Before today’s Jericho March in Phoenix, as we waited for a prayer gathering to begin outside the Arizona capitol building, a man dressed in a suit (probably the best-dressed man in the large crowd) came to the microphone to encourage us to focus on God’s providence during this election crisis. Drawing our attention to the winged statue atop the capitol dome (which looks like an angel), he explained that the statue actually functions as a weather vane, turning one direction or another depending upon which way the wind is blowing. As he pointed out that in God’s providence, the wind was directing this “angel’s” face toward us, a man in the crowd screamed at him, repeatedly calling the statue an idol and saying that it should be torn down. The well-dressed man at the microphone, speaking in gentle tones, invited the heckler to come to the microphone to explain his concerns. Instead, the heckler just stayed where he was, continuing to scream about idolatry.

From my perspective, the man who referred to the angel was drawing our attention toward God, and the man who yelled about it being an idol was drawing our attention away from God.

After we marched around the capitol, turning to cross the street for the rally which was beginning on the other side, I happened to see the anti-idol heckler standing at the side of the crosswalk. I quietly explained to him that Acts 17 tells us how the Apostle Paul was surrounded by idols in Athens, and how Paul used those idols as an opportunity to point people to the one true God, not to scream at them telling them to tear them down. I asked him if he knew of any place in the New Testament where we are instructed to seek to tear down other people’s idols. He said “what about the book of Judges, and Deuteronomy, and Genesis?” I reminded him that I had asked him about the New Testament. He began screaming at me, telling me to repent.

An idol is anything that takes our attention away from God. In my opinion, most homes today (even most homes of Christians) contain various idols. What is the centerpiece of your home, the place that draws your attention when you walk in? Most often it seems to me it is the television (but I can think of various other examples which are the focus of attention in most Christian homes today). I have often witnessed Christians criticizing other Christians for their idols, while the idolatry of the critic is all too obvious.

The Apostle John indeed instructed us to keep ourselves from idols, but the Apostle Paul often gave practical advice about how to live at peace (and to God’s glory) in a world of idolatry. As Martin Luther said “You cannot keep birds from flying over your head. but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.”

If we employ angry outbursts to chastise others about their idols, we might want to consider the fact that Galatians 5:20 includes not only idolatry but also rage as examples of acts of the flesh (in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit). And before we chastise someone else for their idols, we should all carefully consider just how obvious our own fleshly idols might be.