A  recent assertion from a Newsmax commentator about Taylor Swift got me to thinking about idolatry:

But I think what they call it is, they’re elevating her to an idol. Idolatry. This is a little bit what idolatry, I think, looks like. And you’re not supposed to do that. In fact, if you look it up in the Bible, it’s a sin! So, I don’t like that.”  [ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/greg-kelly-taylor-swift-fans-idolatry-sin_n_65b907bfe4b0102bd2d62292 ]

I know the Second Commandment warns against idolatry, but Jesus does not make much of it in the Christian Testament. There are only three passages I know of where Jesus warns against worshipping an idol, and in no case does he use the word “idol.” Yet we may learn what Jesus did not want us to worship by considering them.

The first idol is “Mammon” in the passage from the King James Version:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (wealth) (Matthew 6:24)

The word “mammon” is usually translated as “money” or “wealth.” In the Middle Ages it was personified as one of the seven princes of hell, giving it more of a personal identity.  In any terms, the concept of serving or worshipping is built into the conflict of God vs. mammon. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammon ]  Christians usually understand “serving wealth” as an uncontrolled desire for riches to the extent that faith in God is compromised. Where we cross the line of using money for the security to an obsession is never obvious, as would be true for most of Jesus’ teachings. But turning money into an idol is a violation of the Second Commandment.

The second idol is tyrannical government. We can assume that Jesus rejected the notion that Caesar should be worshipped as a God from the example of paying taxes.

   “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. (Mark 12:16-17)

What belongs to God is reverence and worship. Paying taxes is the duty of every citizen, although many of Jesus’ contemporaries would have disagreed.  Maybe our contemporaries, too. Since Caesar represents tyranny, it follows that modern tyranny should not be worshipped as well.  What constitutes tyranny in the modern sense is debatable.  I suppose leaders, who imply that loyalty to them supersedes the worship of God, would be considered idols. Quakers and Jehovah’s Witnesses have argued that they should be exempted from government requirements that contradict their religious beliefs. The law has upheld that argument. What if those rights were taken away? Would the government then become an idol that demands they violate their beliefs? Tyrannical government can be an idol.

The third idol could be those who represent themselves as the returning Christ.

Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. (Luke 21:8)

Cult leaders could fall into the classification of an idol. They may call themselves “Christ” or claim their words come straight from Christ, but Jesus warns that they are part of “latter day”events. Who these “Christs” are might be controversial, but they are potential idols when they contradict what Jesus taught, while representing themselves as “the anointed one,” the meaning of the word “Christ.” Those who attempt to represent Christ, but fail to live by his example, might be considered idols.

In none of these examples are the commandments against “idolatry,” but rather objects of worship that might replace God. These objects might not represent idolatry to some, but Jesus’ laws are never as clear cut as we would like them to be.  Idolatry, in the modern sense, represents the disposition of the heart, not a legal definition.

Jesus warns about many other things, like “the leaven [legalism] of the Pharisees” or the “hypocrisy” of those who practice spirituality in public, but such behaviors are less than worship and not focused on an object of worship, so I don’t think of them as idols. Jesus did not expand much about idolatry per se.

Is the ardent following of Taylor Swift “idolatry” ? Perhaps, in a figurative, adolescent way. But then how do we distinguish “idols” from “heroes”?  Many adults have sports heroes, music heroes, historical heroes that don’t rise to the level of idolatry.The passion of teenagers is not so different from the devotion of adults.  So why quibble?

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them” Exodus 20:4.

It is dangerous to think of the Second Commandment  as irrelevant today, because there are modern equivalents, such as money and cult leaders, as Jesus has reminded us.  But let’s not get carried away and claim any passion or devotion is an idol.  It’s all right to be fans and followers, if we recognize our limits. Isn’t that what morality about?