Take a close look at the image above. It comes from an article I saw regarding the development of new towns in England. The diagram reflects the way in which new developments would be laid out. Not limited to the United Kingdom, I saw a similar design for a community being built here in Texas. Do you notice what is missing from the area that we Americans would call the town square? There is no house of worship whatsoever in the drawing.

When I was a boy, we learned about how the Spanish had designed settlements as they colonized the southwest. In the center of town around the livestock pens and the taverns and the government building there would be a church. You can still see examples in Sante Fe, New Mexico and Jackson Square in New Orleans, today. It was literally more likely that there would be a church or abbey or mission at the center of town than there would be a schoolhouse.

The prevalence of the local parish has been replaced with the GP Surgery (the local doctor’s office in England) in the plotting of new towns. The exact same health clinic was present in the model town I saw here in Texas. Why am I bringing this innocuous detail to your attention? Because idolatry is pernicious and omnipresent.

What can be idolatrous about a doctor’s office? In modern western culture, the health care system is the center of worship! Recall the ways that we can determine an idol: where we spend our time, where we commit our money, and the outcomes of the idol. I will add a fourth determining factor: the size of the buildings dedicated to the idol. We already discussed politics and sports both of which have major structures dedicated to them. Now consider that some of the largest buildings in any US city or town are hospitals. There are pharmacies, emergency clinics, and doctor’s offices on every other corner.

Every year, the pharmaceutical industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising for various medications encouraging the viewer to ask their physician about “drug X”. In 2020, the United States collectively made 1 billion visits to the doctor! That was nearly double the number of visits that we made as a nation in 1988. The population only grew by 30% during that same 30-year period meaning we go to the doctor a lot more. Let me be clear that in and of itself is not a bad thing. I merely mean to point out that given the amount spent ($4.8 TRILLION in 2023) along with the time committed there is the potential for an idol to be at work.

Everyone wishes to be healthy and being mindful of your health is a good thing, but just like the manner in which politics and sports can misalign the focus, so can our obsession with health. When I was a pastor, it was much more likely that when asked for prayer requests folks offered up concerns about upcoming surgeries and current maladies than to pray for the salvation of their neighbor or the hastening of Christ’s return. Admittedly I was a presbyterian minister, but I suspect that many clergy from other denominations would report a similar trend.

Many, if not most, of the hospitals and hospital systems in America were originally funded by churches. We have Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist health systems all over our nation; although, the roots that those systems have sprung from are largely forgotten, the only remnants being the name on the sign and a small benign chapel tucked away somewhere deep within the complex. As a culture we have gone so far from the church being involved in the health systems as to looking to the government to provide for our health needs. The pendulum has swung from churches and denominations loving their neighbor by funding hospitals and research institutions to the government being seen as a source for universal health care. One might be excused for thinking there was a malevolent force at work in the world to drive allegiance and fealty away from God and towards the government.

Allow me to suggest two other outcomes that indicate that an obsession with health has become an idol in the West. First, as the government takes on more of the expense of health care, the rationing of care becomes increasingly likely. Ultimately this leads to decisions about withholding treatments from the elderly and other members of society (those with special needs, for example) perceived to be a waste of expenditures. People become line items in a budget rather than patients in need of help. Second, there has been a breakthrough medication in recent years that allows diabetics to regulate their blood sugars effectively. The drug also happens to spark weight loss in non-diabetic users. The result is predictable. So many prescriptions have been written for people looking to lose weight that there has been a shortage of this life-saving medication for diabetics.

The first of these outcomes represents the dehumanizing of life. The elderly become expendable to save a dollar or two. Not exactly the stuff of honoring our fathers and mothers that. The second outcome reflects a potential selfishness that runs up against love of neighbor. To be sure there are some people who are not diabetic for whom a weight loss drug can be a significant blessing; however, last year the FDA reported 80 million prescriptions for these medications in a nation where less than 40 million people are diabetic.

Again, none of this is to say that health care and pharmaceuticals are inherently evil. Nor am I making political statements about how tax dollars are spent on health care. What I am suggesting is that for many people the modern health care system (like politics and sports) has become an idol complete with its own temples, priests, and sacraments.

I could continue to expose potential idols over and over again and never get on to the rest of the letter of Romans. I have hit on 3 of the biggies in modern America and I already feel like a curmudgeon hollering for the kids to get off of the lawn. I leave it to you to determine your own potential idols. They can be politics, sports, pleasure, food, healthcare, shopping, victimhood, just to name a few. The list is endless. John Calvin is right; people are idol factories.

Why is that?

