Disconnect

June 6, 2012 By 13 Comments

What the Christian Right thinks of when they hear the word “America”:

What the rest of the world thinks of when they hear the word “America”:

The Trinity, for a very large number of our countrymen, is now Mammon, Moloch, and Dionysus (aka, money, power, and sex). The worship of whom was summarized in this image by ancient Jews:

Speaking of which, here is one of the more pathetic images from post-modern Christianity, snapped a couple of years ago when Christians got together to pray when Wall Street went in the toilet:

Yes.  I realize that the intent of the heart is what matters here and the prayer was directed to God, not the bull.  However, given that Catholics are perpetually informed of our idol worship for the use of image that actually *do* direct the mind and heart toward God and not toward Mammon, I hope that Evangelicals who saw nothing amiss with this spectacularly bad moment of public witness to Christian faith will recall it and bite their tongues the next time they feel the urge to lecture Catholics on their icons and statues.  It would have been far better for the Wall Street Christian community to walk a few blocks over to St. Patrick’s and make their pleas to God there than to do this and cement in the minds of most people the conviction that American Christianity is a peculiarly deranged form of apostate Puritanism.

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  • http://www.wanderingheretic.com Caine

    As a Protestant, I DO find it greatly amiss, if not a sin, to have “this spectacularly bad moment of public witness to Christian faith.” Makes one wish for a Moses to come along and find a nearby stream of which to grind said bull into dust. Luckily, God has more grace than I.

    But I will let the economy do the grinding into dust for Him (or because of Him). It will be soon enough.

  • http://mondayevening.wordpress.com/ Marcel

    It’s hard to understand this condemnation together with the condemnation of people leaving America to avoid taxes.

    • Ted Seeber

      Why is that so hard? Both are about worshiping something other than God.

      • http://mondayevening.wordpress.com/ Marcel

        It condemns the US government as a cult of Mammon, and condemns the rich bastards for not supporting that cult as generously as they ought to.

  • Kevin

    So since non-Catholics deny the sacrament of Confession – (a sense-perceptible sign, instituted by Christ, to communicate Grace) how do they know in a human sense if Jesus has forgiven them personally? The best explanation I’ve ever been able to get from a non-Catholic is “I… just… know.”

  • Dan C

    This is part of the Sacramental exercise of “Money-Making.” (*crosses self*)

  • dfp

    I’d never seen that last picture before. That’s appalling. It reminds me of something CS Lewis wrote, which was the observation that the entire western economy is built on lending money for interest – something explicitly forbidden in the Old Testament. Yes, yes, not under the Law and all that – but maybe some things were forbidden because they were bad ideas.

    • Ted Seeber

      Not just the old Testament- but just about *every* religion older than 500 years condemns it, and it’s still a sin under Church Teaching (though, I must admit, considered to be a bit of a necessary evil).

  • http://chapinracional.blogspot.com/ Alejandro

    You know, that’s exactly what I think when I hear United States (not America, since it’s a continent). Ironically though, the second image you posted is exactly what the southern cons want haha.

    • Hezekiah Garret

      I’d be interested to know on what basis you make that final claim?

      I believe you’ll find most southern conservatives, at least below a certain really high threshold of wealth, are still agrarians at heart, even a lot of the ones who’d cut you for accusing them of it.

      Southerners, as a peculiar people, were tolerable. I can’t help but draw conclusions based on how intolerable they are the more they become Americanised, less peculiar.

      I’ve lived surrounded by them all my life, excepting a short stint in Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club. That’s my basis for what I say.

      • Ted Seeber

        “I believe you’ll find most southern conservatives, at least below a certain really high threshold of wealth, are still agrarians at heart, even a lot of the ones who’d cut you for accusing them of it.”

        I would call that the disconnect between what they say they want and how they live.

        The main use the agrarians I’m used to in Oregon have for a gun is shooting the cougars and coyotes that prey on livestock and young human children.

  • bob

    Oh, picky, picky. That Merrill Lynch (?) bull is bronze, not gold. Although it does make a very good Cecil Be Demille moment, dosen’t it? Scary.

  • Bro AJK

    Dear Mark,

    You wrote, “The Trinity, for a very large number of our countrymen, is now Mammon, Moloch, and Dionysus (aka, money, power, and sex).” I thought, “Hmm, those three idols oppose the evangelical counsels of Poverty, Obedience, and Chastity.” Thanks for making me think, although a little too early in the morning.