[The Prayer Book Society of the Episcopal Church]

Idolatry & Coveting - a powerful modern example

It is so easy to equate idolatry simply with the worship of deities identified with artifacts of wood, metal and stone and to describe as pagans those who worship them. By such thinking we keep ourselves free of any charge of idolatry!

However, what we face today, especially in the western world, is a form of idolatry which identifies with a belief in one God and which makes holy the (old) sin of coveting. It is somewhat like the syncretism in which Israelites engaged when they entered the land of Palestine and absorbed much of the culture of the Baalism without letting go of their belief in their God, Yahweh (see the Books of Judges & Joshua).

What is happening today is that as we claim to believe in "God" (all the Gallup Polls tell us that most Americans so believe) and have some kind of "relationship" with him/her/it, we also engage in the "the religion of the marketplace" and thereby become idolaters and covetous. The faith of this vibrant and attractive 20th century religion, which has made a tremendous expansion in recent decades and which celebrates the "global marketplace," includes three basic doctrines: the sacredness of desire, the holiness of competition and the virtue of being nonjudgmental and tolerant.

Part of its appeal and strength is that without realizing it, we participate in this religion as we watch adverts, walk around the mall, roam around the sites of the internet, furnish our homes, buy our cars, do regular business and plan for the future. It is a very seductive religion!

Sacred Desire

We are all creatures for whom it is entirely natural to desire - food, fellowship, love, shelter, happiness and so on. Traditional religion and morality have taught us that we need to control and guide our desiring and craving for being sinful creatures we are so prone to desire what is not for our good. Thus "Thou shalt not covet...."

Marketism, the religion of the marketplace, asserts the reality and power of desire and then places it on a high moral level. What we desire, what we want, points to some basic need and this need ought to be satisfied if we are going to be happy. Thus what we desire and value becomes good and in serving our desires we actually are serving the good.

Marketism approves (as modern advertising reveals) the cultivation of desire and of stimulating demand, the creation of longings and the transforming of weak desires into strong ones.

The satisfaction of desires is presented as the way of liberation, the new way of sanctification. And married to modern Individualism, the religion of Marketism also asserts that if each of us pursues our desires and own interests, the well-being of society will be served.

In this religion the human being, and mankind as a whole, is understood to be primarily a consumer and thus a craver of consummation. "For thy happiness and fulfilment, thou shalt covet." And "in thy desiring do homage to the idols of the marketplace."

Holy Competition

It is difficult to envisage modern American life without what is taken to be the energizing power of competition --- seen daily in the fast food places and big car lots at the side of the highway, the glittering stores in the mall, the different grocery products in the food supermarket and the great variety of churches listed in the yellow pages of the phone directory.

In each store and eating place, in each supermarket and church, the managers are conscious of the competition and of the profit-motive. The y compete to provide the consumers with what they crave to consume and to do so at the best price and in the best packaging. They exist not only to serve but also to seduce the consumer!

Competition, together with the energy and ritual that go into it, compares to the ethos and activities of an ancient male and female priesthood which provided the "high places" for sacrifice , ritual eating and coitus.

The Virtue of Tolerance

Marketism has its own "thou shalt not" rules and one of them is "thou shalt not judge the expressed desires or cravings of another."

If the creation of desire in the consumers, the production of goods to satisfy the desires of consumers, and the marketing of such goods to consumers is to proceed smoothly in a competitive environment, then the whole process must not be subject to too many prohibitions -- be they from old or new style moralists or from interfering government departments. There must be tolerance by all of all and the mood of nonjudgmentalism must be maintained at all costs.

As a philosophical grounding, Marketism advances the doctrine that human reason is the servant of the passions not their judge. After all, it is said, "the consumer [customer] is always right."

Marketism is a false god

If we can make the time to slow down and ponder and examine ourselves in our context we shall probably begin to feel seemingly helpless before the power of this 20th century religion. If we do not go with its flow then our lives are going to be difficult - to say the least.

As there is no known viable alternative to capitalism in the modern world, what we must do is to seek to desacralize and humanize it, by proclaiming that people are much more than just consumers, that what human beings want and crave is not always necessarily what is good for them, and that healthy cooperation inside companies and between companies is often better than raw competition.

Especially we need to engage in self-examination to discover the origin and nature of our desires and cravings and to determine what we really and truly need to be genuinely happy as children of God. Then we need to develop the art and discipline of choosing in order to be able to face the enticement and seduction of the marketplace. Further, without judging other people (who are we to do so, anyhow?) we need to begin to apply to ourselves the biblical yardstick of what is good and true and beautiful so that we are not trapped in the modern relativism of the market place.

The real cure for the sins of idolatry and covetousness is the loving of God with heart and soul and mind and strength and of our neighbors as ourselves. And the way into this is constant meditation upon the life, deeds and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, our church life, and especially worship, ought to reflect the principles of the kingdom of God not marketism - easy to state but difficult to achieve!

(with thanks to professor Joseph Tussman of Ca for his insights)