False Gods and Idolatry

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We humans are fragile, fallible, faulty, finite, and fearful beings. We bruise, we break, we bleed, we die.  And so, we create idols because we long for protection and security. The God who is does not readily offer the kind of security we want. Rather, God offers the scandal and foolishness – the “weakness” – of the cross. We want power and safety. We desire ease. False gods offer us these. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ offers love. False Gods offer certainty. The true God offers not certainty, but clarity and confidence. Idols and false gods promise protection from the changes and chances of life and maybe even from death. God offers us life – abundant, eternal life – but only by way of the cross, self-surrender, dying to self. Jesus does promise victory over death and all the powers of death that would threaten or oppress us. And there is our freedom. And our hope. But we can only access that victory as he did – through dying with him and living in his Life.
 
It is possible to belong to the church and say the creeds while actually giving our hearts or some portion of them to a false idol/god. These are the main idols/gods that are competing for our loyalty or that have established “squatters’ rights” in our lives and in our minds. Are these the gods we really worship?
 
Mammon
The Market

      The pursuit of wealth
The celebration of wealth and the wealthy

      Stinginess
Putting profit above other concerns
Denial of the spiritual hazards of wealth accumulation
Denial of the social hazards of wealth accumulation
Denial of the ecological hazards of wealth accumulation
Blessing greed and economic self-interest
 
Mars
All celebration of violence
Will to power
Collateral damage
Bullying – physical and verbal
Domination
Exploitation
Coercion
Vengeance
Giving ourselves over to Anger
Militarism
Blessing anger that demeans or harms others by word and deed
 
Hedone
Pursuing pleasure (not just sexual) for its own sake, especially when it is at the expense of others 

      Self-indulgence
Comfort
Consumerism
Turning away from the suffering of others and the destruction of creation (sometimes caused by our very pursuit of our own cravings)
Blessing lust, gluttony, and sloth (the neglect of loving God and loving neighbor through business, distraction, inconvenience, etc.)
 
Narcissus
Individualism/Autonomy of the self
The myth of the self-made person
The notion that we are or can be “free agents,” belonging to nothing or no one, only accountable to and responsible for others by our own choice
Spirituality as an individual choice independent of tradition/community
Technological hubris
Consumerism
The denial of this basic truth: "God hath created nothing simply for itself, but each thing in all things, and every thing each part in other have such interest, that in the whole world nothing is found whereunto any thing that is created can say, 'I need thee not.'”
– Richard Hooker (1554-1600), 'Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity'
 
Volk Geist (The Spirit of the People)
Loyalty to nation, race, ethnicity, party, faction, etc. that shapes our love for some over others
All toxic solidarity
Othering
Racism
Ethnocentrism
Xenophobia
Nationalism
 
How to Wean Ourselves from False Gods?
 
False gods and idols can insinuate themselves into our imaginations such that it can be hard to see them as such and to uproot them. Maybe it is not simply either or. We might be unconscious polytheists who rely more on one or another god depending on the circumstances. Or maybe, in our heart of hearts, we invoke all the gods including the Christina God to cover our bases, like some ancient magic formulas did. 

      There are three related spiritual practices that might help. One is watchfulness. This goes back to the early Desert Fathers and Mothers. It involves constantly monitoring the inner thoughts and emotions and cravings that bubble up from our hearts. Along with watching for things like the Seven Deadly Sins, we can interrogate our allegiances and wean ourselves from loyalties things other than Jesus Christ. We can examine our attachments to possessions and status and cultivate detachment from all that is not of Christ. The related practice of examination or the daily review of the last 24 hours is another helpful practice. We can, as the fourth step of A. A. A. calls for, we can “make a searching and fearless moral inventory” of what or who we truly have given our hearts to. We can
 
·       Notice what makes us react in anger, fear, or despair when it is threatened or lost.
·       Ask ourselves what we rely on for peace, identity, or joy instead of God.
·       Analyze where our money, free time, and thoughts naturally flow.
 
Meditating on Scripture is also essential. We can pay particular attention to those things in the Bible that make us uncomfortable. We can ask, why does this make me squirm and want to find an interpretation that will enable me to avoid living it?
 
Regular attentive participation in worship can orient us toward the promises of God and away from the false promises of false gods.
 
Finally, prayer is fundamental. Sinking our hearts into the heart of God and asking God to shape our hearts in the shape of his will enable us to see better those places where false gods threaten to warp them into their image.
 
We can, with God’s help, wean ourselves from false idols and false gods and their counterfeit promises of certainty and security. We can find our hope and security in the clarity of God’s promise that there is nothing that separate us from the love of God in Christ. And we can “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us[a] and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2).