“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Genesis 1:27

This Bible verse states that God created human beings in his own image. Actually, the opposite is true: Human beings create God in their own image.

The Bible is not a single tome, but a library of 66 books written by dozens of writers over a span of 1,500 years.

The Old Testament depicts a vengeful tribal deity who orders his chosen people, the ancient Israelites, to commit genocide and enslave their enemies.

The New Testament paints a more benign portrait of the Almighty as a deity who became man to save us from our sins. The Jesus of the Gospels preached a message of love and forgiveness, and He ministered to the downtrodden and oppressed.

The King James Authorized Bible has 783,137 words, and a person can cherry pick verses from this plethora of material to create a God after his own heart.

White evangelicals mine the Old Testament for scriptures that demonize gays and lesbians, treat women as second-class citizens and posits a theocracy as the best form of government. Their Supreme Being is an omnipotent jerk and in their version of paradise, St. Peter is the gatekeeper who lets in only white Christian evangelicals.

Evangelicals like Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson and Robert Jeffress have created a God in their own venial image. They and their judgmental, xenophobic, homophobic and misogynist Republican Jesus can fuck off.