Worship comes natural to people, whether they are specifically religious, only "Spiritual", or even completely non-theist. The object of their veneration varies greatly between and among these groups, but the veneration is still there. To find a personal object of veneration, a useful approach for a person might be to make a list of those things that are "valued" ("things" being defined as physical objects, intellectual concepts, emotional states, or anything the person desires in any way). Then, arrange the list in priority order. Of course, the key choice made here would be the "thing" that is first on the list. Every lesson in prioritization I have ever had insists that there can only be ONE item that is "first". When several items are "first", then nothing really is. (This is a key management concept that many managers refuse to accept. I digress).
I'm sure that the religious and the spiritual among us wish that our "first" priority, the primary object of our veneration were to be God, with family coming in a close second. Even the atheists will wish that "the greatest good for the greatest number of people" or something noble like that were to land at the top of their list. From the way that many issues at the local, state, and national level are playing out, it looks to me that our desire for nobility of purpose have widely missed the mark.
The "Land of the free, home of the brave" seems to be devolving into the land where safety, wealth, status, and power are the ultimate values.
Safety.
Gated communities are springing up everywhere. Even without physical gates, we find physical and emotional barriers springing up around neighborhoods that continue to become more homogeneous. The "white flight" to the suburbs was only the beginning. Today, we see more separation by income levels and political ideologies along with the racial separation. We also see more military-style hardware in the hands of our police forces, although not so much in the whiter, richer neighborhoods.
Wealth.
The runaway, explosive growth in income and wealth inequality has been well documented. It's been in all the papers. What is less well known is that the remedies that we have at hand are neither drastic nor unusual. They will even benefit the wealthy by growing the economy from the ground up. Since the top-down approach to growth is failing (except for those at the top), this may one day be forced. In any case, part of the problem of wealth is something that has been well documented in scripture. Excessive wealth has always led to the devaluation of those outside the circle of that wealth. We see this today in the disdain that our politicians express regarding "welfare" and "government dependency". (This directed only at people, not at corporations).
Status.
Status is a value that has two directions: Downward and Upward. Maybe we can think of downward status as "self-esteem on steroids". That would be the view from above, looking down toward the little people. In its most extreme form, it shades over into narcissism. The upward form of "status" looks very much like "hero worship". Of course, there are actual heroes in this world who deserve admiration for the contributions they make to the lives of others. That isn't what we mean here. The worship of status by those who don't have it is a seeking after undeserved reflected glory.
Power.
This is the most significant pillar of our American secular religion. Power has bedeviled humanity from our earliest communal days, after we gave up roaming the savannas of East Africa and began settling in groups larger than the clan. We (humanity) learned a long time ago that power is fun. It is intoxicating. It is addictive. Power is at the center of every human social dysfunction throughout history. As John Dalberg-Acton once said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." This is true in both the individual and the group, as evidenced by such examples as the European "Doctrine of Discovery", the American "Manifest Destiny", the Hitler-led madness of Nazi Germany, or the prevalence of child and spouse abuse nationally and worldwide.
So?
I doubt that anyone would willingly admit to participating in this secular state religion. That might be a key to understanding its pull. A person does not need to sign up anywhere to belong to the SWSP (Safety, Wealth, Status, Power) Church. This church is built on both the active participants and eager beneficiaries of its riches and on the passive, silent assent of the apathetic majority. This is an acting out on a larger stage of the schoolyard bully scene. In a crowd of a dozen kids, there will be the bully, his two wing men, the victim, and the eight spectators who are quietly rejoicing that they are NOT the victim.
Yes, every great world religion and ethical system teaches clearly against this secular religion at all levels (personal, community, and global). The examples of the benefits peace and justice and commonwealth are everywhere, but the pull of SWSP is strong and persistent. Those of us who resist that pull must not rest in teaching and exemplifying the paths of peace and justice that our moral leaders have shown us.
