#idolatry

I inquired what wickedness is, and I didn't find a substance, but a perversity of will twisted away from the highest substance – You oh God – towards inferior things, rejecting its own inner life and swelling with external matter. ↗

— Augustine of Hippo

#sin #wickedness #life

Every man's work, pursued steadily, tends to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life. ↗

— George Eliot

#love #work #life

Love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a god. ↗

— Denis de Rougemont

#love #love

If you uproot the idol and fail to plant the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back. ↗

— Tullian Tchividjian

#idolatry #love

We are drawn towards a thing, either because there is some good we are seeking from it, or because we cannot do without it. Sometimes the two motives coincide. Often however they do not. Each is distinct and quite independent. We eat distasteful food, if we have nothing else, because we cannot do otherwise. A moderately greedy man looks out for delicacies, but he can easily do without them. If we have no air we are suffocated, we struggle to get it, not because we expect to get some advantage from it but because we need it. We go in search of sea air without being driven by any necessity, because we like it. In time it often comes about automatically that the second motive takes the place of the first. This is one of the great misfortunes of our race. A man spokes opium in order to attain to a special condition, which he thinks superior; often, as time goes on, the opium reduces him to a miserable condition which he feels to be degrading; but he is no longer able to do without it. ↗

— Simone Weil

#idolatry #motivational

The problems afflicting a nation are always in equal measure spiritual crises. ↗

— Ron Suskind

#idolatry #materialism #education

And that's really what's happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We're supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government. ↗

— Sharron Angle

#bread #commandment #country #daily #daily bread

Technology presents us with a unique spiritual challenge. Because it is meant to serve us in fulfilling our created purpose, because it makes our lives easier, longer, and more comfortable, we are prone to assign to it something of a godlike status. We easily rely on technology to give our lives meaning, and we trust technology to provide an ultimate answer to the frustration of life in a fallen world. Because of this, technology is uniquely susceptible to becoming an idol, raising itself to the place of God in our lives. ↗

— Tim Challies

#technology #faith

Rapine, avarice, expense, This is idolatry; and these we adore; Plain living and high thinking are no more. ↗

— William Wordsworth

#avarice #expense #high #idolatry #living