Scandal of cloning:
God must be brokenhearted

The potential for obliterating the uniqueness of individual DNA seems preposterous. Individualism is valued as a distinguishing characteristic in Western society. The distinctiveness of a fingerprint and the irrefutable uniqueness of one's DNA bolster this claim of individualism.

We celebrate our differences more than our commonality. Our personal identity is linked not only to DNA, but also to skin color, eye shape, culture and religion. Currently we whirl in an ethical, philosophical and emotional tizzy over the implications of cloning human life.

We may be in a second Garden of Eden, tempted to partake of the forbidden fruit of human engineering. We may be erecting another Tower of Babel to confound us, not only with differing and confusing languages, but also with indistinguishable selves. So issues of cloning rightly trouble us.

Shrouded in eternal mystery, another incomprehensible and glorious reality confronts us. All human beings share the same "DNA" of the One Creator God. We are created in God's image, not in some casual way, but in a profound way. It's our lineage.

It's our bloodline. We are all of one God. Our deliberate depravity blurs and diffuses the fullness of our creation in God's image.

Undeniably, we so perversely distort God's image that sometimes it is impossible to recognize anything of God in us. But that does not negate the reality of whose we are by creation and birth. Each of us – regardless of nationality, religion or ethnicity – share a common "DNA" with God and every other human being.

Neither evil nor purity distinguishes our origin. We all fall short of the image of God. But we remain inescapably bound to God and to one another by birth and destiny.

A fingerprint or DNA ultimately defines no one. What finally defines us is our God-origin. The Muslim does not originate from one Creator and the Christian from another. Each belongs to the One Creator as well as to each other.

The conflicts within the human race always arise between brothers and sisters. We cannot escape this common heritage. We are not distant cousins. We are all members of one nuclear family. Thus, as we war against one another, we war against our own family members. Most earthly parents grieve when their children terrorize one another, longing for reconciliation. Imagine how much our Creator-Parent must weep when his children devalue and hurt one another. God yearns for our reconciliation. That was the reason God came to us in the vulnerable form of human flesh through Jesus the Christ, literally suffering death in an attempt to bring the human family into harmony with the Creator, creation and all creatures.

Just as bitterness sometimes tears families apart over an inheritance left by their parents, so we children of God fight and destroy one another over the inheritance (creation) God has given us. God must be brokenhearted that we siblings wage war and terrorism with greater intensity than we wage peace and reconciliation.

God manifested magnificent audacity to risk, at least in a partial sense, cloning us! We are all created in the Divine Image of God. At the core of the human soul is the same "DNA" found at the center of Creation. How fully we reflect or fail to reflect this miraculous "cloning" is the purpose of Judgment Day.

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Bishop Ray W. Chamberlain
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