From my Christian view point, idolatry is more than simply the immoderate attachment or devotion to someone or something, it’s the outright worship of that someone or something. Idolatry actually tore apart the later Roman Empire*nearly ending the Roman Empire in the conflicts of the 8th century. Dispute over the use of religious images (icons) in the Roman Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries AD** called the Iconoclastic controversy arose. The Iconoclasts (those who rejected images) objected to icon veneration, and icon veneration was rampant. Icons were simple as painted tiles or as complex as a jewel encrusted vessel. Here’s some modern day icons of the religious nature.
The Iconoclasts had several reasons for their anti-icon ‘veneration’***, including the Old Testament prohibition against worshiping images in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:4) and the possibility of idolatry to want the icons removed. The defenders of the use of icons insisted on the symbolic nature of images and on the dignity of created matter. For 150 years (717 AD to 867 AD) These two forces battled in the streets of the Roman Empire until Theodora, the widow of emperor Theophilus, restored icon ‘veneration’. The fighting was ugly and even though the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea at condemned Iconoclasm, the iconoclasts regained power and the fighting continued until Theodora ended it one and for all.
People just have to have their own little gods to worship. We as Christians have to be on guard that we are worshiping and idolizing only what truly is worthy of worship:
There is only one being to idolize: God.
There is only one spirit to idolize: God’s Holy Spirit
There is only one person to idolize: God’s advent in human form – Jesus Christ
Today I’m not talking about idols like that Mercedes you always wanted or the 17 bedroom Osteenesque Furticmansion of a house that you built/bought/covet. I’m talking about people. Remember when the Beatles played at Shea? There’s better examples, but I love this one for 3 reasons:
1. This was before the hippy movement took hold so the audience was better dressed and better behaved.
2. I forgot Ed Sullivan’s part in the Beatles legacy beyond his show.
3. I firmly believe that the Beatles sounded best when playing other people’s music
Clearly the Beatles were idolized by those shrieking teen girls, and those shrieking teen girls have grown up, many of which are now shrieking old women worshiping a political icon who may not reflect their personal politics if they bothered to dig deep into what that icon is selling.
In my collection of “Important” stuff I have a copy of Newsweek from February 6, 1967, on the cover is a picture of the Apollo I astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. I collected that magazine because the Apollo 1 tragedy still saddens me*^. As a child I idolized Ed White, the first American to walk in space. (I was young but remember Gus Grissom’s flight in Liberty Bell 7 Mercury – great flight, but he didn’t stick the landing). However there is something more, in that magazine is an article that just politically skewers Robert Kennedy, trashing his work and his policies.
I sat back to consider the implications if that factually correct piece would have been published after his tragic assassination. I personally believe that if it had been written post mortem the author and the publishers of Newsweek would have been tar’d and feathered by the politicians and public alike. All of the “Kennedy Boys” have been elevated to a political sainthood by an adoring left. The left solemnly calls the JFK administration “Camelot” as the early 1960’s economy exploded. Many Kennedy worshipers continue in ignoring the set in stone fact that the massive tax cuts and other economic manipulations that created the economic boom of the 1960’s were all politically conservative ideas implemented by JFK. Another fact; those Kennedy ideas were tried again by Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s with the exact same results.*^^
How dare one criticize St. John, St. Robert, and St Edward (Ted)! They are political icons to be worshiped, venerated, and loved. We must ignore the fact that JKF was probably the most morally corrupt president in United States history, RFK wasn’t much better, and Teddy – Let’s talk Chappaquiddick. Ted also appears in Jeffery Epstein’s “Little Black Book” (I’m not a fan of guilt by association, but in the case of Jeffery Epstein I’ll make an exception) The Kennedy clan is a good example of the sins of the father as mentioned in Exodus 20:5
You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me
(Exodus 20:5)
Joseph Kennedy Sr. was a whole package of hate and sin; he made his fortune rum running and insider trading, he was an antisemite and a Nazi sympathizer and to top it off the tales of his infidelities are legion. The Kennedy curse is believed to have started when Joseph Kennedy refused to allow the SS St. Louis to dock in the US and allow the ship full of German Jewish refugees refuge in the US. The St. Louis had to return to Germany where every one of the over 900 Jewish refugees were slaughtered by the Nazi government. Coincidence? When you’re dealing with a sovereign God there are no coincidences.
With all that going for going for them the Kennedys are still venerated by many on the political left and on the right: why? JFK’s legacy took us to the brink of nuclear war, he consorted with mob leaders and mob molls. His major accomplishments were the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Pay Act, both pieces of legislation written and passed by Republicans in the senate and house and signed over the protests of the Democrats.
