We make excuses for our idols

Why do humans make excuses for the idols they worship? Is it to sooth something within a person? Is it to make it seem like the false god that a person worships is not real? Is it to fool ourselves into believing that we just can’t be wrong and are therefore innocent? I don’t know.

We make excuses for our idols though. That is something I do know for certain.

With the latest school massacre in Georgia, I heard plenty of people making excuses for guns — giving weapons, like the AR-15, a pass. Why are we so concerned with making these weapons seem innocent? Only God is holy, yet if you listen to some people, they make it sound like the AR-15 belongs in the holy of holies and cannot be touched. Why is that? It’s just a weapon after all. There is nothing divine about it. There is nothing special about it. It’s metal pieced together. It has a function, which is carries out very well and effective. And…it doesn’t care about anything. It doesn’t have the capacity to care because it isn’t alive. Yet, it often sounds as though some people believe that these weapons are something more than what they are. Some seem very willing to fight for these weapons, as if the weapon would somehow return the favor on its own accord. There is nothing special about weapons. They are just objects designed to do what they do.

We create idols when we make an object or person out to be more than what they are. When we place meaning and purpose on an object, we are making an idol. When we wrap our identity up in an object or person, we…