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idolatry

  • December 11, 2014
    Paying taxes to Caesar: Where does our loyalty lie?

    I recently preached at Kensington Unitarian Church, where I was pleased to receive a warm welcome and to engage in some good discussions. Here is the text of my sermon. I explored issues of faith, power and loyalty, looking particularly at Jesus' comments when asked if Jews should pay taxes to the Roman Emperor. I suggested this passage should be read not as a surrender to power but as a challenge to it.

  • January 14, 2014
    Just Money: How society can break the despotic power of finance

    The arrival of Ann Pettifor's latest book, 'Just Money: How society can break the despotic power of finance' is an important publishing moment, says Ekklesia co-director Simon Barrow. It unmasks the false ideologies of austerity and neoliberalism.

  • May 11, 2012
    Trusting in what is not real

    The Bible says more about money than about almost any other ethical issue. In a world where critics of capitalism are described as "unrealistic", Christians can point to a greater reality than the dominant values of our own time and culture. We can recognise that capitalism depends on faith in the idols of money and markets.

  • April 29, 2011
    Kate and William are our equals

    BBC Radio 4, so often a voice of intelligence and relative impartiality, began the news this morning (29 April) with the extreme bias and simpering tones they reserve for reports on the Windsor family. It was announced that Kate Middleton would be "transformed" from a "commoner" into "Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge".

  • July 18, 2010
    American Idolatry: The King James Version

    The curious case of "King James" LeBron, US basketball player, has produced not just manufactured outrage over disloyalty, but a veritable religious marketplace of allegiances connecting fans, idols and saviours, says M. Cooper Harriss. It can be seen as a peculiarly modern American version of idolatry.

  • February 24, 2009
    Military might a 'national religion' in the US

    When President Barack Obama said during his campaign that "the United States must maintain a military that is second to none," he was echoing what has become a common refrain among candidates of both parties since the late 1940s, says Emory University's T. Jeremy Gunn.

  • September 25, 2008
    Archbishops say extreme capitalism has become a new creed

    The Anglican archbishops of York and Canterbury have attacked short term action, greed, manipulation and the modern worship of money, in commenting on recent events that have worsened the global credit crunch.

  • June 26, 2008
    Idolatry, the American way?

    Have many American Christians forgotten the distinction between discipleship and partisanship, asks Martin E. marty, looking at some authors who unpack the complex relationship between Christian faith and political reality.

  • November 1, 2007
    Choosing between human rights and oil

    It is wrong that "rules of law, human affairs and democracy are cast aside to worship a barrel of oil" said Mark Thomas in protesting about the Saudi state visit to the UK.

  • April 18, 2007
    Sacrifices at the altar of the gun

    The latest US shooting atrocity, at Virginia Tech University, is another tragic embodiment of American worship of the gun, says Tim Nafziger.