Defying Mammon

Here are some overlapping and complementary thoughts to my previous post on Francis Chan and Crazy Love, just in time for Christmas:

This is the opening to a recent article in Credenda:

"Idols are not kind. Idols are cruel and satanic. The root meaning of the word "satan" is accuser. Satan, the Devil, was the chief accuser of God's people (Job 1, Rev. 12:10), but every idol, every demon is some offspring of the Devil, accusers and manipulators all. Idols manipulate through guilt; they accuse their slaves and then gleefully watch them twist and cower in the wind.

Mammon is one such idol. Mammon brow beats his victims with accusations. And Mammon rears his ugly head at holidays and feasts and all occasions for buying and gift giving. Of course the frontal assault is the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. Don't you wish your breasts looked like this? Don't you wish your car looked like this? Don't you wish you were as cool as that guy on his iPhone? Shouldn't you have a Roth IRA with thousands of dollars in diversified mutual funds? And people envy and lust and charge up their credit cards vainly pursuing happiness with green paper and plastic and megabytes, ripping off their wives and children and grandchildren and the poor. And Jesus roundly condemns such slavery. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Don't build bigger barns. Damn the American Dream. Tonight your life may be required of you. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And where your treasure is, your heart will be also."

Read the rest here.