When considering the inexorable law of becoming like what you worship, an interesting scenic route would be to ponder the worship of a thing that is hated by person who worships it. At first there seems to be a contradiction, but that is no difficulty to overcome by modern man.
“Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head.” – C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters
Bitterness and hatred are very demanding states to remain in, they both have to be fed and tended to.
Also think on what constitutes a life of worship. And idol requires, time, money, attention, devotion, emotional and physical energy, to the person who is devoted to hating a thing they will give up all in service of hating it. For example parents who sacrificed infants to the false god Moloch, could not possibly love him. Yet, out of fear they served and sacrificed to him. It is worth thinking through how a particular type of “conservative” could actually have an idol of progressives. They are consumed by their anger over every new outrage, every riot, every absurd tweet tweaking sexuality, every college lecture posted decrying whiteness. Pastors plead with these people to unplug, and yet they can’t, as if voyeuristically watching and then ranting to a likeminded fellow is solving the issue. If suddenly BLM and Antifa packed it all up, conceded every right point and began the work of restitution, would those people who have devoted their lives to hating the snowflakes be pleased? Would they continue on in their churches with rejoicing. Or would they start searching for another group to oppose? Naturally this cuts both ways, and indeed there can be in many churches condescending progressives who harbor bitterness towards the conservatives in the pew ahead of them. And this religiosity of progressivism has been well documented elsewhere. And in some ways the rage is come by more originally. They initiate and the right responds. Yet regardless of which side it lies on the fact that bitterness is the idol driving much of our division has not really been discussed much. Perhaps because it seems so counterintuitive. Worshiping something you hate seems like an oxymoron.
However, returning to the first point. Is it possible that many Christians are too like Sauraman, hating Sauron for so long that obsession sets in and leads to simply becoming a second rate dark lord? Conservatives have plenty of our own second rate versions of Antifa or BLM. Our type just has Jericho Marches and in their worst moment engage in the most gaudy display of storming the national capitol. Let us concede the point* that you can not criticize attempted burnings of courthouses while engaging in similar shenanigans on the opposite coast. Either way gleeful hatred is underneath the proper debauches on display an each is merely copying the other with a mafia mentality.
Again there is a strong case to be made that many proclaiming the name of Christ are actually idolators. They are becoming like what they worship, don’t be distracted by the claim that they hate their false god.
*And here I am only making a distinction of a one to one event. Had the capitol marchers returned daily the right would have much less of a leg to stand on when being outraged by the ongoing attempts to burn down a federal courthouse in Portland. But still there are shades of specks and longs in eyes here.
Southern Reformed Smoker 