Have you noticed the ugly trend of certain ideologically-driven factions painting their opponents as less than human? Or the ruling elites and angry protesters calculating a person’s human worth based on their perceived usefulness to society?
Recent examples of this kind of behavior may surprise you. They include an abortion advocate who painted the words “Not Yet Human” on her exposed, very-pregnant belly; a prominent church leader tweeting out: “Whiteness is an unrelenting, demonic force of evil”; and a Rutgers professor who pronounced that white people are “committed to being villains” who need to be “taken out.”
Such vile attempts to strip away the intrinsic value of an individual or group in order to legitimize their social banishment or destruction is called “dehumanization,” and it is re-emerging as a potent force in our toxic culture these days.
Figuratively speaking, it is like trying to eliminate someone with the cold precision of a sniper’s bullet. Dehumanization, in both its passive and active forms, is attempting to erase a person. It attempts to erase a person’s purpose, erase their unique gifts, erase their value, erase their morality, and equate them with expendable animals to be caged, experimented on, or swiftly put down at the perpetrator’s discretion.
One might rightly ask how this immoral act can exist in our so-called enlightened age. You would think that the attempt to relegate a group of people to a subhuman or abstract category would be considered abhorrent in our modern society—especially after the travesties of American slavery, the Holocaust, or the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Surely the emphatic statement, “Never again!” has been the foundational declaration of a wiser, more compassionate world over the last century, has it not?
Yet here we are in the midst of a sweeping new “cancel culture” of hate.
Dehumanization Emerges From Spiritual Disease
If you go by a majority of prevalent “woke” attitudes in American society today, dehumanization is the preferred weapon of choice—especially in the Wild West of social media and rage-filled protests. White people, political conservatives and the unborn appear to be the popular new targets, and are now sharing space with historically-oppressed minority groups. Yet the hatred directed at them still reeks of the age-old spiritual diseases of racism, bigotry, and rebellion against God.
Needless to say, it is astonishing to find how easily these twisted, hateful attitudes have become the endorsed rhetoric of our time. The latest diatribes against another race or creed is no more acceptable than when they were spoken against the Jews in Nazi Germany or African-Americans in the Old South. And yet such similar malevolence against certain brothers and sisters of our society is often celebrated by our ruling elites and propagated by corporate mainstream media as a way to control the populace through division or to intimidate those who stand in the way of their influence and power.
Today’s virtual murderers, regardless of their particular ideology or political bent, utilize the evil process of dehumanization so they can justify their violent behavior towards their “enemies” in the hope of erasing their opposing ideas from view. As journalist Slavenka Drakulic once explained it, “When a person is reduced to an abstraction, one is free to hate him because the moral obstacle has already been abolished.” Or as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it: “To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good.”
The problem with using dehumanization as a vehicle for righteous indignation, however, is that it doesn’t have a shred of moral integrity in its makeup. The Bible, the God-breathed standard for morality and ethics, doesn’t allow for this kind of evil among men. Why? Because the Bible has revealed to us this great truth: human beings were created in the image of God!
Dehumanization Disrespects The Image Of God
Indeed, from the beginning of the Biblical narrative, we are told that mankind is unique among creation because men and women, unlike the other living creatures on Earth, have been created in the likeness of God. “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).
This is why murder is considered so heinous. The shedding of human blood is a rebellious assault against the unique and sacred relationship between God and those who bear His image on earth (Genesis 9:6).
What an amazing thought to know that we all bear, in some profound way, the image of God regardless of race, creed or societal standing. Should this not forever change how we view and interact with other people? Does this doctrine not insist that we always consider the dignity of each person as a reflection of the Creator before we try to mitigate their value to God or society?
“It would be difficult to overstate the centrality of the image of God as a crucial theme in biblical theology,” says Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Indeed this is a pivotal understanding that should drive not only the Christian’s evangelicalism of the Gospel, but also all the other types of daily engagement with the various image-bearers of God that pass our way.
The Scriptures have perfectly explained our common plight as human beings. Man, made in the image of God in order to rule over creation as His representative, fell into sin when he thought his understanding and wisdom was above that of God. He soon found out he was grievously wrong. Sin and death soon followed their folly. Through Christ, however, God gave mankind another possibility for the blessing of redemption through abiding faith in Jesus Christ. And this Gospel is under-girded by the astonishing concept of humankind being a special creation of God.
