C S Lewis, insightful as ever:
Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honor millionaires, athletes or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.
Mark Joseph goes on to conclude his article, The Universal Desire to Worship Someone,
The next time I see people with their eyes closed and hands raised to God, and begin to think it strange, I will remind myself that the desire to worship and praise is a universal one, that there’s nothing strange about it at all, and that one way or another, whether it’s in church, at an Obama rally, a Nascar race or a Motley Crue reunion concert, most of us do it, and all things being equal, I’d say the God of the universe is more deserving of that praise than Nikki Sixx or Jeff Gordon.
Full article, The Universal Desire to Worship Someone -‘Culture’ Huff Post April 12 2012.
Thank you Mark Joseph for your bottom line. I like bottom lines! Some however would interpret this as CSL being in favour of monarchies. I wonder is this in the assumption they are the custodians of all moral and spiritual virtues ? For me 1 Sam 8:7-18 spells it out very clearly. Yes, God did give in to the people and allowed a King to be appointed, but the consequences were theirs. Not unlike Mat. 19:8. where Jesus refers to Moses allowing men to divorce their wives because of their hardness of heart. The way I see it is that this again was to their own detriment. Are we now to conclude that divorce is the preferred option or that monarchies are the preferred option?
Some nine years down the track has it not become very evident that our society is plunging into a social and moral decadence that is unparalleled. A decadence resulting from infidelity, betrayal and breakdown of marriage that is increasingly effecting people in all walks of life from the cradle to the grave and in ways that we had never knew existed. Mankind is cutting itself off from the source of all life, our Creator God and wondering why we live in a world where there is so much unhappiness, suffering and injustice. It is easy to think about decadence as the bad things that some people do, but a more effective way is to think about the good things that you and I DON’T DO. ” IF YOU LOVE ME KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS ! John 14:15