Idolatry 101

4/25/2024

            By nature, humans are geared to worship; it’s in our DNA.  Admit it or not, we all worship something or somebody, which began with ourselves.  This is evident as we gaze into the sweet, little faces of our infants.  They begin life self-centered, and without proper up bringing, they live the rest of their lives the same way.  While psychologists have given us many, lofty-sounding terms in order to compartmentalize our idolatrous tendencies, the easiest way to understand it is to recognize that worship of anything but God is simply old-fashioned Idolatry dressed up in modern clothing.

We Americans have lots of stuff, compared to many other countries, and we tend to worship our stuff, whether it be our money, our cars, our reputations, particularly our looks, and on and on, but generally, we worship anything other than God.  Doubt it?  Look at the people in Walmart, or the sleazy ads on the internet, or the non-existent dress code in your church congregation.  Who needs to pay for porn when it’s everywhere in front of us!  Don’t we just love our bodies?!!  My wife calls the folks who wear yoga pants (we used to call them panty hose),   “Body buddies”, and it’s getting ubiquitous and disgusting.  Please leave something to the imagination!!  And with a nose for business, I’ve always said, “Why give it away when you can sell it?!”  But doesn’t that describe a big chunk of American demographics? 

In our One Year Bible, my wife and I began reading in the book of Judges several days ago.  For those who don’t know, this book recounts a very rough period in the history of Israel, and the writer presents the history as a roller coaster ride, one which we may be seeing right now in the U.S.A. 

The book presents a chronological series of Israel falling into idolatry and abandoning God, followed by various periods of foreign occupation and severe persecution.  Then, in response to their prayers of repentance, God appoints a “judge” to fight for Israel’s return to freedom and self-rule.  However, the return to God and self-rule lasts for generation or so, until the pattern occurs all over again, as Israel once again forgets God and drifts back into idolatry.  It reminds me of a pig falling back into the mud, and now, sadly, it reminds me of America.  It seems our generation isn’t learning the lessons which were so costly for the previous generations.  Re-learning is always more costly.

To our shame, the M.A.G.A. movement has degenerated to the point of putting Donald Trump on a pedestal, and in doing so, they have made the man some kind of super-hero, in fact, an idol.  It doesn’t take much of a prophet to see where this is going.  By idolizing Mr. Trump, the target on his back, and by extension, our own, gets bigger, brighter, and more glaring every day.  Donald Trump is not perfect, and most decidedly, he is not God.  He has glaring character faults which are incredibly obvious if we dare admit it.  He is a man; he is only a fallen human being, just like the rest of us, and we need to see it now, more than ever.

As I write this, I fully realize some would say I do not support Mr. Trump’s candidacy, which is not currently accurate.  They would declare me some kind of enemy of freedom, which I am not, but under no circumstances will I worship Donald Trump, nor will I dance to the cheap music of the M.A.G.A. movement sycophants.  I will not…and neither should you.  It’s simply too dangerous for the country to idolize anyone, and if we truly love this country, we will make a hard-stop before we go any farther. 

While I do believe that Mr. Trump is the most obvious choice for our votes, instead of Biden-Obama, that’s not saying much.  In fact, my cat would make a better leader for this country than Biden-Obama!  And I say ‘most obvious choice’ simply because no better men are on the ticket at this time…but we have them; they do exist.  A good friend of mine recently said, right now it wouldn’t matter; the M.A.G.A. crowd has chosen Trump, and neither hell nor high water will change that at this juncture.

I want to end this writing by saying what I’ve always said – ONLY GOD CAN SAVE THIS COUNTRY.  That fact is immutable, and until we reconcile ourselves to God and His agenda, we will only succeed in taking another odious lap in the mud puddle of history. 

We do not own this country – it was given to us by God alone.  If we want to keep living here, we need to waste no time in returning to Him.

John