Political Idolatry

Timely words from Tim Keller:

When love of one’s people becomes an absolute, it turns into racism. When love of equality turns into a supreme thing, it can result in hatred and violence toward anyone who has lived a privileged life. It is the settled tendency of human societies to turn good political causes into counterfeit gods. Ernest Becker wrote that in a society that has lost the reality of God, many people will look to romantic love to give them the fulfillment they once found in religious experience. Nietzsche, however, believed it would be money that would replace God. But there is another candidate to fill this spiritual vacuum. We can look to politics. We can look upon our political leaders as “messiahs,” our political policies as saving doctrines, and turn our political activism into a kind of religion.

Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, p.98