Amid Adversity, 2020 “a gift from God” says Urban, Pro-Life Methodist Pastor

Despite the pandemic, racial injustice, and wildfires currently devastating the American West, 2020 has truly been a gift from God according to an evangelical United Methodist pastor in Houston, Texas.

Pastor Eric Huffman of The Story Houston preached August 30 that, despite these difficulties, this year has been a time of learning and of deeper understanding. Huffman recently shared his story of transformation from pseudo-Christian social activism to orthodox Christianity in a recent interview with IRD President Mark Tooley.

While the world gives us reason to dehumanize and hate those who are different or with whom we disagree, the truth of God’s Word is needed to bring us together, namely, the recognition that all people bear the image of God, which makes all human life sacred. From this, as Christians we believe that “that every single human death, especially untimely death, is tragic.”

Huffman described 2020 as a “wildly emotional year,” one that has reminded us all that “adversity is inevitable, and if you don’t stand firm on the principles of God… you will be rocked.” We feel so deeply about the world around us, and we want to do right, but “emotions,” Huffman asserts, “make a terrible driver of ethics.”

Ethics based upon emotion blow with the winds of change and adversity. They can lead to conflicted feelings about the same thing. Huffman gave the examples of his own back and forth on what he has felt about police, recent protests, and his sense of national pride, all in the past year.

What is needed is an ethic of life grounded in the unwavering image of God that resides in all other human beings, without exception. “A Christian ethic of life runs from womb to tomb,” Huffman said, drawing from Genesis chapter 1, and is pro-life far beyond the issue of abortion. Quoting Dr. Crawford Loritts, a nationally known Bible speaker, author, and pastor, he added: “The conceived must live, the living must be cared for, and the poor and oppressed must be defended. This is the heart of God for all of humanity.”

When a believer internalizes the story woven throughout the Bible that a “good God restores the good image of the people he loves and created in his image… you begin to see every single human being you meet… even the people you’re prone to hate, the people you think are the problem, as image bearers of the God you love. And every single interaction you have with them will change, and their perception of the Jesus you claim will change.”

Huffman cited Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit as an example of how following emotions over God’s promises leads to ruin. “The moment they made the choice to follow their own appetite, instead of trusting God’s Word, the moment they chose to seek their own emotional impulse over the promises of God, something broke.” They lost perfect intimacy with God, and immediately felt shame for their nakedness.

Did the sin of Adam and Eve cancel the image of God in them? Huffman shares that the Bible says “absolutely not.” It does not matter how sinful someone is – the image of God in you cannot be cancelled by this world, as affirmed by Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9.

Huffman offered the example of Adolf Hitler, who, even once he became a monster in the eyes of the whole world, had just as much of the image of God in him as Mother Teresa did. “This doesn’t make sense in the world we live in, especially the cancel culture environment that we live in,” the pastor added, but the Bible makes this truth clear.

“How many of us,” Huffman asked his listeners, “have settled for a lower world view?” How many of us hold that some people are disposable? Huffman gave examples of two common ideologies in America today, nationalism and secular humanism. “Nationalism says “maybe all human life matters” but American human life matters more.” That is not in line with Christianity, he argues. “Secular humanism would hold, at least on the face of it, that every life holds equal worth… But you see it for what it really is the more questions you ask. Who decides what human flourishing looks like? What do you do with the people that don’t agree with the people who don’t believe with your definition of human flourishing?” An ideology’s dark sides hold those with dissenting views as disposable or less valuable.

Huffman wants believers to embrace the image of God residing in themselves, letting go of shame that often veils it. “While sin cannot diminish the image of God in us, it makes it harder for us to see it, covering it like a mask would, an appropriate metaphor for the times we are in.” Jesus came to remove masks and veils, the ones we put on to hide our true selves out of shame for all our sins and shortcomings. While Jesus did come to expose our sin, Huffman says, he also came to draw us close to Himself and to show us who we really are, as beloved children of God made in His image. We have the ultimate example to look to in Jesus, who was perfect and “the image of the invisible God.”

God knows exactly how hard this year has been for each of us, but “His love for us, unlike ours for him, is not affected by the emotions of the moment. His love for us is not changed by the circumstances of the day, his love remains steadfast like a lighthouse through the storm.” Huffman asks us to imagine watching the news keenly aware that everyone on the screen is made in the image of God, and that every life represented matters.

In closing, Huffman praised God that His love is “better than our feelings, and our emotions, and our politics,” never seeing a single life as disposable. May we see that image all the more clearly in ourselves, and in those who in the past we have been inclined to devalue.