Why I Object to masks, based on Biblical notions
I initially refused to wear a mask. My local government, Hamilton County, Tennessee, located in the Bible Belt, has mandated wearing masks. My choice not to do so was based on biblical ideas.
My objection is a general rule. There are exceptions, which I will get to. There is no verse that says, “Thou shalt not wear a mask.” My position is “based on the Bible,” on biblical principles. There is a measure of complexity to this issue, which is why I am writing this article. This position is not simple and clear like “Thou shalt not commit murder” or "whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” But there is some overlap.
I eventually consented, and I will explain why in a minute.
Verses on the Image of God
Who is God? What does he look like? Where do we look in all of creation to get a sense of the Creator? The Scriptures tell us that the answer is found by looking at people’s faces.
Genesis 1:26-27: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness . . . So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
In this first chapter about Adam and Eve, we see that men and women, both (and this will become an important point later), were created as the “image” and “likeness” of God. Nowhere else in creation will you get a better sense of God than by observing people, and particularly their faces. I am not a great theologian, so I may get into some trouble by the fact that God is invisible and we can’t make images of Him. But God ultimately became an image in Jesus Christ, a human person, most glorious in his face.
The first two humans, and all the rest of us, image God in a similar way that Jesus does (but, of course, not as fully). It is not just our spirits that are made in the image of God. Our bodies are also made in the image of God. There is indeed great glory to our bodies, and especially our faces. In fact, there is nothing else more glorious in all of creation.
The ultimate glory is in God himself. There are a few places in Scripture where we see emphasis on the face as the epicenter of that glory.
Verses about the Face of God
Daniel 10:6: "His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.”
This depiction of God shows the source of his light—the lightning and fire—is centered in the face. The other items mentioned—body, arms, feet—reflect that light (except the mouth, also part of the face).
Rev. 1:14-15: "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters.”
This description of Christ places the source of light, the most glory, with the face.
Matthew 17:2: "He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.”
At his great transfiguration on the mountain, Christ’s face is once again the featured part of his body.
Verses on the Glory of the Human Face
Seeing that we are made in the image of God, one would expect the Scriptures to put a similar emphasis on the glory of our human faces. And in fact that seems to be the case:
Genesis 3:7: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
While coverings did emerge after the fall of the glory of humanity, it was not their faces that Adam and Eve covered but rather their bodies.
Genesis 3:19: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread”
They retained the image of God, although it had been marred to some degree, and perhaps this is appropriately seen in the curse of sweat upon the face or brow (literal term: nose or nostrils). Sweat changes the face, but by God’s mercy and grace it is a clear liquid and does not block our view. What if sweat was a shade that covered our faces? God is still jealous of our glory.
Leviticus 21:18: Anyone “who has a marred face” is prohibited from offering sacrifices to God.
Song of Solomon 2:14: “Let me see your face, Let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, And your face is lovely.”
Romantic love has a central face-to-face sensibility.
Genesis 38:15: "When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she had covered her face.”
There are several biblical passages portraying harlots with covered faces, in part because they try to limit their exposure, but it also hides their glory.
Genesis 43:3: "You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.”
Joseph equates what it means to be in personal relationship to seeing one’s face. David does the same in 2 Samuel 14:24 in relation to the semi-banned Absalom: "And the king said, 'Let him return to his own house, but do not let him see my face.' So Absalom returned to his own house, but did not see the king’s face.”
Genesis 32:30: After Jacob’s encounter with God, he "called the name of the place Peniel: 'For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.'”
Being “face to face” is the ultimate sense of nearness and relationship.
Exodus 33:11: "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”
Moses, like Jacob, encounters God “face to face,” not by a handshake, not with a veil.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18: "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
This verse has many associations between our faces and the glory the Lord desires for us. And those faces are specifically described as unveiled.
Face Coverings and Fertilizer
When an authority demands someone’s face be covered, they are instructing them to be disfigured. They are allowing them to be dehumanized, at least temporarily. They are robbing them of their glory, their greatest claim—the fact that they are the very image of God. It is humiliating. It is not good. It should almost never happen, and when it does, the reasons should be extreme.
Is COVID 19 an acceptable reason? I do not think so. We will discuss that more in a minute. In regards to our biblical discussion, Jesus allowed himself to be humiliated—at least for a short time—so I can’t make a blanket statement that we can never allow ourselves to also be humiliated by wearing a mask.
Jesus was also spit upon. Do we follow a mandate allowing someone to spit in our face? Well, maybe, in an extreme situation. But we don’t just jump up and say, “Of course!” Why? Because it’s gross and humiliating. I am arguing here that masks are as well. And, while there may be a time to allow ourselves to be humiliated, I am arguing it should be rare, and avoided wherever possible. It’s not “just a mask.”
