reason, human virtues such as righteousness, or human functions such as rulership over creation. The result has been “problematic if not disastrous, time and again,” notes ethicist David Gushee.91 People who are lowest on the reason, righteousness, rulership, or relationship scale are deemed least like God and least worthy of respect and protection—a conclusion that makes good sense if being in God’s image is about current capacities, virtues, functions, and/or relationships. This approach to God’s