Image, Brands and God

“Politicians, teachers, students and all individuals have a brand worth building and protecting. As owners of our brand, we portray ourselves [in ways designed] to improve that public image rather than destroy it.”

I came across that statement in an instructional article titled “Image Is Everything.” The article’s title came from a famous sentence spoken by former champion tennis player Andre Agassi in a camera commercial he starred in when he was 19 years old. 

Bad for the Brand

The article goes on to briefly describe how Sting, the founding member of the music group The Police, refused to allow a deodorant company to “use the song ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ in a TV ad because he did not want his band associated with armpits and body odor.” Such use of the song wouldn’t be an image enhancer or brand builder for the music group.

The article also tells how “singer, songwriter and performer Tom Petty issued a cease and desist letter to the [2012] Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachman for using his song ‘American Girl’ in her campaign ads." Why the legal action? Because Bachman’s politics definitely weren’t aligned with Petty’s—and he didn’t want fans to think he was endorsing her candidacy.  

But professional musicians aren’t the only protectors of their image and brand. They aren’t the only ones who don’t want any misunderstanding about what they endorse and what they abhor. It happens in religion too. 

Wrong Affiliation

A long time ago, I became acquainted with a young Seventh-day Adventist woman who brought down the wrath of her father because she was dating a non-Adventist. Her boyfriend was a devout mainline Protestant with impeccable spiritual credentials—except that he wasn’t from her denomination. 

Needless to say, when she married the young man, her father didn’t attend her wedding. Nor did one penny come from his wallet to assist with the wedding costs. 

In fact, he never had anything to do with her again. And just in case there was any doubt in the mind of any onlooker about where he stood concerning the terrible sin his daughter had committed by marrying outside her denomination, he legally disowned her. 

Increasingly—especially following the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015—Christian parents have had to decide how to relate to their gay offspring’s lover. Whether to allow that lover to stay in their home as a guest. Whether to attend their son’s wedding to someone else’s son, or their daughter’s wedding to someone else’s daughter. 

It’s probably not a situation they ever expected to face. And because it’s a relationship they’re certain isn’t approved by God, they wonder how much they are aiding and abetting evil by showing any love and support whatsoever? 

Love Sinner / Hate Sin

They’re familiar with the often-touted admonition to “love the sinner but hate the sin.” Yet how much are they guilty of not being spiritually faithful if they don’t make it crystal-clear to all concerned that they find their child’s relationship and behavior abhorrent? What does that say about their integrity as parents? What’s the impact on the Christian image and brand they seek to safeguard?

Although the Bible doesn’t provide a “Thus saith the Lord” concerning what to do in such situations—at least not as definitively as many might like to see—there are hints that God himself may have already wrestled with such questions. God too may have asked himself what actions would detract from his image and brand, and what actions would enhance them.

Thus we read in Matthew 5:45 that God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Many of us were brought up being taught that marrying outside one’s denomination, and marrying inside one’s gender classification, and a rather long list of other human interactions and behaviors are sinful. So, for purposes of this discussion, let’s assume they are all every bit as bad as we’ve been taught. Maybe even worse. 

It nevertheless seems clear that God is going to make sure that his sun shines on them, and that his rain waters their lawn and their flowers and their vegetables just as those same affirmations of love are distributed to those who aren’t such vile sinners.

And God is going to do it—not worrying about the damage it might do to his brand, but—specifically because that’s what his brand is all about. Indeed, the most important part of God’s brand is love.

Or as another Bible verse puts it: “God is love.”