Monday, June 07, 2010

Lesser Gods, Greater Gods

Booman Tribune notes that the First Missionary Baptist Church in Bay St. Louis is praying to God to dissipate the Gulf oil slick. It is pathetic, really, for the God of Abraham and the father of Joshua is helpless against the far greater gods of the 21st century. Among these great gods of our age, BP isn't even the most powerful.
The Golden Calf of Wall Street worshiped.

They are known as Mammon. But that is a collective term, like Olympians and Valhallans. Individually they are legion. There are Gods of War (Bechtel, Raytheon, Boeing) who have grown fat feeding on the casualties of conflict. There are Gods of the Earth (Exxon-Mobil, BP, Chevron) who ravenously eat the very earth created by that ancient God.
The great cathedral called the Kennecott Copper Mine in Utah charges worshipers $5 a car to attend. While it is not yet quite as deep (4,000 feet) as the Grand Canyon (6,000 feet), it has only been feeding its god for a century while Yahweh has been carving the Grand Canyon for eons.

Perhaps the greatest of these gods are the Gods of Lucre (BofA, CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs). They feed on the very flesh of their worshipers. People slave away at work only to see their efforts disappear though taxes, fees, mortgages, and debt. However these Market Gods lean, the people always seem to lose.
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the company store. ~ Tennessee Ernie Ford
The high priests of these many gods run governments (Dick Cheney, Tim Geithner). No politician dare stand against these gods. But what of the God of Abraham, Yahwah?

Yahwah can make the River Nile run red with blood. BP can fill the Gulf of Mexico with tar. Yahwah destroyed Sodom. One Trident missile (made by Lockheed) can destroy cities 100 times larger than the village of Sodom. There is no miracle Yahwah can do that these modern gods can't, and don't, top. The First Missionary Baptist Church is praying to the wrong God.

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