More On
Image And Value
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility,
regard others as better than yourselves.
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of
others. Let the same mind be in you that
was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the
form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to
the point of death – even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:3-8
The article linked here breaks my
heart. It is not the excellent analysis
and questions raised by the author, Bernie Belvedere, that break my heart, but the
actions of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty
Commission in pulling down and apologizing for posting a video regarding our
obligations to care for animals. What a lost opportunity for animals, and for
the church! What a misunderstanding of our
role as creatures in God’s image!
According
to the article, the concerns arose because the message of the video was
interpreted by some as suggesting that humans and non-human animals are of
equal value. Here is the transcript, as
reported in the article:
“Nonhuman animals, though obviously not as
important as human animals, merit our serious attention. They’re also
vulnerable. They’re also voiceless. They also are pushed to the margins because
they’re inconvenient, interestingly just like prenatal children are. And
there’s a growing number of people who are pro-life in that they’re
antiabortion, but also pro-life in that they want to stand up for the dignity
of nonhuman animals.”
The bruhaha arose because some
believed this language, by bringing the issue of abortion into the discussion,
created a false equivalency between humans and animals and obscured the unique
distinction between humans and other animals:
that humans alone are created in the image of God:[1]
James N. Anderson, a professor of theology and
philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary, explained it this way: “On a
biblical view, there’s a categorical — an essential — distinction between
humans and animals grounded in the idea of the image of God, which speaks to
the uniqueness and sacredness of human life as opposed to any other form of
life.”
With all
due deference, I profoundly disagree. I
do not believe that our creation in the
