In 1997, when Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris, I heard about it from the BBC. I was completely distraught, disillusioned and on the cusp of idolatry. You see Princess Diana was my hero. I loved everything about Diana. I never thought much of my admiration of Diana as being anything other than admiration, until one day I read a letter by Mrs. J. Warman in The Independent.(1) Her letter simply read “Isn't there a danger that the mass expression of shock and grief over Princess Diana's death is turning into idolatry?”
Today, I want to pose the same question, except it isn’t over the death of someone, rather it’s the unquestioning love of President Donald Trump. I am baffled that no matter what he does it’s not wrong, even when it goes directly against what God’s very word says. The president, who doesn’t regularly attend church services, has emerged as an unlikely ally of the evangelical right, building close relationships with influential conservative religious figures.
Trump himself tweets and uses Messianic jargon to compare himself to God. In August Donald Trump had the audacity to repeat the unfounded lies of Jew Turned evangelical Christian, Wayne Allyn Root by tweeting the Jewish people love him like the he’s second coming of God.
I have heard so many compare Trump to King Cyrus. On April 30, 2019, Brad Parscale, the president’s campaign manager even wrote on Twitter “Only God could deliver such a savior to our nation, and only God could allow me to help.” These are things that the false prophet will be saying about the Anti-Christ. Now before my readers flip out and call me a socialist, communist, fear-monger, amongst other names, let me tell you that I am not saying that Trump is the anti-Christ.
Everyday, we make for ourselves an idol of some sort or the other. And very rarely do we actually ask “What is an idol?” “Why is it dangerous and what do they look like today?”
As John Piper said “Maybe the best way to get at this instead of trying to reach out to the whole Bible and pull all the pieces together — which is not a bad thing to do — let’s just go to one verse, one passage of Scripture, because I think in this verse, in Colossians 3:5–6, the answers to all three questions are there. What is an idol? Why is it dangerous? What do they look like today? So here is the verse: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians 3:5–6)"
Timothy J. Keller writes “One of the signs that an object is functioning as an idol is that fear becomes one of the chief characteristics of life. When we center our lives on the idol, we become dependent on it. If our counterfeit god is threatened in any way, our response is complete panic. We do not say, ‘What a shame, how difficult,’ but rather ‘This is the end! There’s no hope!’
This may be a reason why so many people now respond to U.S. political trends in such an extreme way. When either party wins an election, a certain percentage of the losing side talks openly about leaving the country. They become agitated and fearful for the future. They have put the kind of hope in their political leaders and policies that once was reserved for God and the work of the gospel.”
Theologically, such acts reject God. This idolatry begins with false worship of the self. Like all idolatry, it quickly rejects the entire law of God found in the Ten Commandments. It pursues improper relationships, murder, lust, theft, kidnapping, dishonesty and improper desires.
Human sin always results in death. Only God can call us to repent, seek forgiveness and healing.
Jesus taught us that the law of God can be summed up in the entreaty to love God and neighbor as oneself. Faith alone confronts us with the reality that God is bigger than lust. The relationship of faith draws us back to respect the relational boundaries that God established in love to save us from ourselves.
Anything that we put before God is an idol; anything that holds precedence over God’s will is idolatry. Ioannis Karavidopoulos, Professor of the School of Theology of the University of Thessaloniki, states “Of course, Christianity triumphed over the idols historically, but on a human level these idols still wreak vengeance on us, in an effort to take us back to the distant past.” He goes on to say that we don’t have to look outside the church to find idolatry, there is plenty in the church as well.
The Psalmist warned us that, Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. (Psalm 16:4a) Pope Francis warned us in 2017, “Worshipping false idols such as money, power and physical beauty is perilous because they "create confusion in our spirit" and "drive us towards death,” He continued by stating “Worshipping these idols do not set us on the right road or bring happiness.”
In distinguishing between obedience and love, state and country, Pope Leo XIII points out that the Christian response to the modern world should not be a matter of rejecting it a priori, but of thoughtfully and responsibly engaging it.(2)
1.Warman, Mrs J. "LETTER : Beware idolatry." Independent [London, England], 4 Sept. 1997, p. 17. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A66977542/ITOF?u=vic_liberty&sid=ITOF&xid=a4b0f401. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
2. Jakelić, Slavica. "Nationalism without Idolatry." Commonweal 11 2019: 19-21. ProQuest. Web. 7 Dec. 2019 .
It may be a bit pedantic to say, but, there is one problem. You say, "Jesus taught us that the law of God can be summed up in the entreaty to love God and neighbor as oneself." One should NOT love God as oneself, but more so. In the passage you refer to, Jesus was asked, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" To which, Jesus responded, "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment." After this, Jesus added, "And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’" (Matthew 23:36-39). Note that the love of God is primary, followed by love of neighbor as oneself.
ReplyDeleteAs the author I see no problems with how I wrote my blog, we are to love God and neighbor as ourselves. If one can't differentiate between the two, it is quite possible one is overthinking what I wrote.
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