Objectification: 5 Kinds that Harm our Faith

Objectification, for most of my life, meant little more to me than car ads with beautiful women and calling pretty girls hot tamales. I knew it was bad in a vague sort of way without connecting it to myself. It wasn’t until I saw a therapist years after my divorce from a narcopath that I began to see that I had turned myself into an object. A good object, but still an object.

My therapist looked at me dead on and said one of the most significant things anyone has ever said to me. Alice, you are not a tool. It dawned on me then as it still occasionally dawns on me now, that I am not a happiness obtainment tool. God did not create me in order to make everyone around me happy. God did not create Eve as a pacifier in order to keep Adam happy. It isn’t, in fact, my job to keep anyone happy except, perhaps, myself.

It is a fine line between serving others and being a happiness obtainment tool. And if we want to spend all of our time making sure everyone has everything they need and want, we can. Those people we are busy pacifying won’t ever stop us. This kind of self objectification is called instrumentality. This is the use of a person as a tool for the objectifier’s purposes. It’s why I dislike the phrase, use me, Lord. I don’t believe God indulges in instrumentality.

But how we see women in the Bible interacting with God should inform us about how He sees women. He interacts with them as individuals, never forcing His will on them the way we might force a shovel into hard soil. We are not divine brooms in the hand of God, sweeping away the dirt from a dirty world. We are in a relationship with God that depends upon free will. Religion has a tendency to strip away our will, giving us rules to follow and boxes in which to force our unruly selves.

So let me be specific. Here is a list of the different kinds of objectification. Each one is designed to silence and enslave. Each one denies who God is, for we are made in His image. We can only be truly ourselves, individuals and not objects, if we are in that mysterious, spiritual and transformational dance with the Lover of our souls. And that He asks us to dance, rather than forces us, means God never crosses certain boundaries.

Types of Objectification:

Instrumentality:

I mentioned this before but it bears repeating. A tool exists only for the benefit of the user of that tool. No tool benefits from its use. It can’t. We sometimes mistake obedience for usage. But obedience is a choice. And God doesn’t demand obedience. He equates it with love. If we love Him, we will obey Him. If He is a user of human tools, then His nature is not love. Love invites. A user takes and often misuses.

If we see ourselves as things in His hands rather than people walking hand in hand with God, we grow bitter at Him as life begins to batter us. After all, He is the one who is determining our fate. Things happen to objects. Objects don’t have to be responsible for their choices.

Fungibility:

This word describes the treatment of a person as interchangeable with other objects. If an object wears out, then we simply replace it. The world is filled with this type of objectification, not just in the workplace but in the media. An endless parade of women as decoration fills our TV screens. All of them look eerily similar. The interchangeability of one human for another at its heart is a desecration of the sanctity of life.

If we think that God does not care for us individually, but rather, He sorts through piles of humans until He finds one He likes, we are unbelievers. The essence of the Gospel is that Jesus would have died for just me, if I was the only human. He does not see people as replaceable. We are not pawns on a gigantic divine chessboards. Sometimes the sheer number of humans in the panorama of human history boggles our minds. How can He know each one? Because He is infinite. We are not interchangeable, but we are finite.

Violability:

This describes the treatment of a person as lacking in boundary-integrity. If we experience violation of our boundaries in our lives, we often imagine a God who does what He wants with us. I remember one woman in a prayer session weeping because she could not imagine a God who did not want to force her to His will. Controlling parents led to a controlling husband and her whole life was a series of violations of her personhood.

Later in the prayer session, she realized that God was standing at the door of her heart, knocking. And waiting. He did not force Himself in. He waited to be invited. God respects our boundaries. He will not violate your free will to conform with His. He invites us into transformation, a process that requires our active participation. One preacher put it best when he said that God is a gentleman.

Denial of Subjectivity:

This type of objectification is the treatment of a person as something whose experiences and feelings (if any) need not be taken into account. Authoritarian parents can create an image of God that excludes the intimate nature of a relationship with God. In this type of environment, God doesn’t care how we feel. Our thoughts and emotions are unnecessary and unwelcome. God has an agenda that is more important than our petty little problems.

But here is the truth. We are God’s agenda. He has broken down all of the barriers of sin and death, taking them onto Himself, in order to have an intimate relationship with us. He cares about our burdens and willingly shoulders them with us.

Ownership:

This is the treatment of a person as something that is owned by another (can be bought or sold). In a world where humans are regularly trafficked, particularly women, sometimes we misunderstand the Gospel. We were once slaves to sin. The world, the flesh, and the devil all want to own and control each one of us. But God does not own us. Instead He bought our freedom.

I know that Paul called himself a bond slave, but a bond slave is one who pledges himself to his master by choice. God is not a trafficker of humans. Instead He came that we may have an abundant life. But if we see God as a harsh taskmaster or as that chess player manipulating pawns, we are not participating in the love but in the law.

In case you don’t know where I am headed with this, I will give you a hint. Legalism or a religious spirit always outs itself by how humans are treated. Everything evil in this world betrays itself by how it treats people. Every one of the Ten Commandments is a injunction to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Objectification is all around us. To treat the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised, and even the wicked with individual care and distinction without regard to wealth or influence is to be a part of the divine revolution of the Gospel.

As an Amazon affiliate, I receive a small commission off purchases at no cost to you.

God Doesn’t Want to Use You; Why You Need to Stop Asking