The truth that each person is created in the image of God, regardless of color or status, appeared first in the Judeo-Christian tradition and became the bedrock of all human rights crusades.

God does not bodily descend into the world without changing it forever. Those who fear our culture is returning to paganism are wrong: Our culture is developing an uneasy mix of pagan worldview saturated with perversions of Christian teaching. For example:

Redistribution of wealth may have begun with Jesus’ words to the Rich Young Ruler, which the early church in Jerusalem took literally: “They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:45). Though temporary, it’s the first documented instance of creedal, rather than tribal, redistribution, a principle later tried by countless utopian communes in Europe and America. Karl Marx’s version—“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”—sparked a revolution. It failed morally as well as practically because it violated the Christian principle of voluntary giving. Still, forced redistribution as a policy refuses to die. Until, perhaps, it drowns us in debt and entitlement.

Universal brotherhood. Wait—isn’t this true? Didn’t Paul preach that “[God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth”? And didn’t he go on to quote the poet Epictetus: “We are indeed his offspring” (Acts 17:26, 28)? Yes, and Paul’s mission to the Gentiles was not just a turning point in the Church but in all of world history. The truth that each person is created in the image of God, regardless of color or status, appeared first in the Judeo-Christian tradition and became the bedrock of all human rights crusades.

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