Idolatry

We had a super talk today by one of our own elders.  It was about idolatry.  I've heard talks about that before in the south, but here it's so much more relevant.  Every third house has the virgin Mary out in the yard, frequently with a planted bathtub framing her, protecting her from the elements.  Jon starts the talk out by relating the experiences of the people looking for the North Pole.  Maybe the South Pole.  I don't teach geography.  I do know that in Ebensburg they have an Admiral Peary Blvd and there is an Admiral Peary vo-tech up here.  I wonder if they teach exploring as a trade there.  Evidently, Robert Peary was from somewhere around here.


So, this team of explorers is chasing some mountains and the local Inuit guide is telling the scientists it is just mists, but they think it's a mountain range and they travel 150 miles trying to get there.  Evidently, you cannot arrive at mist.  They turned around and made it back to solid land just in the nick of time.  The ice started breaking up the following day.  There are lots of ways to die, but I sure hope if I ever have to do it, I am not freezing to death on an ice floe.

Isn't that the coolest sentence ever?  I hope I never have to die.  Who gets to say that?  Over seven million people.  But the rest of the earth's population fully expects to die someday.  There was an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" on the other day and Frank was telling Raymond someday he was going to die.  He was afraid of getting older, and he was having a little melt down.  Later Ray tells his mother she is going to die someday too.  It just made me so happy to be one of us!

Well, back to the North or South Pole.  Anyway, they mounted this expedition and went to a lot of trouble to find this mountain range that didn't exist.  Jon tells it a lot better.  I'm summarizing.  He compared that to how people are searching for God.  Those Hindus with all their false gods, many of them funny looking with three heads and multiple limbs are meant to manifest abstract qualities of an unknowable mysterious God.

Isn't it nice that Jehovah wants us to know him?  That's a good thing I think I will be thankful for today.  That the Hindu religion is wrong and we have a knowable God.

So, at the end of the talk, Jon wraps it all up by coming back to the Pole expedition and how they were chasing this mist, and the mountains didn't really exist.  Kind of like idols of Gods that do not have tongues so don't taste, don't have eyes so don't see, etc.

I'm pretty sure I've had a few students who worshiped a Steeler football player, a Penguin hockey player, or a rock star.  Some of the girls around here worship purses and no, I'm not kidding.  I guess I'd pick a purse over Justin Bieber though.

I got a new black Chinese Laundry purse for winter.  It's neat, but my life is never going to revolve around a bag.  Feel free to send me Prada and I'll prove it!