It was sinful for me to revel in the mockery of men and women walking through Walmart. I don’t think I could have really loved my neighbor as myself if I continued that habit. If we enter discourse while recognizing that all participants contain the imago Dei, perhaps love and charity will characterize these engagements. Then, perhaps, we will be better equipped to handle the more serious matters of image-bearing distortions.

Around ten years ago I remember spending time with some friends scrolling through a website known as People of Walmart. For all I know, the website could still be around, but I don’t have any desire to check. If People of Walmart is new to you, its content is probably still obvious: photos of people looking their worst while walking through Walmart.

After a couple of weeks of obsessively scrolling through pages of these uploads, I felt sick—not because of the portraits but because of my own sinful mockery. I became revolted with myself for extracting pleasure from looking down on other men and women.

My own insecurities were allayed by laughing at individuals I’d never met being secretly targeted by someone’s cell phone. After all, I subconsciously thought, I may have my own issues, but “thank you God, I’m not like other men” (Luke 18:11).

These sites don’t seem like a bad way to waste time until you realize that person you’re laughing at is created in the image of God.

Image Bearers

The imago Dei, Latin for “God’s image,” has been placed in each human being. All of mankind shares certain characteristics with God the Father simply because He so willed this. We also reflect a lesser sovereignty over all of creation. The arsonist, the racist, the abuser, the progressive, and the nationalist were created with no less the imago Dei than your kind Sunday school teaching grandmother. No amount of disagreement or social unrest changes that.

The United States in 2020 is facing relentless unrest from the coronavirus, racial injustice, peaceful protests, violent riots, and a heated presidential election, to name the headliners. Anyone plugged into the news or social media sees this angst play out every day. We’ve created adversaries out of individuals who have even the slightest disagreement on these topics. Even in the church, ministry leaders are sometimes shamed because they posed for a picture with the wrong teacher or were simply willing to consider new perspectives on social issues.

Disagreement is natural and sometimes even necessary. Paul and Barnabas differed on including John Mark on their missionary journeys (Acts 15:36–41), and what happened? Barnabas took John Mark to Cyprus and Paul went with Silas to Syria and Cilicia. Thus, two different regions received their ministry. Disagreement led to the Protestant Reformation and the reclamation of the authority of scripture and the preaching of justification by faith. And in other circumstances, speaking the truth will inevitably lead to conflict simply by standing athwart history, yelling “repent and believe!”

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