Rationalization, Sort Of

A fourteen year old girl is upset because she doesn’t appreciate Seventeen magazine doctoring their photos. “I want to see regular girls that look like me in a magazine that is supposed to be for me.” I won’t go into the potential problems with that statement because I want to focus on the justification of the writer of the article of Seventeen altering photos.

The writer of the article justifies the behavior of the magazine saying, “While we agree that excessive Photoshop work is indeed a problem in the magazine world, Seventeen is hardly the biggest culprit.” The author also goes on to say that the airbrushing they do is minimal. Whatever you think about the pros and cons and the business side of the decision (and it is a business decision), to rationalize a choice by saying it is not as bad as what others do and by saying it’s really minimal, is missing the point entirely. The author should have just spoken the truth by saying that Seventeen feels they have to airbrush in a world where everyone is doing it.

The purpose of people

I was reading John Shore today, and he was talking about God using people (imagine that) to share God’s message. I was reminded of the first time I read the story of Peter and Cornelius. I thought, “The angel was already there. Why didn’t he just fill him in instead of sending him to Peter, giving Peter this vision to help him understand, and then having the whole group travel back to Cornelius’s house?”

Well, it’s because God uses people to spread the gospel. Crazy huh? Wouldn’t it be easier to hire one of those sky writers and paint it across the heavens. Heck, why not just rearrange the stars. Surely even Richard Dawkins would be convinced by that! (oh wait, he doesn’t like our God, so even if he was convinced God was real, he wouldn’t worship him.)

John goes further though. It’s not just Christians who broadcast God. According to John, everyone does. At first, I was taken aback by that sentiment, but then I thought about all I write about here. I find God and His hand prints in so many things that I read. We are, after all, created in His image. So while the image may be damaged, blurred, crusted over with grime and sweat and goo, we still bear the image and still broadcast Him, often without knowing.

I am not advocating universalism in regard to salvation, just in image. His ubiquitous finger prints leave no doubt of His hand in creation. Yes, even Richard Dawkins and the rest of the new atheists bear that image, and so, as John adequately expressed, they too cry out to be loved.