Are We More Polytheistic Than We Realize?

The Greek deity Hermes, among other things, was revered
as the god of games and athletes.

Money, in fact, is the most successful story ever invented and told by human beings because it is the only story everyone believes…Not everyone believes in God, not everybody believes in human rights, not everybody believes in nationalism, but everybody believes in money.”

- Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, on money as the greatest fiction

The sin most often condemned in the Bible is idolatry, worshipping deities other than the one and only God of monotheistic faiths. Worship takes many forms, of course, but the word comes from worth-ship, attributing great worth to some beloved object, activity or being. 

Many people of faith have noted how the observance of religious festivals like Thanksgiving and Christmas have become mixed with our devotion to false deities. Consider the actual time, attention, and money devoted to popular ones like Mammon, god of wealth and possessions, Hermes, god of games and athletics, Eros, god of sensual desire and pleasure, or Bacchus, god of wine and revelry. And along with these, we continue to be devoted to Mars, the Roman god of war, in spite of our supposed allegiance to the Prince of Peace. 

Far too often the real mottoes we live by are, “In War we trust,” “In our military-industrial complex we trust,” “In bombs and rockets and death delivering drones we trust,” and “In our U.S. supported global economy we trust.”

Meanwhile, we may be investing little time, attention and money in actually doing what Jesus and the prophets call us to do, to engage in the mission of "bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming good news to the captives, the recovery of sight to those who are blind and liberating the oppressed.” 

It isn’t enough to simply set aside an hour each week to be a part of an audience engaging in rituals of worship held in dedicated holy spaces we refer to as “church.” Especially when most of the rest of our time, attention and creativity is devoted to the pursuit of money, possessions and pleasures far in excess of our fair share of daily bread and other necessities.

All of which leads me to conclude I am much more polytheistic than I realize.

Amy Julia Becker, in an 11/21/23 article in the Christian Century, writes about their family's attendance at a Taylor Swift concert, "As soon as we arrived at the show, Peter and I were both struck by the sense of being in a house of worship. The rituals, the chants, the ecstatic moments, the shared experience, even the reciprocal relationships established through friendship bracelets—it all underscored a sense of awe and transcendence alongside intimacy."

Her article isn't necessarily disparaging of the concert, however, noting that "People are notably kind to one another at a Taylor Swift show. At Gillette Stadium, even the security guards were smiling widely and dancing in the aisles. Because our oldest daughter has Down syndrome, we were able to stand throughout the show in a section specifically set aside for people with disabilities. It felt holy to stand among other disabled people, watching sign language interpreters and dancing alongside a woman in a wheelchair."

I'm not a great fan of Swift, recently named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, and remain concerned about all the worth-ship associated with our society’s obsession with celebrities. But sometimes we can learn from other religions, and take more seriously our need to deepen our commitment and pledge our allegiance to the life-saving and life-giving message of the One God we claim to worship.

As Becker notes in the conclusion of her article,  "Maybe Swift is just one more step on a road away from sanctuaries of grace. Or maybe she is a sign that points to our need for them."