Because we were made to worship. More specifically, we were created to respond to God; to glorify God as God and give thanks (Rom 1:21). If we choose to ignore the truth about God, that urge to worship will find an outlet and in the absence of God that outlet will be an idol, either physical or metaphysical, of our own creation. When we do this, we suppress the truth, and God gives us over to the freedom from God that we indicate that we want. It is a dark path that leads to increasing wickedness. Put another way, what we spend our time, talent, and treasure on begins to shape us and our way of thinking. The idol becomes increasingly important and determinative in our lives. Paul describes it as exchanging the truth about God for a lie and worshiping the created thing instead of the creator (1:25). What starts as sin becomes wickedness; idol worship begats immorality and injustice.

In his day, Paul looked around Roman culture and zeroed in on what he considered to be the most egregious example: homosexual activity. The truth about God that is revealed in creation is that there are two sexes (male and female) and that they procreate to “be fruitful and multiply” (in Genesis terms) and perpetuate the species (in evolutionary biology terms), but homosexual behavior does neither of these things.

Over the centuries many people have looked at this portion of the letter to the Romans and concluded that homosexuality is worse than any other possible wickedness. This is a misuse of the text in my estimation. Allow me to present two arguments against this interpretation. One, the fact that Paul zeroes in on homosexual behavior at the beginning of his list has more to do with the culture of Rome that he is addressing than any notion that this sin is greater than all the others. Rather than being the chief sin, homosexuality provided the most egregious example of Paul’s basic argument that when a people routinely deny the truth about God and begin worshipping idols of their own making, they live increasingly as a law unto themselves. Homosexual behavior illustrated how far from the intentionality of God’s creation humanity could fall.

If Paul were writing a letter to the American Church, it would look decidedly different than Romans 1. His principal example of humanity worshiping the creation rather than the creator might well be the embrace of transgenderism. If the truth revealed in creation is that there are two genders (male and female) then the notion that we should be altering the biological reality of an individual to suit their self-perception would be the ultimate example of the creation ignoring the creator. I find it interesting that the arguments about transgenderism beg responses from the 3 idols I have highlighted. The health industry designing the procedures and medications for transitioning a person’s gender begging for research dollars as they play creator all the while bristling at any attempt at restraint. People of conflicting politics demanding that the government either affirm multiple interpretations of gender or declare that there are only two options. Sports confronting the fairness of transitioned athletes competing in the alternatively gendered sports.

Perhaps another sign of idol is the expectation that the idol can declare truth.

The second proof I will offer that Paul is not mentioning homosexuality as the chief sin of humanity is scriptural. Take a moment to read the works of the flesh he relates to the believers in Galatia (Gal 5:19-21). Consider the two places in Corinthians where he lists out wicked behavior (1 Cor 5:9-11 and 6:9-10). Read his admonition to Timothy about the behavior of people in the last days (2 Tim 3:2-5). A careful reading of scripture indicates that there is plenty of sin to go around for everyone. Not convinced? Try on the words of Jesus: “out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a person unclean. (Mk 7:21-23)”.

None of this is to say that homosexuality is not a sin; it is. Elevating it above any other sin is a form of judgmentalism and denies the truth that all sins are equal in the eyes of God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God whether the sin is an obvious violation of God’s law or more subtle like self-righteousness and judgment of the neighbor.

It is important to remember that the end of Romans (1:21-32) is a description of what happens to all those who “do not honor God or give thanks.” These individuals profess “to be wise, they become fools.” In the Bible, the fool is the one who rejects God. Earlier I said that idolatry begats wickedness and injustice. Paul put it this way:

 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;  and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

The truth is, though, all of us are somewhere in the list; no matter how difficult it is to stomach we are all in the list. We prefer to point the finger anywhere but ourselves. We try to ignore the subtle sway of our own idols on our souls. We deny the power of the idols in our culture and ignore the means by which the sphere of the flesh shapes our thinking and our actions.

The chapter culminates in that list because it is that list (and any other listing of wickedness found anywhere in the scriptures) that condemns us. Romans 1 ends this way because here Paul shares why “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness… (Romans 1:18)”.

As I am finishing this post it is Ash Wednesday. My pastor shared this thought tonight: “when we treat God trivially, we will treat sin trivially”. Not sure which ancient commentator said this first, but whomever it was must have been a careful student of Paul. Those ten words are an excellent summary of Romans 1:18-32.

The first reading for Ash Wednesday was Joel calling for a solemn assembly of the people to rend their hearts and not their garments because “the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near…” and so it is. There will be time enough for the gospel in Romans, it will be delivered in spades! But make no mistake even for those who trust in the gospel, what Paul called the power of salvation (1:16), the day of the Lord comes.

For now, it is best to linger for a time in the depths of your own depravity. Consider the litany of wickedness that Paul provided us. If you know the gospel, really know it in the depths of your being, such lingering will produce a deeper repentance and a deeper thanksgiving for grace. If you do not know the gospel, the lingering can prepare your heart for the truth of Jesus Christ.

Blessings to you in your journey. Vaya con Dios!

As always, the above is freely given, and all are welcome to use it. If you do it would be nice if you mentioned where you got it. Finally, if you know someone who might benefit from reading these posts please share the URL or email with them.