Be on your guard against false gods

I posted this briefly last August but then withdrew it as possibly too polemical. While doing some upkeep work on my blog, I ran across it and decided to publish it again, at the risk of offending many folks by my collage as well as my words. My intentions are not to offend but only to warn. These are perilous times…

Totalitarianism is always an attempt by an outside power to subvert the purpose for which God created Man, to have free and full communion with the Father.

The human world is always and from every angle being accosted by an outside power which daily invents new forms of totalitarianism. These can have a multitude of names, depending on the context of the attack. When most people hear the word totalitarian, they think political, they think of Naziism, Fascism and Communism. Now that these have been replaced by better ideologies for the most part, some believe that humanity is finally at the threshhold of "peace at last," and they dreamily subscribe to the words of John Lennon's new world hymn, "Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky, imagine all the people, living for today... "

But no, unfortunately, as we are beginning to realise, even in the political context, a new totalitarianism has arisen, and it's worse than all others of modern times, because it combines its aim of enslaving humanity to an ideology with a form of piety—Islám. Even the Lennonists have to wake up from their dream. Too bad! …and just when they thought that we were "home free," though not as a modern apostle cried out, quoting an old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Last night my wife Anastasía went to an orientation meeting presented by a health product company that operates on the classic pyramid scheme model—you get people enrolled under you, they do the same, and gradually you get elevated higher and higher, richer and richer, happier and happier… A friend, Irína, whose family are recent immigrants from the same Carpathian village that my wife's ancestors came from over a century ago, and who is like us Orthodox in faith, invited her. Irína is a beautiful, flashy woman, who really can make use of her natural communication talents (she mainly markets the product within the Russian community) and also her natural empathy with others, to achieve success. Anastasía says that this company has brought out all of Irína's best personal features. The downside, of course, is that the product, the company, has completely taken over Irína's life. She knows that, but seems to be happy with it. Though she is a Christian, believing the truths of faith, she has become, as Anastasía says, "an evangelist for [product name withheld]". We do see her in church occasionally, and considering she grew up in a militantly anti-Christian environment, Soviet Russia, she has preserved her faith remarkably well. She's never understood that a life of discipleship is a possibility for her—she thinks, that's what the monastic life is for—and she sees her new job with all its perks as a reward for her dedication to family and faith. Anastasía's final take on it, though she is herself now in sales, and though the product seems good, it's not for her. This is an example of economic totalitarianism that most of us have encountered. In terms of the damage it does to the individual (without them realising it), it's every bit as bad as political totalitarianism, because you must give it your entire life.

"Wait a minute!" you say, "no one is forcing people like Irína to do this!"

True, that's part of the deception, part of the angle. Satan is a "shape shifter", as the church fathers teach. Within the context of political freedom we enjoy in America, a host of "lesser evils" arise, "closed circuit" totalitarianisms, like pyramid schemes. Opening the door to economic slavery is nothing new in any human society, so pervasive that it comes up in the gospels many times: "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Matthew 6:24 NIV)

I exhort the brethren to continue living in the Word of God, to make the Word your home, and escape the world system, that imaginary world Lennon sang about so sweetly. Don't be "caught like birds in the fowler's net" (Psalm 124:7 JB).

"Be on your guard against false gods." (1 John 5:21 JB)

Keep your eyes on Jesus.