American Idols

I recently read this wonderful article (yes, by John Piper...I DO read other authors, I promise), explaining what constitutes idolatry. When I first read it, I went through his list describing when enjoyment becomes idolatrous, and putting a few of my most prized possessions, experiences and emotions through his filter. I would encourage you to do the same! It's very eye opening, and not just in a "negative" way. You may find your delights wonderfully affirmed! Think of something that is particularly dear to your heart (or stomach, or game-controller thumbs, or hormones, or whatever!), and (sorry Nick) check yourself!

1. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is forbidden by God. For example, adultery and fornication and stealing and lying are forbidden by God. Some people at some times feel that these are pleasurable, or else we would not do them. No one sins out of duty. But such pleasure is a sign of idolatry.

2. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is disproportionate to the worth of what is desired. Great desire for non-great things is a sign that we are beginning to make those things idols.

3. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is not permeated with gratitude. When our enjoyment of something tends to make us not think of God, it is moving toward idolatry. But if the enjoyment gives rise to the feeling of gratefulness to God, we are being protected from idolatry. The grateful feeling that we don’t deserve this gift or this enjoyment, but have it freely from God’s grace, is evidence that idolatry is being checked.

4. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it does not see in God’s gift that God himself is more to be desired than the gift. If the gift is not awakening a sense that God, the Giver, is better than the gift, it is becoming an idol.

5. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is starting to feel like a right, and our delight is becoming a demand. It may be that the delight is right. It may be that another person ought to give you this delight. It may be right to tell them this. But when all this rises to the level of angry demands, idolatry is rising.

6. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it draws us away from our duties. When we find ourselves spending time pursuing an enjoyment, knowing that other things, or people, should be getting our attention, we are moving into idolatry.

7. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it awakens a sense of pride that we can experience this delight while others can’t. This is especially true of delights in religious things, like prayer and Bible reading and ministry. It is wonderful to enjoy holy things. It idolatrous to feel proud that we can.

8. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is oblivious or callous to the needs and desires of others. Holy enjoyment is aware of others’ needs and may temporarily leave a good pleasure to help another person have it. One might leave private prayer to be the answer to someone else’s.

9. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it does not desire that Christ be magnified as supremely desirable through the enjoyment. Enjoying anything but Christ (like his good gifts) runs the inevitable risk of magnifying the gift over the Giver. One evidence that idolatry is not happening is the earnest desire that this not happen.

10. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is not working a deeper capacity for holy delight. We are sinners still. It is idolatrous to be content with sin. So we desire transformation. Some enjoyments shrink our capacities of holy joy. Others enlarge them. Some go either way, depending on how we think about them. When we don’t care if an enjoyment is making us more holy, we are moving into idolatry.

11. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when its loss ruins our trust in the goodness of God. There can be sorrow at loss without being idolatrous. But when the sorrow threatens our confidence in God, it signals that the thing lost was becoming an idol.

12. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when its loss paralyzes us emotionally so that we can’t relate lovingly to other people. This is the horizontal effect of losing confidence in God. Again: Great sorrow is no sure sign of idolatry. Jesus had great sorrow. But when desire is denied, and the effect is the emotional inability to do what God calls us to do, the warning signs of idolatry are flashing.

"For myself and for you, I pray the admonition of 1 John 5:21, 'Little children, keep yourselves from idols.'"

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As a somewhat separate topic, I'd like to draw your attention back to #5: "Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is starting to feel like a right, and our delight is becoming a demand. It may be that the delight is right...But when all this rises to the level of angry demands, idolatry is rising." Upon reading this at work, I glanced up at the television mounted in the wall; it is constantly showing Fox News, day in and day out. This was before Michael Jackson died, so there were other things on the news, namely Obama's push for national healthcare. Healthcare...Americans' idol. Here in America, I've realized, we have many gods...we have become a polytheistic nation, as we idolize one thing after another. Citizenship, home-ownership, jobs, healthcare, money, good credit, company success...the list goes on and on. When our country was founded (by men who, more or less, followed God), a declaration was written, The Declaration of Independence to be exact, which declared, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Our country's founders wisely stated that our Creator has given us these rights - the right to live once He has created us at the moment of conception, the freedom to make choices, and the freedom to pursue happiness.
Sometime in the past 350 years or so, Americans have either been led to believe, or have believed out of the grossest part of our sinful hearts, that we, in fact, have the right to much more. We believe that not only is it true that all men are created equal, but that all men remain equal, regardless of character, integrity, courage, love, or work-toward-achievements (or lack thereof). It does not matter anyway - I have rights! "I have a right to prescription drugs, treatments and surgeries, whether I have the means of paying another person for his or her knowledge and skills or not! Denying me healthcare is a sin against me!" "I have a right to employment. Whether I am an excellent employee or not, you simply cannot fire me! I will blame race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, or anything else I can think of that will convince a court that you have violated my rights by firing me!" "I have a right to a free education! Whether I do well in school or not should not matter. It is a sin against me to hold me back from the next grade level, force me to learn a new language in order to participate in class, or to deny me a free lunch every day in the cafeteria! I should not have to earn any of this, meet any standards, or do any inconvenient garbage called homework. I have a right to a high school diploma! Along the way, I have the right to treat my teachers as miserably as I want, AND I have the right to be treated with the utmost respect and kindness toward my individuality in return. If this right is violated, my parents will file suit. Good day!" "I have the right to call on the government to fork over extra cash if my business is in trouble. After all, as a businessman I never realized that business is a risky endeavor to be entered into with wisdom and discretion. I certainly should not be responsible for my poor decisions, and have the right to be bailed out." "I have the right to protection from my own lack of insight. If I enter into a gamble and it goes wrong, I have every right to sue the person who 'defrauded' me."
There are thousands of examples of things that are good in real genuine idealistic instances - healthcare is good, employment is good, education is good, doing business is good, investing is good! But when did we wander from "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" all the way to "Life (unless you're smaller than a pea), liberty, the pursuit of happiness, guaranteed healthcare, permanent job security despite performance, success in school without effort, good results in business endeavors, guaranteed return for investment, protection from the consequences of unwisely joining up with dishonest people, protection from any unwisdom on my part, and respect no matter how truly shameful my lifestyle may be..? We have come to believe that anything that we want is a "certain unalienable right," and feel no shame in publicly demanding it.
There was a day when Americans learned from their mistakes, bounced back from their own failures, put their lives back together when tragedy hit, and were even required to take responsibility for their own actions. When did we let the value of life deteriorate so far, demand that unknown strangers protect our liberty with their lives while we refuse to thank them, and make our pursuit of superficial happiness our god? And when...when will we ever learn how horribly wrong we are?