By Sarah Quale — Personhood Alliance Education’s recent research exposed the American Library Association’s intentional efforts to bring drag queen story hours and other similar events into libraries across the country. So what do drag queen story hours have to do with personhood? The answer lies in what it means to be made in the image of God…

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Humans are made in the image of God

To be made in the image of God means that humans are endowed with a body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23) and a capacity to know and be known by Him. It means we are created with a specific, intentional design that reflects His plans for us and fits us to glorify and serve Him as a core purpose of our existence. Just like an object of art—composed of color, line, texture, shape, and form—humans are designed with elements that are essential to our nature. And each of these elements is under God’s authority—life, marriage, family, sexuality, and gender. We find His perfect design in Genesis 1:27-28, also known as the Doctrine of Imago Dei (which is Latin for image of God).

What we are witnessing everywhere in our culture today is a direct attack on the Imago Dei, on God’s foundational design elements for humankind.

The attack on the image of God

Any attempt to separate, twist, or alter any of these design elements is an attempt to usurp God’s authority. This is nothing less than intentional corruption of the very nature of God’s wholistic design for the human person; the stripping away of meaning, function, and purpose.

This is why we cannot address the evil of abortion without considering the breakdown of marriage and family, our culture’s worship of sex, and radical feminism’s assault on motherhood and the God-ordained role of men. It’s why we must directly address the intentional destruction of sexuality and gender throughout our educational, scientific, social, and media institutions, and even our churches. And its why we must understand that the battle for life in the 21st century not only includes current threats like abortion, human trafficking, and assisted suicide and euthanasia, but also future ones emerging from advances in reproductive technology, biotechnology, and the transhumanist movement.

These threats are not isolated, but coordinated and connected. They are part of a direct and sustained assault on the image of God and thus, human personhood.

Personhood speaks bold truth into this destruction

The personhood movement provides the only morally consistent answer to all attacks on human life and human dignity. Now is the time for Christians to speak the biblical truth that the personhood movement stands firmly upon:

• God created human life to be valuable, equal, purpose-filled, and exceptional among all His creation, from the moment of our biological beginning until natural death, without exception.
• God created marriage to be the context for our sexuality, for child-bearing and child-raising and for intimate, passionate enjoyment within this sacred covenant.
• God created two genders, not a continuum. He created them with distinctions that reflect His image differently and fit them for marriage to each other.

Confusion about life, marriage, family, sexuality, and gender comes from the culture, not from the Creator. And not because there is no absolute truth, but because sin has corrupted everything. The chaos and brokenness in our culture today is not because God’s design is flawed, but because we are actively rebelling from its perfect and wholistic nature. Consider this:

• God did not create us to be ruled by our desires and emotions.
• He did not intend families to be broken, for children to be without the influence of both a father and a mother.
• He did not leave us to wonder about our sexuality and our basic identities as male and female.
• He did not create us to destroy innocent human life under any circumstances.

Because of our rebellion, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us. But we must choose to receive this gift of forgiveness in order to be free from the slavery of sin (Romans 6:12) and walk transformed into the newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Our mission as the Church is to uphold the biblical standard and call all of humankind to that standard. To do so, we must acknowledge the fullness of the Imago Dei and the nature of human personhood. And we must bring to light all of the ways the Enemy is working to destroy it—from abortion to euthanasia to drag queen story hours.

Sarah Quale is president of Personhood Alliance Education, the educational arm of the Personhood Alliance, and the author of the Foundations online pro-life curriculum. She is a member of the International Christian Visual Media Association and Christian Women in Media and is the founder of Educe® online learning.