ITLT-16-E Idolatry in America - Part I Our Latest False God

There are many types of false gods, and their popularity rises and falls.

There's one that's in the ascendency now.

Having lived most of my life in countries with a predominant Catholic culture, talking about idolatry in America requires a different approach. Unlike Portugal or Brazil, and countries like France or Poland, we have no national center of religious pilgrimage such as those commonly found in countries where the Virgin Mary is venerated, for example. Then there are all the local patron saints with their annual feast days when villagers walk in a procession through the streets, carrying an image of the saint. Similar practices abound in Buddhist, Hindu and other religions.

The first European colonists in New England were predominantly Separatists, Puritans, and other Dissenters fleeing persecution in countries with State churches, and still today in America, religious manifestions of processions and feast days of saints are scattered, localized to communities where immigrants have brought those traditions with them. America has developed its own form of idolatry.

The three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with only one God, stand in contrast to the world’s polytheistic religions. Among the multiplicity of their gods there is a certain hierarchy, gods being ranking from the most powerful to the lesser important deities. The word “hierarchy”, which is used in contexts of society and business to describe the levels of power in a structure, is derived directly from the Greek word “hierieus” priest  “archw” to lead, to rule. Kings and emperors who were “monarchs” (sole rulers) leaned heavily on the “hierarchs”, the priests, the religious leaders who, in effect, controlled the everyday lives of their citizens.

I must point out here that not every statue or image is an idol, but neither is every idol a graven image. An idol, or false god, is anything, whether material or mental, visible or virtual, that captures our attention, determines our decisions and commands our loyalty.

Our American pantheon (lit. the collection of our gods) has a hierarchy of gods that is more fluid than that of the gods of antiquity. The popularity of our chief divinities rises and falls on the tides of time and circumstance. The religion of stage, screen, and music has its divinities, and the fortunes of stars depend on the fickle whims of the public. The “Elvisites” have had a long run, but the generation of their faithful is passing; currently at the top of that religion are the “Swifties”, but they, too will pass in time. The religion of sports has many denominations: football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, whose followers are avid supporters of teams and worshippers of star players. Golf and tennis have their individual chief deities. Practically every religion sets up its own  Hall of Fame as a shrine to individuals who bore the torch of glory in the past.

Money and politics are ecumenical religions that, despite the intense rivalry between their followers, jointly form the united church of power, a religion that goes back to the dawn of history in every civilization. But there is a new god arising among us, a god with a rapidly growing religious following. It has its positive points as do most religions, but like all the others, it is an idolatrous false religion, serving a false god. I speak of the great god Health.

If this religion had a nickname, it would be MAHA – Make America Healthy Again

This new religion goes beyond the government’s drive to  improve the health of Americans. That, of course, is an important goal. Various studies place Americans among the least healthy of the world. The Bible admonishes us to take care of our bodies, which are the creation of God, and serve as the tent in which our spirits and souls are housed. The idea is not new, nor is it limited to the Bible. “Mens sana in corpore sano”, the oft-quoted 2000-year old Latin adage meaning “A sound mind in a sound body” expresses an idea that can even be traced even further back to 6th cent. BC Greece. We can thank God for granting men and women of science who have used their God-given skills to develop instruments to detect health problems and technologies that combine ingredients to combat and often eliminate the agents of illness and death  in our bodies.

More and more we hear the word “longevity”. Advances in medicine have extended our life expectancy and reduced much of the pain and many of the ailments that afflicted our ancestors, but at some point a line has been crossed, where we expect to live free of pain, overcome all disabilities, and eliminate the signs of ageing. Creams for topical use promise to free us of wrinkles, and failing that, there are Botox injections that eliminate wrinkles from the inside.

The legends of a Fountain of Youth are found in peoples around the world in all ages, most recently perhaps, one associated with the Spaniard Ponce de León, when he explored Florida in the early 1500s. He was supposedly told by the indigenous peoples that such a spring existed. He was 500 years ahead of his time, as the lyrics “Forever young, I want to be forever young” hit the charts in the 1980s and are still around today. Modern science is making the temptation even stronger. In 2002, the head of Ted Williams, the baseball legend, was placed in liquid nitrogen to cryogenically preserve it for later reattachment to his frozen body, when science has advanced to that point.

Less macabre, but equally utopian, is Gary Brecka’s prediction that any person alive 5 years from now will have the choice of living up to 150 years or more due to AI advances in medicine. On a more realistic level, some scientists believe 115 years is the ultimate limit a human body will last. I see a major downside to living that long. My mother was only 103 when she died, and she had no one else close to her age to interact with, no siblings, cousins, or lifelong friends. Thankfully she still had children and church members who provided her with social interaction. If social companionship is difficult at 103, the age of 115 looms as a dark cloud on the horizon.

