The idolatry of things

Dear friend

If you ask most people what they could not live without they might well list things like their smartphone, their car, their games console, their home computer, laptop or tablet, or some other possession. These sorts of things have become very useful, even enjoyable and convenient, or simply essential to our lives. But I think there is a danger that this kind of materialistic thinking - the pleasure of having "things" - is stopping people from recognising what is truly essential to a happy life. More than this, people are elevating these objects to a status of veneration that begins to match the behaviour of worship. If we adore, exalt, extol and praise these man-made things, I believe we are in danger of the charge of idolatry.

If we idolise something, if we treat it as a special treasure, this could indicate a false God has taken over our heart. Consider a verse from the Old Testament, Leviticus 19:4.

4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God.

I've come to think of an idol as any man-made object we revere to excess. And I don't just mean statues or totems to which we might bow down, pray, or sacrifice to. If we lend some object a status of elevated respect, it begins to look like a verse from the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 21:17.

17 Thy graven images I will also cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the works of thy hands;

We must not let ourselves worship the work of our hands. The reason is given in Doctrine and Covenants 1:16.

16 They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish ...

I hope we will be aware of the potential dangers of the idolatry of man-made things. No object should become so essential that it replaces God, gospel or goodness.

Samuel.