The Sins Of Dehumanization Resolved By Image-Bearing
Every single controversial issue that bedevils the world today could be swiftly resolved if we kept this Biblical truth at the forefront of our thoughts and actions. Pornography strips image-bearers of their godly dignity and purpose (Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:18-20); abortion and genocide destroy image-bearers as God’s consecrated creation of life (Genesis 1:27, 9:6; Psalm 139:13); transgenderism and transhumanism deface the God-ordained roles of image-bearers (Jeremiah 1:5); and totalitarian officials and “social justice” advocates oppress image-bearers and thwart their divine calling to “be fruitful and multiply” (Proverbs 14:31; Proverbs 22:2).
These are just a few of the sinful, wayward pursuits that would be eliminated if this widespread dehumanization was stopped in its tracks by following God’s lead and committing ourselves to being His true representatives here on earth. As Timothy D. Padgett makes clear:
“Human beings are created with a dignity conferred by God Himself, not as a side effect of our abilities or ethnicity. It is an honor which does not need to be earned by ourselves or judged by others but is attached to our very nature. Human dignity is not the sole property of the strong, the healthy, the wealthy, or the powerful, but it belongs in equal measure to the weak, the sick, the handicapped, and the unborn.”
In John 10:10, Jesus tells it like it is: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Anyone who attempts to dehumanize another person (or even dehumanize themselves) is nothing more than a thief and a murderer. As a disciple of Christ, therefore, we must heed our Master’s teaching and not emulate the world when we are tempted to act maliciously towards our enemies. Justice has been defined by God, and ultimately His wrath against the unrighteous will be reveal, whether in time or eternity (Romans 12:19).
Showing The Way Of Grace Against Dehumanization
As sinners who have tasted of the grace of God, our duty is to testify in love of God’s coming judgment if those around us do not turn from their sinful ways, and then point them to the salvation that can only be found through the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. This we must do in a way which honors God: “to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” Why? Because “we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another” (Titus 3:1-3).
No doubt many critics will call us “judgmental” and “unloving” for speaking truth in love, but we must press on through their hostility and anger because we know that sin destroys (James 1:15), and it is the truest form of love which attempts to prevent a person’s present and future destruction.
As the Benson Commentary reminds us, “Man is a creature dear to his Creator, and, therefore, ought to be so to us: God put honour upon him, let us not then put contempt upon him. Such remains of God’s image are still even upon fallen man, that he who unjustly kills a man, defaceth the image of God, and doth dishonour to him.”
Thus, we must always remember that dehumanization is not a tool of those in the Christian faith. God, alone, decides what He will do with His created beings if they choose to abandon their sacred duty as an image bearer of God and refuse to see His image in others. Our task is the one which Christ commended to us many centuries ago: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
Suffering Dehumanization For The Glory Of God
Indeed Christians know all about persecution and dehumanization. Even now, according to the 2022 World Watch List, there have been over 360 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of discrimination; 5,898 Christians killed for their faith; 5,110 churches and other Christian buildings attacked, and 4,765 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned.
According to the latest information from the Pew Research Center, Christians suffer more than any other religious group from various governmental and societal hostilities around the world today. Because of this reality, we should have the empathy to be more mindful of our Gospel call to comfort others who are in any affliction (2 Corinthians 1:4), and to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Romans 15:1).
As author Frank Peretti sums it up:
“While we can all accept that bullying and abuse betray a lack or loss of respect for other human beings, there is a deeper issue: the devaluing of human life; and that in turn indicates a lack or loss of respect for the Giver of human life and dignity, God Himself. The message a bully sends is a mockery of God’s handiwork, a lie that slanders God’s nature and negates His love for us.”
The Christian’s Gospel message, therefore, is still the only solution to the sin of dehumanization. We must always remember to heed Christ’s command to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-38). Herein lies the sacred duty of every image-bearer of God, which they should eagerly do for the exaltation of Christ.
And this we will do so that at the name of Jesus “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
