The great reformer John Calvin once said, "Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols." Not everyone loves Calvin. In large part because his ministry was defined by his destruction of idols and people don't like it when you destroy their idols. But that's what I'm going to do!
Idols are sometimes narrowly thought of in our culture as statues and or images. My wife, channeling her Anabaptist roots, accidently called my icons idols just yesterday (okay maybe it wasn't an accident). But idols aren't limited to images carved or printed. In fact... I'm even going to suggest that that's not what an idol is at all. Instead and idol is anything that you worship instead of God.
Now you might think, "Well I'm good then. I don't worship anything other than God." But you would be wrong. Every one of us is a master craftsman of idols. I have idols and you have idols too. Our job as Christians is to break them down.
"But what idols do I have?" you may protest. Political party, nationalism, sports teams, family. It could be any number of things at any given time in your life. One of the great dangers of idolatry is the subtlety of it.
Yesterday, though, I suggested that one of our newest idols as a nation might be our healthcare workers. That was greeted with consternation, vitriol and in some cases hatred, which only served to prove my point. But how can healthcare workers be an idol? Well I'm going to explain.
It has been suggested, and stated in the news media ad nauseum, that doctors, nurses and CNAs (but never chaplains. Chaplains are the scum of the earth in this narrative) are our frontline heros in this pandemic. With that hero status comes the idea that their opinions (and that's what they are) trumps any facts that may follow.
Take for example the shut down in our state (Pennsylvania). There have been bad cases in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions, but draconian measures have been put in place state wide regardless of what the data might actually say. Our health care workers then tell us how bad its been "out on the front lines" and any objections to said draconian measures are silenced and regardless of the facts. All because they "are heroes on the front lines."
That's idolatry! Its idolatry because what we are doing is allowing our judgment to be clouded by what these people say because we ascribe to them some sort of godlike status just because, "they're on the front lines." So now God given rights are suspended because, "They are on the front lines." People will be subjected to lost wages, closed businesses and in some cases extreme poverty, "because they are on the front lines." That's not actually an argument and often that rhetoric causes the real facts to get completely lost.
I'm sorry but I stand by what I said. Health Care workers aren't heroes just because they are health care workers. In fact in some cases they are even villains. It is some of these same health care workers who push abortion, transgenderism, homosexuality and other perversions on us daily. Now they are telling us to stop working, to stop socializing and in most cases to stop worshipping, all because "They are on the front lines" and we buy it hook line and sinker, because we have idolized them.
Every one of us is a master craftsman of idols.
Pictured below is Dr. Joseph Mengele.
He was a health care worker. A medical doctor who is responsible for the salvation of many a life. But he's no hero. No he was a monster. All of the medical advancements he discovered (some of which we still use) were the results of wicked and immoral human testing at Nazi concentration camps.
Going to your job doesn't make you a hero. You may do heroic stuff, but that doesn't make you a hero. I have respect for people "on the front lines" but it ends there. Your opinions, your views or your ideas are not some how more significant because "You're on the front lines." You can say that I'm wrong all you want, but I'm not. Facts are facts and they don't change because you fancy yourself a hero.
I'm thankful for all of those who put their lives on the line. Nurses, doctors, CNAs, social workers (and even chaplains), but I'm sorry that's not enough for me to dismiss reason, logic and fact for you. And if you were a hero... You wouldn't want me too.
No comments:
Post a Comment