This can be seen in other situations besides biblical principles. Terrorists and criminals use masks. They are also used by those concealing themselves during sexual debauchery. Even children are terrified during that moment in peekaboo when the trusted face is suddenly removed from them. There are children in my church who beg their mother to take off her mask. Masks are disconcerting.
Muslim women cover their faces. (Traditional Christian women cover their heads, not their faces.) France and much of the European Union have been in a uproar the last several years regarding allowing women to cover their faces. France has outlawed it. Some of the rationale is based on the French authorities’ belief that the Muslim religion dehumanizes their women by forcing them to cover their faces. This fact relates back to my earlier point that the first chapter in the Bible makes it clear that men AND women are full of glory, both made in the image of God himself.
The human face is what provides our uniqueness. What a miracle that all seven billion people on the earth can be distinguished from one another (even twins), by looking at their faces. This doesn’t work with animals. You can’t distinguish that many people looking at arms and legs. Or just eyes. You need the whole face. Our glory, our individual uniqueness, is comprised in the face.
As we saw earlier, Scripture tells us that “the Lord spoke to Moses face to face.” However, Scripture also says, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” (Exodus 33:20). I don’t bring this up to explain it, but only to demonstrate that some things can be complex, mysterious, and difficult. And so it is with my conviction that masks should not be worn and are degrading and dehumanizing. While generally true, there are exceptions.
Let’s talk about the exceptions: workmen protecting themselves from toxins, medical staff in surgery, sub zero temperatures. These are obvious.
Some are less obvious, like a two month mandate by my county government to wear a mask whenever we are near people, except at a restaurant. (But wear one when you enter and exit or use the restroom). To form a bit of an analogy, let’s suppose we received a mandate to smear cow dung on our shirts whenever we are near people. That may seem outrageous, but you never know what the next bureaucratic insight will be.
More seriously, farmers have cow dung on their clothes all the time. Do they like it? No. But it’s part of what must be tolerated. Certainly, when they go home for dinner they change clothes and do not bring the humiliation to the family. If I knew my child would die if I did not smear cow dung, I would do it immediately and for as long as necessary. Similarly, if I believed Covid was a bubonic plague type threat, I would wear one with no complaint. It isn’t. We should have treated it in the traditional way like other years in America with bad flu seasons: quarantine the symptomatic, isolate the elderly and vulnerable. And do not make the cure worse than the problem.
In Conclusion
I do not believe masks prevent COVID 19 to any significant degree or that COVID is significantly worse than past flu outbreaks. (Debating that is another issue: for reference, see the entire internet.) If the data and science prove otherwise, I will not object to our mask policies. I may find myself in other situations where I allow myself to be humiliated for a short time by the mask, like Jesus did. (He also simply walked past a mob trying to throw him over a cliff.)
About two weeks into our mask policy here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a friend introduced me to a plastic shield. I didn’t like it, because it reduces intimacy and hinders breathing. But it did allow my face to be viewable. You can identify my uniqueness. I found it to solve about 80 percent of my problems. I thought through it, and I decided to wear the shield if necessary, which isn’t very often.
This is the type of mask I am begrudgingly wearing.
My conviction against the mask policy is a general rule, and there will be exceptions to the rule. But the higher principle is that we are made in the image of God, we have a great glory as human beings, and that glory should not be compromised for small reasons or perhaps even because some official says we should.
At present, I do not believe my state and county have the legal authority to require masks. This state senator has explained it well here, citing the Tennessee Constitution and the law that created the Tennesee Emergency Management Agency that he voted for, which he says is not being followed.
Even if the mandate was lawful, I think this issue of dehumanization could justify disobeying the law, like any civil rights issue. I also share the concern of many that this increment of dehumanization could lead to many worse levels, whether loss of transportation rights (flying), forced vaccinations, ID cards, or social scoring mandates that marginalize people like myself with traditional beliefs.
But I am not standing against the mask mandate, (generally), because of where it may be leading, at least not primarily. I am standing against it for the biblical reasons I have laid out. I had a similar issue come up two decades ago when I wrote my parents a long letter lovingly urging them not to be cremated, as they had planned. I quoted a lot of Scripture and made my case that there was just something degrading and dehumanaizing about being burned, and many Scriptures reference this. There is no verse that says not to be cremated, but I felt it in my gut. They consented because I cared so much. My father died not too long after, and then I became part of an historic Christian group that has always taught against cremation and holds our bones sacred, as we are made in the image of God. The same church historically has always forbidden closed caskets at funerals. The face has glory, even after death. (Full disclosure: my church does not currently hold my view on masks, and I do not speak for the church.)
So, while there are exceptions, I just don’t know how long we all want to put up with cow poop on our clothes. Many do so out of “love for neighbor,” but at some point, if it’s really not helping, we need to love our neighbor by helping them remember their dignity as God’s creation.