Then there’s LBJ. He gave us Vietnam, and the great society He isn’t idolized, probably because of this.
Then there’s Obama. If Obama did anything it showed the hypocrisy of many Americans. I actually had an acquaintance tell me “I’m voting for Obama because I want to vote for the first black president of the United States.” I wanted to reply “I’m voting for John McCain because I want to vote for the 44th white president of the United States” just to see her reaction. I wanted to say “My vote is precious to me, so I’m going to vote for someone who was able to finish at least one term in the Senate.” Instead what I did say was “I don’t vote based on skin color”
And the fight was on…
Obama stepped into office on a wave of worship, veneration, adulation, and hysteria. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize before he did anything. In other words: His first accomplishment as President of the United States was to turn the worlds most prestigious award into a participation trophy. If Obama accomplished anything positive it was to keep Joe Biden locked up in a closet. We didn’t realize how great that accomplishment was until recently when the Democrats unleashed Ol’ Gropin’ Joe on an unsuspecting public.
Obama was a pathological liar. He lied about everything. He lied about his scandals. He lied about his lies. He made up stuff that no one could possibly believe and the press lapped it up like cream. Remember this one?
“…it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.”
– Barack Obama, July 2016
A Glock is the gold standard for pistols, they are not “Saturday Night Specials”. They are serious guns for serious shooters and cost serious money, and they seriously are not a ‘street weapon’. And no, the word “Glock” is not ‘street slang’ for a pistol. That’s like saying “Bugatti” is street slang for a 2 door sub compact. I studied education hoping to become a teacher after I retired from the military. In my student teaching days I was never a “city teacher”, but I’ve student taught under city teachers in a school that straddled the city line and each teacher told me the same thing: the problem is not getting books to students, it’s getting the students to open the books.
I mentioned that I am retired military. What Obama did to the military was horrific, he “ended the war in Afghanistan” by pulling out the warriors leaving 1000 non-combat soldiers behind to die. And he left the VA to rot. He said this about the VA:
My attitude is, for folks who have been fighting on the battlefield, they should not have to fight a bureaucracy at home to get the care that they’ve earned.
And here’s what happened at the VA under the Obama reign
- Cockroaches in the kitchen – Edward Hines Jr. VA hospital outside Chicago was infested with cockroaches, Obama swept that disaster under the rug
- Death notices for the living – Thousands of veterans suddenly lost their VA benefits because the VA listed them as dead
- Suicide hotline goes to voicemail – We loose 22 veterans A DAY to suicide and the Obama suicide hotline put veterans on hold, transferred them from operator to operators or sent them to voice mail
- Drugs passed out in VA hospitals like Candy – The VA hospital in Tomah WI became known as “Candyland”. Under the leadership of Dr. Dan Houlihan, a VA physician who came to be known as the “Candyman,” the number of opiate prescriptions at the Tomah clinic nearly quadrupled in less than a decade
- Elderly vets neglected – Elderly vets in the VA hospital in Puerto Rico were often abused a report found. Elderly veterans had been left in their own filth and denied food and water at the hospital and yet the VA employees cited for that neglect were not fired.
- Medical Records mismanaged – the VA is the most prolific violator of patient privacy laws in the country. VA employees spied on veterans’ medical records, sent the wrong records to different veterans and even posted about patients on social media.
- Veterans dying in line for benefits – Nearly a third of all veterans waiting to be enrolled in the VA’s benefits system died before the VA got to their applications.
And now the greatest scam ever perpetrated on the American Public: The Affordable Care Act. According to obamacare architect Johnathan Gruber the bill was intentionally written in a tortured way to intentionally mask its intentions. They intentionally hid the details of the Affordable Care Act from the American public in order to get it passed, they knew if the details were released the public would be outraged.
Another nasty little tidbit: Gruber (and Obama and Nancy Pelosi) knew the Republican Representatives, Senators, and the Republicans in the population were 100% against the bill, so when they spoke about it, they spoke to Democrats, which means they intentionally lied to Democrats. Remember “If you like your Doctor (or plan)you can keep your doctor (or plan)?” Johnathan Gruber was talking about Democrats when he said:
And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass…
And yet people venerate Obama like the Catholics venerate Mary – with true, unbending worship. These same people venerate Hillary Clinton with the same reasonless, reckless passion. People forget that Hillary ran against St. Obama for the 2008 nomination. Remember this ad? Lets ask J. Christopher Stevens, the US Ambassador to Libya in Benghazi if he remembers it, no wait, we can’t. According to Dr. Charles R. Roots a senior pastor
Ambassador Stevens was brutally murdered. His genitals
were cut off, he was sodomized and beaten and cut and stabbed and burned. He was drug thru the streets and left for dead. This is eyewitness testimony of a local Dr. who found the Ambassador in a ditch and tried to save his life.
