The Image and Likeness of God

The subject of this special issue of Sojourners drives me back to God -- that is, God as the creator, preserver, and sustainer of our lives. Homosexuality is not a compelling issue for me; it is far too abstract a term. But how we treat each other and, in this case, gay people, necessitates that I plumb the depths of my understanding of God.

My existence as a person, sometimes civil and human rights activist and longtime professor of pastoral theology, has been framed by a commitment to, concern for, and solidarity with my sister and brother inhabitants of this planet, especially the downtrodden, the oppressed, and the forgotten. This attempt to be a responsible citizen of the world community is based upon the biblical assertion that "God has made of one blood all the nations to dwell upon the face of the earth." It is further undergirded by the metaphorical, yet deeply meaningful, word that humankind is made in the very image and likeness of God.

During the early years of the AIDS epidemic, some Christian ministers viewed the disease as God's punishment of gay males because of their "sinful" behavior. There continues to be in our society, despite efforts toward education and broader understanding, a deep-seated homophobia fueled by those who fear and are insecure about their own sexuality, purported biblical condemnation, and a general ambivalence and schizophrenia about sexuality in the culture.

There is a current tendency to appropriate those biblical verses that appear to support our own individual or group prejudices, enmities, and fears. How easy it is to assign others and especially "the other" to the fiery flames of hell, while preserving our own special seats in the blissful precincts of heaven.

As an African-American male who is both Christian and an ordained clergyperson educated as a historian, I am suspicious of the selected usages of scripture to buttress worldly systems, causes, and predilections. In years past, portions of the Bible were cited to support slavery, colonization, segregation, and racial subordination of every conceivable kind. The epitome of this selected use of scripture was the proscription against racial intermarriage. Such unions between heterosexual white and black women and men were considered scripturally "unnatural." Then and now, the Bible -- with its patriarchal bias -- has also been offered as a justification for the subjugation of women to men and their relegation to the lower rungs of societies throughout the world. Thus, I am not particularly sanguine about those efforts purporting to know God's absolute will about questions never asked or answered in scripture.

Are non-exploitative, consensually agreed-upon homosexual relationships between gay men and women the unpardonable transgression? Is God so offended by this behavior that the Almighty would ordain a plague that ravishes heterosexuals as well as homosexuals throughout the world -- excluding none of the colors of the rainbow and including women, men, and children? Is this the God in whom I believe and trust?

If the Bible is the primary source of revelation about God, how can I discern God's attitude toward homosexuality or gay people? Among the myriad images of God that are presented in the Old and New Testaments, can my answers to the question be free of cultural or historical prejudice? I think not.

What can be attempted here is the search, albeit in a limited and quite inadequate way, for a biblical and theological norm to govern my response to the issue of homosexuality and gay persons. Is there a normative thread of unity in the scriptures that might possibly define God's relationship to humankind? I find that normative thread in the books of Genesis and the gospel of John.

Genesis, both creation stories notwithstanding, affirms God as the creator of all; and despite the later "Fall," what God creates is good. We, who are "a little lower than the angels," are created in God's image and likeness. This progeny, one would surmise, included and includes heterosexuals and homosexuals alike.

My ongoing theology of creation would affirm the familial relationships that human beings share through God, with each other, without distinctions of race, gender, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, or sexual preference. Thus our relationship as children of God -- not the age-old specter of our human alienation, sin, and pride -- determines my response to my sisters and brothers in the gay community.

Second, as a Christian, I find that John 3:16 extends and completes in a limitless way my understanding of God's creative purpose and plan. God creates us out of love in order that we love God's self, ourselves, and each other. But scripture contends that we all sin and fall short -- gay and straight, black or white, male and female, Jew or Greek. Thus all are in need of God's grace and mercy, heterosexuals and homosexuals alike. I cannot, no, I absolutely must not, play God when it comes to judging homosexuality or homosexuals.

I have experienced gay people as just that -- people. None are complete saints or sinners. I am called to love, despite my unloveliness and others', God's people everywhere, and especially my brothers and sisters in the gay communities of this world.

This call to love the world for which Christ dies is not exclusive in its manifestations, but radically inclusive. And it demands our liberation from the idolatries of race, gender, nationality, age, and homophobia.

Calvin Morris was professor of pastoral theology at Howard University Divinity School and assistant pastor of Gibbons United Methodist Church near Washington, DC when this article appeared.