Been a busy week with still playing catch-up and planning to be away to attend a pastors conference (and get a few days visiting Sarah's family in the process). This hit my thoughts today.
Mankind is made in the image of God. Gen 1:27 "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. " This means that man is worthy of some basic respect. We see this idea in James "But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; "(James 3:8-9 NASB) Men should not be cursed, because they are made in the image of God (again, meaning male & female). Our society has never done great with this and is doing poorer and poorer. Two words; Reality TV. People are degraded, disgraced, and held up to ridicule for our entertainment. Now the fact is that they are usually doing this to themselves, but it makes no difference.
Pornography and soft core fare that is shown even on broadcast tv is not better. Almost any magazine cover that is aimed at health, beauty, or lifestyle shows off people to sell stuff. These people are reduced to objects for our visual stimulation. Just watching the news headlines today I saw an article about how a female broadcaster felt treated in a locker room, how a new reality show may focus on plastic surgery for brides, how a magazine cover may or not have been retouched... the list goes on and one.
And how about in church. Do we treat each other with basic respect and dignity? I know that some people do not earn much respect or admiration, but even they are created in the image of God and how we treat them says more about us than about them. Jesus treated even the lowly, the unclean, and the sinful with a gentleness and care that reflected the fact that these people were made in His image.
Let's try to do our part to return some dignity to people, whether it is how we treat our neighbors, our enemies, our families, or strangers. Let's shun media that seeks to entertain us by mocking others and holding them up to ridicule, even with their consent. Let's not treat anyone like objects for our satisfaction but instead, in love, serve one another. Gal. 5:13
This entry was posted by ozymandius and is filed under Church Life, Stray Thoughts, Living Life, Sports, Personal Reflections, Dads & Families, Theology Lived.
