A New Perspective on Idolatry

I’ve generally avoided writing political stuff lately. I don’t mind disagreements–but I’ve found I just don’t have the tolerance for a lack of education. If you’re going to comment, know something about the subject beyond what’s spouted on a TV (especially FOX or MSNBC) or trending on social media.

Anyways…there were multiple comparisons made during 2016-2020 about “Christian” conservatives and their slavish devotion to Trump, the pursuit of wealth, that suggested those “believers” were no different than the Israelites of Exodus 32, melting metal into a golden calf, that the calf was what made their work successful and delivered them from evil (32:8).

Obviously the story tells the story as if this literally happened–and it may have. It’s hard to know 5,000 years later. Really, it comes down to–if you’re going to be truly faithful, you keep God/YHWH/Allah at the top of the heap, don’t presume to know what He knows or thinks.

So–what if we take the story and look at modern fundamentalist Christian culture? What if we remove politics from the situation? Are there sects that are effectively worshipping alternative idols? I think the answer is yes.

I think fundamentalists have made idols of two cultural constructs: marriage and virginity.

To be clear–I’m not arguing marriage or virginity are bad. This is an argument about idolatry and holding an idealized/perfect version up as necessary for being deemed worthy in the eyes of an Almighty. In this culture, it is demanded that women ‘save themselves for marriage’ and that women are only fulfilled, made whole, when they are within a marriage–that marriage is necessary for them to be completed. Anything that doesn’t fit in this mindset is damaged, of lesser value, or with some preachers, represents a break with Jesus and a loss of Christianity.

But is this truth or a false path?

Do you NEED to be married (male or female) to be complete? Do you NEED to have children for your marriage to be successful? Is sex within a legal marriage the only sort of sex that is acceptable?–so that those who engage in physical activities outside of marriage can never enter the good afterlife without repenting?

Take that last one. Historically, in the 18th century there were a grand total of 30-40 ordained clergy in North America. More than 50 miles from the coast, clergy would visit for a few days once-a-decade. See the issue? You’re in love and it’s nine more years before a minister can marry a couple. Do they wait NINE YEARS? No…they simply declare themselves married and move on with life. They are married without the involvement of a church–so they aren’t married…but they are. That’s common sense, but within fundamentalist ideology, they aren’t and therefore have no chance at admission to the afterlife. Presumptuous of modern preachers, methinks.

So really, aren’t modern preachers, resisting sex education, etc–demanding that the ONLY thing to be discussed is chastity/purity and the ‘sanctity of marriage’…haven’t they set up their own man-made idols?

Don’t these ‘Christian ideals’ get in the way of a person’s individual relationship with the Almighty? Aren’t these a way to permit the preacher (almost always a man) to sit in a position of superiority over the congregation (especially the women)? If so, that individual is interposing himself (there are VERY few fundamentalist female religious leaders…) into a person’s relationship with Providence? That’s a no-no. Daniel 6:10 discusses devout prayer at home–rather than in a temple and Matthew 6:6 discusses that it is more important to pray alone than make prayers in front of others.

Maybe it is the world today, but I am always skeptical when I have others tell me what is Christian, what is the ‘good’ way to think, what is ‘right’ to believe. Is it possible I’m barking up the wrong tree here? Absolutely. But maybe I’m right…maybe we should consider things like this, the other idols we are told to hold as sacrosanct. I suspect there are others–and that following them has led people astray and far afield, just as the Israelites when Moses went up the mountain.