In this day and age of internet transactions we have become acutely aware of the dangers of identity theft. Sadly, as we have become more tech savvy, able to more effectively protect our digital data we have become oblivious to the grand theft larceny taking place in our souls. We are told to fear the dark web only to have our identities stolen from us in the light of day by identity politics. Our individuality has been stolen and replaced by corporate sloganeering. Our unique voices have been auto-tuned to conform to the elevator music standards of political groups. Our unique image bearing has been dumbed down to color, ethnicity, gender, and sexual preference, none of which describes the genius of who we truly are. While these categories may be important components of our personal journeys, they do not define us. The reason this is important is because when our identities become slogans we no longer have conversations between unique individuals but rather shouting matches between ideologies. Name calling and yelling appears to be the default mode of interaction between movements but polite dialogue and civil debate should be the norm when two image bearers interact. Aren’t you sick of political talking heads yelling scripted party lines at one another? Don’t you wish they could just sit down at a table and have a respectful conversation?

Ironically, our culture, which seems to value individuality, ends up homogenizing its citizens in the blender of group think. We are fooled into believing that identity politics will help us find out who we truly are when in reality it only steals our identity. Instead of articulating those things that make us unique we are encouraged to chant slogans, instead of engaging in dialogue with other interesting human beings we are encouraged to lecture at them, and instead of ruminating on our own lives we are encouraged to spit at others. Identity politics co-opts our personal biographies and uses them as infomercials for somebody else’s political product, and the more we are forced to watch them the more we believe the lie. We fall in love with our captors until one day we realize that Stockholm is a bit claustrophobic. If you insist on draping yourself in somebody else’s flag no one will ever see your true colors. You may want the world to see you as a rebel with a cause but Jesus sees you as a sheep without a shepherd. In the first instance, you will be a dime a dozen but in the second you will be that rare lost coin that keeps old ladies up at night.

Warning! If you seek family by becoming a poster child for an organization you will end up becoming the intellectual property of those who market the ideology, and if you ever decide to break ranks you will quickly be tossed aside as a cultural orphan. The beauty of the Gospel is that Jesus has already visited the orphanage and adopted you as his child. You no longer need to try and find intimacy in a political commune where a village raises a child but rather you can be adopted as a child of God where you are personally loved by your Abba Father. Our individuality is found in Christ where there is no democrat or republican, black or white, male or female, conservative or liberal. God created you as a unique image bearer so don’t let culture make you one more victim of identity theft.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3: 27-28)

Photo by Caspar Rubin on Unsplash