This is Hillary’s only accomplishment, to not only leave an American ambassador unprotected to die in a very hot hot-zone, but to then blame it on a YouTube video. She did nothing as a senator, she even failed to complete one term in that office, her term as a Secretary of State was fraught with missteps, gaffes, lies, and the Benghazi cover-up, and still the Democrats nominated her to run for president. Her campaign was just has hapless as her term as Secretary of State. Her mishandling of classified documents would earn anyone in the US Military caught doing the same thing a blindfold, a last cigarette and a well placed bullet.
And now we get to the end of the introduction and into the meat of this blog entry:
Recently a Clinton worshiper demanded to know why I loved Trump so much, I replied that I don’t love Trump, I said that he amuses me but like him? I normally don’t like mouthy New Yorkers (even though I am one) “But you voted for him,” the Clinton worshiper said huffily. “How could you possibly vote for a man like that?” he demanded angrily.
“Because he wasn’t Hillary Clinton.”
I haven’t seen the Clinton worshiper since. I miss him too, he was a nice guy. Well, he was an atheist, but I was working on that. However I committed the worse heresy he could imagine: me, a deplorable, casting disparaging remarks on St. Hillary. He broke off our friendship because he idolizes a politician more than he cares about the people that care about him
I spent a lot of time and effort listing the sins of a few Democrats that are idolized by many people (especially the American press). I know there are people on the right who idolize Republicans, and I will leave that list to someone else who will do a better job at it. But the difference between people on the right and the left*^* is that if you criticize someone on the right, people on the right normally won’t get upset. If you criticize someone on the left, your left leaning audience will get angry, swear at you, call you names, and stomp off in a huff.
Why?
It’s because of Political Ideology., it is worshiping and praising a politician or a political viewpoint. This is a sin that is poisoning the American system. Disagreeing with a political opponent, even in a calm reasonable manner, will now get you assaulted. attacked, doxed, and doused with substances that might be a milkshake.
If you watch the news, the left leaning news readers respond to events with either caustic hatred or with fawning adoration depending on the circumstance. If a conservative is featured in a news article on CNN or MSNBC, prepare to see that conservative be treated with unbridled anger as the announcer does everything they can to grind that person into the dirt. This is a sin.
Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.
(Romans 14:1)
Paul is saying to accept someone who believes differently than you, not to convince them to see things your way, in fact all of Romans 14 goes on to state that everyone does things differently than others, so deal with it in love, not anger.
The truth is, we need to drop the politics on both sides and treat each other with respect. If you decide that “We need to feed the hungry”, don’t argue with someone that your idea is more important than their idea to save the cuttlefish, just go feed the hungry and let them save cuttlefish. Figure out how to feed the hungry and get friends to help, get super markets to donate. This is America, you’re free to go do it. Waiting for a politician to do it for you is a waste of time.
God’s will is pure and perfect, and it’s His plan to do what will be done, we are tools for His plan. (Daniel 4:34-35) It’s God who says who is in charge, not us. (Daniel 2:21 ; Romans 13:1-3) Here in the USA our votes are the manner in which God sets up rulers, and in the end it is God who rules over us all (Daniel 4:17).
So if you’re going to idolize your ruler, idolize God. It’s what he wants you to do
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)
*Many use the term “Byzantium” or “Byzantine Empire” but that term was invented long after the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. Up until 1557 (104 years after the fall of Constantinople) when German historian Hieronymus Wolf coined the derisive term “Byzantium” in his book Corpus Historiæ Byzantinæ, what we call Byzantium called itself The Roman Empire. You can use Byzantium all you want, that means that your Roman Empire only lasted ~450 years. Those of us that do not use Byzantium have a Roman Empire that lasted over 1,500 years
** Yeah, I now use and will continue to use the now passe date annotations AD and BC rather than the modern and oh so inclusive CE and BCE, it’s my blog, I’ll annotate how I want to annotate .
*** The RCC holds that ‘veneration’ is not “worship” I call “shenanigans” on that one. Veneration is a synonym of worship and vice versa. What the RCC is doing is trying to lie their way out of a sin
*^ Seriously? Testing a flight vehicle with a 100% oxygen atmosphere in the pilot compartment? In 1960 the X-15 was nearing space with a the pilot compartment filled with 100% Nitrogen on every flight to prevent a fire. And that 100% nitrogen saved pilot Scott Crossfield’s life on more than one occasion when a fire broke out in the X-15
*^^ The only difference between the eight years of Kennedy/Johnson and the eight years of Reagan is that the Kennedy era led to war and the Reagan era lead to peace
Wide Awake Christian 