Marginal Christianity

          We have only two choices in life. We can be a I-dol or an Icon.           We can and have been I-dols since the Garden of Eden. Idolatry is the fundamental human problem and the heart of our idolatry is the imperial “I” that seizes control of our lives from God and runs them as we see fit. -I-dols are autonomous. Martin Luther gave us a wonderful phrase for fallen autonomous humans. We have our hearts “curved in on ourselves.” This sinful autonomy can take the form of assertion or withdrawal in apathy. The key is our seizure of control of our lives. -I-dols are fools. Their vaunted autonomy turns out to be but vulnerability to other forces and powers that enslave them to their distorted and destructive agendas. Bob Dylan was spot on when he sang “You gotta serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord. But you gotta serve somebody.” -I-dols are redeemable. Jesus...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/09/18/is-the-world-making-an-idol-of-pope-francis/ By Elizabeth Scalia, Published: September 18 at 8:26 am The creation of an idol, Gregory of Nyssa tells us, originates with the inception of an idea —one that we nurture and polish and rationalize until it takes possession of our judgment and guides our actions. Since Eden, and our earliest stories, this has been such a predictable characteristic of our fallen human nature that Madison Avenue, Hollywood, and all political machines depend upon our tendency to accept an idea, make a glittering, self-reflective golden calf of it, raise it aloft, love it and then endow it with power over our lives. We think of pop stars as “idols” but an idol, more correctly, is the thing or person best capable of delivering an affirmation of ourselves to ourselves. “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” claimed Barack Obama in 2008 and the fainting, adoring crowds cou...