"wanting to be like God/Jesus" is idolatry or porn...or both

Leonard Sweet:

...The language of  "likeness" is either idolatry or porn.  '

 It is idolatry because the desire to become "more like God"  or "like the divine"  is the original sin of the human race.  Jesus ("The Second Adam") did not come to show us how to be more "like God," but how to be the true humans  ("The First Adam")  God first created us to be.  The whole message of Jesus' life was not "Let me show you how to be more spiritual."  Rather it was, "Let me show you how to be authentically human."

Second, the language of "likeness" is porn because imitation is pornography.  That's why to "be like Jesus" is a  porn piety.  Porn stars are professional fakers of pleasure and arousal.

Imitation fits our impersonal, mechanical, pornographic culture of impersonation.  And  the more "like" we become  the more skanky our spirituality and the more burlesque our beliefs.  Besides,what happens when you copy a copy...and keep copying the copy?  The original not only gets lost, but gets weaker with each copy and blurred beyond recognition.  The real Charlie Chaplin  reportedly once came in third  in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.

When Christianity becomes a porn spirituality, the "face" of Jesus becomes unrecognizable, lost in the fake culture itself.  Don't be like Jesus,  Let Jesus be himself in you, making you into your true self.  Don't be an "imitator,"  Be the real deal.
-Leonard Sweet, "So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church," pp. 213-214

 
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So Beautiful, by Leonard Sweet