Injustice and Idolatry

I like Andy Crouch. His thought resonates with me, encourages me, and gives me hope for new roles and projects of the local church. I recently heard a lecture from him on Culture Making in which he discussed the issue of idolatry and injustice. Crouch points at the connection between idolatry and social issues in so many of the prophets. The reason this is the case, he says, is because injustice is idolatry. When there is injustice, it is because the image of God has been skewed in both the powerful and in the less powerful, creating the social relationships of injustice and exploitation. (He credits much of this insight to a gentleman named Jackamar Christian, if I hear him correctly.)

Consider one of his examples. Crouch says that whereas idols originally seem to ask for very little of the worshipper, they ask increasingly for more and more until ultimately they ask for what is dearest, even children.

So think about idolatry in terms of addiction. Whereas at first substances and experiences that ensnare us ask for very little and offer something wonderful in return, they ask for more and more of us increasingly. This, he says, is the nature of addition: "True addictions end in the death of the user." Addictions "eradicate the life and agency of the user." Addictions thus reveal the experience of idolatry.

Here's what I'm thinking about: What are we addicted to that claim more and more of our lives in our culture?