American Idolatry

(Disclaimer: This post may step on somebody's toes. Sorry in advance. Not intentionally trying to toe step, but I feel this needs to be said.)

I was conversing today with a friend via twitter. We were talking about idolatry. And I have come to a conclusion. It is my belief that a majority of American Christians have a least one unrealized idols in their lives.

Now an idol can be anything that we put before, or love more than, God. For me, it's been coffee or RPGs or text messaging or Facebook or any number of other things. God is gracious and refining me at this point in my life. I am sure before it is said and done, He will reveal many more.

Now idols don't have to be bad things. They are bad things because they take undue importance in our lives. One such idol I believe plagues many American Christians is Patriotism. Yes...sometimes we love our country more than we love God.

How can this be so? When someone does something you feel is anti-American, how do you react? I mean even if it's as simple as believing in gun-control to something as radical as Islamic radicals wanting to destroy our country. How do you react? If it isn't in a loving, non-negative manner...you are guilty of idolatry.

I will elaborate. God says throughout several Scriptures (and for brevity's sake I am not listing them at this point) that if you love Him, you will obey His commands. Right? And throughout the New Testament, we urged to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-45), use our tongues for good and not for evil (James 3:3-11 among others), and various other commands demanding our respect and love for others.

If we choose to curse men, to hate them, to wish them ill-will, then we are not acting in accordance with Scripture. If the reason we do these things is because they either disagree with us politically, or even are set on destroying our country, we are saying we love our country more than our Lord.

I have been bothered by this for sometime, and have just been unable to articulate it. I could perhaps go on, but time restrains me. I would be most interested in hearing your thoughts.