Paper Gods

“[The nations’] idols are merely things of silver and gold,
    shaped by human hands.
They have mouths but cannot speak,
    and eyes but cannot see.
They have ears but cannot hear,
    and noses but cannot smell.
They have hands but cannot feel,
    and feet but cannot walk,
    and throats but cannot make a sound.
And those who make idols are just like them,
    as are all who trust in them.

-Psalm 115:4-8

Looming over a Hong Kong road choked with rushed taxis, nervous personal cars, and lumbering double-decker buses; a sophisticated, 40-foot-tall goddess of luxury stares alluringly into the glass-walled mall across the street. Worship money, she croons silently, worship ease.

I sit pensively on a barstool in the mall’s cheapest food venue, Starbucks. I am studying Ezekiel—chock-full of God’s anger at Israel’s idols—and find myself shocked how any nation could trade the living, potent, active Creator for a tall, red-painted stretch of canvas. She is hardly the only advertisement on the street; I can see at least five massive television screens and dozens of smaller posters without even moving my head. Smaller temples for cheaper gods.

Presently, five Chinese workmen climb onto the ledge below her. Their tiny dirt-covered plaid and homemade towel-under-the-ball-cap sun protection contrast her elegance. Are they here to worship? I wonder.

The men pull the massive red blanket down about ten feet and begin savagely hacking away. They toss the scrunched, uneven red chunk down to the glass ledge one floor below. Having dabbled in the printing industry, I am shocked. That poster must have cost at least several hundred dollars! Maybe several thousand! At least save the canvas!

Disregarding my inner protestations, the men carelessly slice off the goddess’s thighs, belly, arms, neck, head, until she is nothing more than a handful of crumpled shreds. They carefully hook a fresh poster to the building’s pulley system and heave up the god of this month: a suave, monochrome couple reminding passers-by that romance can be theirs if only they will trade their retirement for a timeless timepiece. I sigh. Will the nations ever learn?