So, God created humankind in God’s image. In the image of God, God created them; male and female God created them. –Genesis 1:27
I am writing this the morning after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and, yet another school shooting in Colorado. Just last week, there was a shooting at Annunciation Catholic school. In the meantime, Israel has attacked Qatar. Russia has sent drones into Poland. And our own country sunk a boat of Venezuelans suspected of trafficking drugs (since proven to be untrue). Has WWIII already started? Will there be another Civil War? All of this is scary.
On the one hand, it might feel good to point fingers and place blame. It might even be correct. However, if history is our guide, then the root problem is a rise in fascism around the world. Interestingly, the same thing happened approximately 100 years ago across Europe. In order to better understand what I am seeing in various places across our globe today, I read a book, “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them” by Jason Stanley. The title explains the power of fascism, which is dividing people into us and them. That means the absolute best response is the way of Christ.
Fascism is a movement centered on a leader or an elite group that centers their power on identity. They work to divide society between us and them. An in-crowd and outsiders. Winners and Losers. Meanwhile, from the very earliest verses in the bible, we are told that all of humanity is created in the image of God. No one is better than anyone else. Paul reinforces that point in his letters. He tells us that in Christ there are no distinctions between people (Galatian 3: 28-29). And, of course, there are loads of stories of Jesus running around with people deemed undesirable by the leaders and elite of his day.
Christ is the best foil to the divisions fracturing our world. As Christians led by the Holy Spirit, we can learn all the parts of history – even the parts that make us feel bad. Afterall, we already know that all of our ancestors and predecessors were simultaneously sinner and saint. We can recognize sin without diminishing anyone’s value. Since all people are valued equally in Christ, we can also refuse to demonize any whole groups of people – political parties, universities, countries, etc. We can demand evidence of criminality and provide due process before imposing consequences or engaging in violence. We can seek out people that are different than us with curiosity about them and their viewpoint.
In other words, defeating fascism and healing our world is as simple and hard as loving as Christ first loved us (John 13: 34-35). How did Christ love us? Christ loved us without regard to our background, our work ethic, our politics, our families, our viewpoints. Our value in the Realm of God isn’t dependent on anyone’s opinions. It is based entirely on the love of God. The One that created us loves us beyond our wildest imaginations. And every time God looks at us, God calls us good. Can we offer that same love to everyone around us? I hope so. It’s the only way everyone wins.
