Images

I am working on a book that makes a biblical case against white Christianity. I am currently writing on the west coast, where water levels are historically low and wildfire season has already started and developers are still building building building. It seems clear to me that what I am witnessing is the culmination of white Christianity, a construct that consistently equates “faith” with the “freedom” to do whatever one wants—no matter how it affects anyone else. Using biblical language, it has sanctioned a lifestyle without limits, a lifestyle that is not rooted in reverence for each other or the earth. The brutal irony: it is a lifestyle that is unbiblical.

On the first page of the bible, God creates humankind to reflect the divine “image.” The Hebrew origin story is written by scribes exiled in Babylon where “images” (statues!) of the king were set up all over the empire. His subjects were ordered to bow in reverence. In Genesis, the hierarchy is subverted. All humans are held in reverence. We are all royal statues, reflecting the image of God—no matter what we look like, where we were born or who we love.

White Christians have historically rejected the Hebrew resistance literature to sustain the Babylonian hierarchy. They love to quote the next verse in Genesis, where God tells the newly formed humans to “subdue” the earth and have “dominion.” But here’s the rub: God uses this strong language to empower humans to take what they need for survival. They are commissioned to get food from plants and trees. Not from animals or other humans. If we are truly “images” of the divine, then dominion does not mean doing whatever we want. It is about building a world where everyone—even widows, orphans and immigrants—always have enough.