Our (Not So) Secret Idolatry, by David W. Fagerberg

Words are associated with images. What images do you associate with the word “idolatry”? A golden calf being smashed when Charlton Heston pitches the Ten Commandments at it? Little figures of clay carried by Russell Crowe in the gladiator’s prison? A golden head being replaced with a bag of sand by Indiana Jones?

Our religion lessons push us a little beyond these movie images. Still, our “god” is our “object of ultimate concern,” said Protestant existentialist Paul Tillich. And we understand that we make gods out of money, pleasure, success, or power, if they became a concern more consequential than anything else in our lives. …