In 1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote “The One Hoss Shay”, a long poem about a deacon who was tired of always having to replace some part on his carriage. He decided to build a carriage in which no one part would break before any other. Made of the finest steel, the hardest wood, and the best leather,  every part was made to last 100 years, and he finished it on the day in 1755 when Lisbon suffered a historic devastating earthquake. In time, the carriage changes owner and exactly 100 years to the day, the parson who was the current owner drove the carriage to church that Sunday morning:

The parson was working his Sunday's text,

Had got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed

At what the--Moses--was coming next.

All at once the horse stood still,

Close by the meet'n'-house on the hill

"All at once the horse stood still"

- First a shiver, and then a thrill,

Then something decidedly like a spill,

And the parson was sitting upon a rock,

At half-past nine by the meet'n'-house clock,

Just the hour of the Earthquake shock!

"something decidedly like a spill"

-- What do you think the parson found,

When he got up and stared around?

The poor old chaise in a heap or mound,

As if it had been to the mill and ground!

You see, of course, if you 're not a dunce,

How it went to pieces all at once,

All at once, and nothing first,

Just as bubbles do when they burst.

"Just as bubbles do when they burst"

End of the wonderful one-hoss-shay.

Logic is logic. That's all I say.

"End of the wonderful one-hoss-shay"

I thought of the recently reported conversation between Putin of Russia and Xi of China, who discussed the possibility of extending lifespans by replacing old, worn-out organs with those harvested from younger donors. Subsequently, more information about Project 981 has come to light, which has been called a secretive longevity program, and linked to forced organ harvesting. The human body is treated as if it   were a mere assemblage of parts like that of a classic or vintage car that’s kept running by replacing its parts as they wear out. Can a body be built using the Deacon’s methodology for his carriage? As the poet said, “Logic is logic” and it’s illogical to think there is a way to cheat death and avoid the decay of our physical bodies.

Putting aside such ludicrous ideas, which are outright “evil”, here is what has convinced me that Americans have bought into the new religion of the god of health. The first evidence is what I see in advertising on TV. I have not sat down and made a chart of the advertising on evening cable television, yet, but I am convinced that the overwhelming majority of commercials promote high-priced medications from big-pharma or advanced procedures that offer a solution to every sort of disease and condition, many of which I was never aware of. There is a caveat, however. There are side effects, which are always presented in impossible-to-read small text at the bottom of the screen, and given in a rapid-fire voice-over that is only meant to meet legal requirements of notification but not intended to communicate useful information in any way. What I do occasionally glean from that information is that the side effects can be worse than the disease itself. Notice how many times the small print says, “death may occur”. Well, that’s a definite resolution to any health problem, isn’t it? The truth is, “death will occur” to all of us sooner or later.

But then there is the other bulk of advertising: the supplements and OTC creams, lotions and potions to resolve any and every problem. From fungus on toenails to bags under our eyes, from mental fog to intestinal clog. Then there’s the problem when our hair is white and our teeth aren’t. And if our hair is disappearing and so are our teeth, there are procedures and products for any case. The evangelists of the new religion are out in force. They bring the gospel of the good news of “good health for all”. They don’t promise eternal life, but they’re still working on it; for now, they focus on a long life, while the goal of Google’s Deepmind is to find the cure for all diseases within 10 years.

The Latin poet Juvenal said 2000 years ago, you should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body. For the body we have gym workouts, natural food additives, and wearable monitors. For the mind, we have supplements that promise us the benefits of extracts from a jellyfish, and we’re told that the puzzles and on-line games we find everywhere will help hold dementia at bay. But here’s the rest of what the poet Juvenal said:

Ask for a stout heart that has no fear of death,

and deems length of days the least of Nature's gifts.

The apostle Paul said it even better 200 years before Juvenal: He told Timothy

But have nothing to do with irreverent and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness, 8 for the training of the body has a limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.         I Tim. 4.7-8

 Bodily exercise does have its benefits, yes, but they are limited to this life. Sooner or later, even the most well-built carriage will disintegrate into a pile of dust in the middle of the road of life.

What we need is a genuine MAHA movement– Make America Holy Again, but America as a nation was never holy. A nation is only holy as its individual members are made holy, being born anew one by one, by faith in Jesus. There is only one holy nation and that nation is Jesus’s church (1 Peter 2.9) “…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, …”

1000 years before Paul, the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 1 “How happy is the man who ... delights in the LORD’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.” Only by meditating on the unchanging Word of God instead of feeding on the breaking news of social media will people turn from their false idols, including the popular god of good health. People want to live forever without having eternal life, and they will. That’s what the Lake of Fire is…the lost living forever without the possibility of ever having eternal life with God, and that is the ultimate torment.

Meanwhile, despite all this emphasis on health, we’re dealing with a deadly disease no one can cure.