We have lost our sense of the Imago Dei (the image of God) and of the sanctity of all life.

In Washington there’s a Congresswoman struggling to succeed because she just sacrificed a bill protecting sea otters in order to focus on a bill that protects fetuses from being grown for stem cell research. She’s being maligned by lobbyists from PETA and Planned Parenthood. The imago Dei is undone.

A Baptist family in rural Kentucky calls their pastor because they don’t know what to do… their daughter has invited her black boyfriend into their home and they are indignant that he will not eat with them and she is never to see him again. The imago Dei is undone.

In Boston, a cop is called to the same street twice in three days. He is finding it more and more difficult to do his job while still trying to live according to his convictions. He was dispatched to arrest a man on animal cruelty charges for not feeding his dogs and keeping them on a 6′ leash. A few days ago, he answered a domestic call across the street where a drunk was beating his wife but the since she wouldn’t press charges, no arrest was made. The dog owner is incarcerated while the abuser walks the streets. The imago Dei is undone.

A couple in Houston is debating on whether to take their pregnancy to full term, having discovered their baby has Down Syndrome. The imago Dei is undone.

In Colorado, a bullied teenager has just avenged his classmates with a pistol and a sawed-off shotgun, killing three and injuring six more. The imago Dei is undone.

A dad in Miami wakes up early to spend more time training his new chocolate lab than he does with his preschool son. His wife complains loudly (in Spanish), asking why he’ll pick up the dog’s poop but refuses to change his own child’s diaper. The imago Dei is undone.

In Oklahoma City, a church youth group was recently given a simple riddle: Your pet and your neighbor are both drowning. Which one would you save if you could only save one? Over two-thirds say that they would save their pet first. The neighbor can “fend for himself.” The imago Dei is undone.

A highly experienced businesswoman is passed over for a position in a Chicago high-rise simply because the board doesn’t want to deal with ‘the likelihood of menopause’ at this time. The imago Dei is undone.

A collie in a Seattle suburb called 911 when his owner was having a heart attack; it is praised and recognized as having human-like compassion and wisdom. Yet when a bystander puts his life at risk, daring to get involved and saves the life of a fellow-traveler on the interstate, he’s just “doing his job.” The imago Dei is undone.

The French pig that ate his owner’s son was sentenced to death, yet the Kansas City man who fed his son to pigs was only sentenced to life behind bars. The imago Dei is undone. (Did you know that animal trials and animal courts were fairly common in the Middle / Dark Ages?)

If you believe that you bear the image of Almighty God, you are a shrinking minority. If you live life seeking to reveal God’s image through what you do and say, you will likely be seen as strange, weird, or possibly an outcast.

What does it mean that you were made in the Image of God?

So God created man in his own image;
he created him in his own image; he created him as the image of God;
he created them male and female. Gen. 1:27