Imagio Deo and the New Jersey Supreme Court

Imagio Deo. Somewhere in our past dusty public school education, this term was taught. Not in today's public schools. We barely teach English. Imagio deo is Latin for the image of God. Whether your realize it or not, scripture tells us that every human being has got it. You cannot put your hand on it or comb your hair over it, but its there, buried in your soul.

Every human being is branded by God. Its your mark. Its tells creation who built you. And, you were built to be in a relationship with Him. But you are not coerced to be in that relationship but the potential of it is there within you.

This imagio deo concept is pretty important when we talk about marriage. When God put things together in His creation, He created two distinct genders-male and female and stamped them with His imagio deo. David writes in Psalm 139 that, "you created my inmost being; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Sounds like a pretty heavy dose of imagio deo.

A big part of God's plan was to join these two distinct genders together in a lifelong covenant. Its called marriage and within the operative scope of God's imagio deo were distinct roles each gender would play. These roles would be brought together in perfect harmony within the boundaries of marriage. There is no other option or acceptable union in God's creation.

It troubles me then when enlightened courts decide that centuries of human practice are now void in 2006. The New Jersey state supreme court is leaning into the wind of God's creation, and doing so foolishly. Their decision is not enlightened but dark.