Only Option is True vs. False Religion

"…the ineradicable religious structure of human selfhood, when marred by sin, does not lead to irreligion or to no religion but to a distorted religion – in short, idolatry."

"… Even the democratic Sunday Times reader –committed to justice as some kind of end in itself – is committed to false gods."


James K.A. Smith, Introducing Radical Orthodoxy, p.115

Captured by One's Own Creation

"For although man made gods it didn't follow that he who made them was not held captive by them, when by worshipping them he was drawn into fellowship with them."

Saint Augustine, The City of God ... (need citation)

Worshipping the Wall of Separation

"Having never challenged the way they worshipped here, she'd never experienced the limitations. But the instant she stood up, alone and desperate, it seemed dreadfully obvious that some antiseptic, ill-tempered god of propriety had built a transparent wall between the congregaton and their own lives, and that what they now worshipped was that wall."

The Mom, preparing to intervene on her son's behalf during church.
David James Duncan, The Brothers K, p. 541

Religious Right, Sacralized Politics

"The sacralizing of politics, the total identification of a political goal with the will of God, always unleashes demonic powers. ... This confusion of a particular and fallible set of political and moral judgments with the cause of Jesus Christ is more dangerous than the open rejection of the claim of Christ in Islam, just as the shrine of Jereboam at Bethel was more dangerous to the faith of Israel than was the open paganism of her neighbors, for the worship of Ba'al was being carried on under the name of Yahweh. The 'Religious Right' uses the name of Jesus to cover the absolute claims of one national tradition."


Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks, p. 116