In other words, following Christ does not mean adopting the sociological norms of a culture foreign to your own. What thugs and hoochies need to know is that their humanity is delightful to their Creator, as is, and Christ is inviting them be new creations lost in the good by the grace of God (Eph 2:8-10, 2 Corinthians 5:17).

A profound weakness in the evangelicalism’s reductionistic and individualistic conception of Christianity is the misapplication of the Imago Dei (Gen 1:26-28) to refer to individuals only.

While it’s true that individuals bear the image of God the real force of the Genesis passage is that humanity, in our plurality, is the image. What makes the image of God so distorted is that individuals within the human family are broken and sinful and not living as God designed humans to live.

Herman Bavinck is helpful with this in his dogmatics:

Not the man alone, not the man and woman together, but the whole of humanity is the fully developed image of God, his children, his offspring. The image of God is much too rich for it to be fully realized in a single human being, however richly gifted that individual may be. It can only be somewhat unfolded in its depth and riches in a humanity whose members exist both successively one after the other contemporaneously side by side…[H]umanity is the image and likeness of God. Belonging to that humanity is also its development, its history, its ever-expanding dominion over the earth, its progress in science and art, its subjugation of all creatures. (God and Creation, 577)

If you have individualistic conception of the image of God you will be tempted to try to make God into your image and proceed with the retarded notion that a redeemed person is someone who embraces your cultural and social preferences.

Ghetto thugs and hoochies fall victim to this when well-intentioned folks parachute into a ghetto sitz im leben from some urban ministry program or training session to plant churches or start programs to make thugs and hoochies into dignified people made into the image of someone from another cultural framework who listens to rap music and occasionally drops some ghettofabulous slang.

This would be as silly as going into a ghetto with an acoustic guitar and a mandolin inviting people to sing CCM or Indelible Grace music. Respecting the inherent dignity of ghetto folks would render such actions non-options.

Thugs and hoochies don’t need to be “fixed” culturally. Because of the dignity inherent to their creation and membership into the human family what is needed is have fall-affected dignity redeemed to a life of virtue by following Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Are there social and professional trade-offs in a culture of white privilege for cats with grills and tattooed necks and hands. Absolutely! That’s a separate issue. In America, you have to know when to turn ghetto “off.” Style and cultural norms are issues of prudence not an issue of dignity. As is, ghetto fabulous sisters and brothers are beautiful image bearers of God because they belong to humanity. We are in solidarity with them. They belong. The goal is not make them human (which in some cases means adopting the social customs of those not living in the barrio) the goal is unlock their human potential so that it can fully glorify God in ways unique to them and become truly human.

Thugs and hoochies need to know that they already are the image of God, like the rest of us, and God’s invitation to them is to follow Christ, being changed them from the inside out, to join God’s rescue operation to redeem the whole the creation empowered by God himself.

In other words, following Christ does not mean adopting the sociological norms of a culture foreign to your own. What thugs and hoochies need to know is that their humanity is delightful to their Creator, as is, and Christ is inviting them be new creations lost in the good by the grace of God (Eph 2:8-10, 2 Corinthians 5:17). This is an invitation to be a part of a new humanity embedded into a narrative of creation-fall-redemption-restoration.

Get me in a room with Lil’ Wayne for 15 minutes, please.

Anthony Bradley is an Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at The King’s College, NYC. This commentary is taken from Bradley’s blog, The Institute and is used with permission of the author.