When God created man and woman, He created them in His own image. Genesis 1:26 says "Let us make man in our image"! God is absolutely rational and self-conscious, man is rational and self-conscious within boundaries of limitation, God knows absolutely what is good and what is bad, man knows within boundaries shown by God what is good and what is bad. Because man is made to mirror God on Earth, man has human dignity which does not depend on our capacities or other accidents but only on our being human in the image of the creator.
Note how in Genesis 1:26, God says "us"! Why is the inspired writer here using the word "us"? There are two exegetical explanations. Either it is a hidden reference to the fact that God is one in three persons, the Trinity, or it is a reference to the royal "we" meaning me and my household and the authority we bear. The first five books of the Pentateuch were probably finally edited by the rivers of Babylon about 500 to 400 BC, when the Jews were in exile there or just after they returned to Israel although the original oral and some written traditions could have come down from older sources. Either way, the "us" used here refers to a community of person's rather than a single person.
"Let us make man in our image" means like us, let us replicate our image in him, like us, into a community. Not only the community with the created plants, animals and nature in general, but also a community with the person of symmetry pre-figured by the rib, in Eve. Therefore, from the beginning God called man to be his image in stewarding the Earth in a way that had to be communitarian, that is in his relationships with other men, with the plants, animals, the environment and nature and ultimately with the transcendental God himself being a community of persons. One of the important images of God besides the other two mentioned previously, is in fact inter-relationality, man is made to be and work in an inter-relational community. Man was not made to be alone!
We presently see before us a politics of ever-increasing self-interest and self-referentiality rather than a politics of values, that is a politics of the common good. Under the present political leadership of making America exclusively first, meaning an America of self-interest, an America of self-withdrawal, an America closed in upon itself and isolated. The Kruger-Dunning effect of the political world! Relationships that stood the test of time after the second-world war like the Atlantic Alliance are being called into question, countries that have built a communitarian co-operative political system like the EU being constantly politically attacked, the system of international law and relationships being constantly ignored wanting this or that slice of country.
A United Nations that is rendered toothless, a WHO that is disarmed through unscientific utterances. Reciprocal international trade agreements ignored or torn apart, nations turned against other nations in tariff wars, human rights and dignity simply ignored in the name of racial/ethnic immigration cleansing using improper undemocratic means. The tearing up of international environmental agreements like the Paris climate accord and ultimately the destruction of any form of community building both nationally and internationally. What is even worse is that this is the model being held up for success in international relations. What we have before us here is a clear picture of the fall of man after listening to the serpent or as we call it in the Church, original sin.
In the Garden of Eden man and woman were naked and vulnerable but with no shame. They were not afraid of each other, other animals and God. However once man ate of the forbidden fruit, our eyes were opened and we became aware of our vulnerability. Rationality turned to ambitious blind self-interest, we wanted to determine what is good and bad absolutely by ourselves and above all inter-relationality was shattered. We needed to hide from God, we broke peace with the natural world and we no longer trusted each other. The fear of the other became extant. The young child playing with wild animals in Isaiah and the Christ in Mark being with the wild animals in the desert, an image of peace, was completely annihilated. The inter-relational community in social, environmental, economic and political affairs God always wanted, was destroyed on a whim of fancy and pride.
Abortion is a horrible crime against innocent human beings and their shed blood cries out to God for justice. It is notwithstanding a single issue in political matters and it is sheer folly to disregard and cast aside other important issues in order to focus just on the one, with the result that we become blind to all the other important issues in politics, economics, ecology and human social affairs and rights in general.
These are all very important issues and we should not become blinded to them. Real peace depends on Justice and on the proper just development of our world. There can be no peace with unfettered abortion, just like there can be no peace if inter-relational economics, ecology and politics are compromised and not practised. One cannot exclude the other. Inter-relational goods with present and future generations need an open mind and clear heart and the bold resolve to put into effect the communitarian model without which there can never be any real authentic development or real peace.
People of good will, Christians included, cannot be real and good in their intentions, or true to their beliefs or practice, if inter-relational goods and politics are not given the importance needed to maintain human dignity and true justice. It is important that those of good will have the temerity and courage to show prudence, fortitude and some spine, to enkindle a brave new world which can offer real hope to humanity, a world built on inter-relational goods, a communitarian effort with respect to science, nature and animals, other men and ultimately to also leave space for a transcendental relationship with the God who started it all.
Dr Michael Asciak is a former Nationalist MP