In the Image of God

Archie Bunker : The Lord God created me in his image.

Michael 'Meathead' Stivic : You mean God looks like you?

Archie Bunker : I ain't sayin' you couldn't tell the two of us apart.

Archie Bunker : Every picture I've seen of God, he's white.

Henry Jefferson : Well, maybe you were looking at the negative!

[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0509934/characters/nm0005279]

Politicians need to have more respect for their Bibles.  They are more than  tools of the trade.

The theological discourse of Ohio State Representative Nino Vitale (below) brings to mind Archie Bunker's theology, quoted above.  The belief that humankind was created in the image of God was invoked by the legislator to defend his not wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He posted on Facebook:

This is not the entire world. This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles. One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most in our face. I will not wear a mask.

The idea that wearing a mask would deface the image of God seems a bit literal.  Even Archie Bunker admitted about God's image in the above dialogue, "I ain't sayin' you couldn't tell the two of us apart."  The "image of God" is usually interpreted to mean we all share the dignity of God in our being and deserve respect.  The idea that God is somehow marred by our wearing a face mask seems like a convenient interpretation for someone who wants his face on display at all times.

A window in Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church, Birmingham AL

The confusion may extend beyond personal vanity. Making physical equivalence between human faces and the face of God leads to identifying God with a racial identity, as Archie does in the second dialogue above: "Every picture  I've seen of God, he's white."  Sounds pretty stupid in Archie Bunker's mouth, but how much is that image bred into our subconscious? Can we imagine God as black, as portrayed in the image at right? At the very least Jesus was likely Mediterranean, and therefore much darker than the pictures of God Archie is thinking of.

When we confuse God's image with man's image, we get a racialized image of God not unlike Archie's. It goes beyond a naive interpretation of Genesis and becomes prejudice.  The literal interpretation becomes a polarizing one. So an innocent comment about not wearing a mask leads to a racial remark.

But even if no racial comment is intended, isn't the Bible being used to defend a legislator's unwillingness to have his face obscured for the sake of social and hygienic benefits? Couldn't we say with equal justification that we wear a mask so we do not infect our fellow citizens, who are also made in the image of God?  At least in that case we refer to the image of God with respect for the welfare of God's children, not the vanity of their elected officials.

To get to the heart of the matter, the quoting of scripture for personal motives is sacrilege.  What appears to be a religious belief may be no more than a stubbornness at resisting a government guideline.  Perhaps there are good reasons to resist, but it does not give us the privilege of using scripture to vindicate our personal objections. Scripture has been perverted too much in U.S. history to defend racial prejudice, to claim national superiority, and to argue that impoverished people are pre-ordained by heaven.  Politicians need to have more respect for their Bibles.

Finally, we are looking to our political leaders to model social distancing and face protection.  For some of them, the mask represents the fear of spread of a contagious disease that we should be defying. For them rejecting the mask displays our courage and determination to defeat the coronavirus.

Yet to other leaders, the face mask may protect the public from our undiagnosed infection. We admit the potential of a virus passing from us to our fellow citizens, who are also made in the image of God. Without experiencing the symptoms, we admit that we could be contagious. That is a humility worthy of one who is also created in the image of God.

Bill Tucker