity, and moral capacity. Not just for ourselves individually, but for all humans.

I find it impossible to accept that a person is made in the image and likeness of God and at the same time can support and make excuses for heinous and inhumane acts against other humans.  The two ideas are in direct conflict with each other. People willfully reject the Imago Dei, not only in others, but also sadly in themselves.  They make a terrible trade – trading in their humanity and that they are made in the image and likeness of God for a counterfeit image that promises the world, but delivers garbage.  And when we see ourselves as garbage, then we also see others as that as well. And in so doing we are subject to their own imagery – we become disposable, just like the people we hate.  

For people who live by this, they are shocked when they are disposed of, because they believed that they were exempt from the consequences of their belief – exempt from the consequences of seeing themselves and others as something other than human, something other than the Imago Dei.  

But like all idolatries, they end up being consumed by the idol, which has an insatiable demand for blood sacrifice and when there are no human sacrifices available from others, they will have to sacrifice themselves at the altar of the idol they worship.  

Secondly, it is helpful to recognize and remember that this is not new in this country or in human history.  This is merely the continuation of something that has been going on for eons.  Humans have been making excuses for heinous and inhumane acts for a long time.  

What is most upsetting is seeing those who claim the label of Christian doing this.  Of course, again, this is not new.  Christians made excuses for chattel slavery, citing Scripture in its defense for heinous and inhumane acts.  Christians made excuses for the doctrine of discovery and its effect, again citing Scripture.  Christians made excuses for xenophobia for every group of outsiders that have come to this country – using the same lazy and tired arguments and citing Scripture.  Christians made excuses for misogyny, suppression of women’s rights, opposition to civil rights, excuses for robber barons, excuses for greed, excuses for oppression of the poor, excuses for exploitation of creation, excuses for the excess of unfettered capitalism, excuses for suppression of unions and protections of laborers.  And now we see Christians making excuses for cruelty to foreigners and people of color, making excuses for pedophiles, making excuses for war, and more.  

Should we ever come to a time of committing genocide in this country, we should not be surprised when we hear excuses for that as well.  We have seen genocide in this country already – genocide of indigenous tribes is a part of our history. We already hear excuses for genocide in places like Gaza.

This thirst for excuses for the most heinous and inhumane acts shows itself for what it is – there is a segment of Christianity that is nothing more than a death cult, rejecting not only the way of Jesus, but that we bear Christ’s image and that willfully reject Christ’s call to discipleship and following him.  

They reject his call to pick up our cross and follow him, that we serve one another in love, that we welcome the stranger, that we love our enemy, and instead they follow an idol that calls on them to pick up a weapon and destroy their enemies, conquer the world, and demand submission from all.  This isn’t Christ they worship.  It’s just a false god of war from an ancient pantheon of gods. It is just empire cosplaying as religion.  And we shouldn’t be surprised by it.

Empire has created a society that is under constant traumatic stress, that makes everyone and everything fearful, addicted to anger and rage, leaving everyone uncertain about even the most basic things of life. Empire only sees humanity has having worth based on what they can produce – sucking every ounce of life out a person for profit. How else is the average person supposed to respond to all of this?  

The most common response is what we are witnessing – people rejecting the Imago Dei for the Imago Imperii.  Empire doesn’t care about people – it cares about power: power over people, creation, and anything left over.  Empire cares about expanding itself over land and water. Empire cares about enriching itself. Empire cares about the number of faceless and nameless soldiers and weapons it has to use to conquer and destroy its enemies. Empires consume.  Empire’s hunger can never be satisfied. It’s operating creeds are that might makes right, the strong survive, and that the ends justify the means.  And when those are the operating systems, it means that humanity is stripped of people and that everything and everyone is disposable.  Everyone – including those who use it.  

And like all empires, it will fall, taking its adherents with it when it does.  They are disposable too. The only thing left if how much damage, destruction, and death it will cause as it dies off.  Its death can’t come soon enough.  Its death is inevitable because it is not sustainable.

And the church has to realize and deal with this split personality that it has protected for far too long – a segment that faithfully attempts to follow Jesus and a segment that not only rejects Jesus, but uses and abuses Jesus for their own power and benefit at the expense of the most vulnerable – the people that God has specifically said we are to care for and about.  

How will the church deal with this split personality? Will it pretend that this split personality doesn’t exist for the protection of the institution? That hasn’t worked out so well. Too many abusers and manipulators were protected at the expense of the vulnerable. And people rightly walked away. Will the church do what it has done in the past – excommunicate part of its personality? That would certainly clear the ranks. But it won’t solve the problem. I suspect we would just be back at this same spot again in the future.

Maybe the starting point is that the church acknowledge that it has a problem. That it acknowledge that the results we are experiencing come as a result of the systems that have been operating that produce those results. That it acknowledge that the aspirational language of the church does not match up with how the church operates and it asks itself some difficult questions like what result do we want and what needs to change? Asking a question like how do we not only make things right, but also how do we make sure this doesn’t happen again? How do we live congruently between our aspirational vision and how we live day to day? And how do we support the people to do so as well? How do we go about seeing the image of God in ourselves and others? How do we make sure we see the Imago Imperii and what it is selling to people? That’s a start. A start the church never seems to want to take. And we shouldn’t wait for the church to do it either. We shouldn’t be surprised when it doesn’t. Instead, we should take action regardless. We should name reality for what it is. And we should look to live faithfully together.