Politicians are slow learners, as are the people. In New Zealand the people willingly look to the government and their politicians as their gods. The politicians give glad consent to the notion. Long ago our people decided that the God of our fathers had no place in the Brave New World that Enlightened Evolved Mankind was busy creating. But a deity there must be; we cannot live without it. So statism, or government as god, has become the default faith of our secular Unbelief.
All problems--and in a fallen world their name is Legion--must be addressed and solved first and foremost by government. Are people unemployed? The government must ensure employment. Are people starving? Politicians must ensure they are fed. Can Johnny not read? Government must shower your money on his failing teachers. Is the climate changing? Our omnipotent politicians must engineer a comprehensive change in economic arrangements to be a faithful witness to the world. And all the people laugh and cheer.
Politicians are inevitably religious. Virtually all share the belief that with strokes of a legislative pen they can create out of nothing. They can make a difference (or, more to the point) they can fulfil their calling as Great Redeemers.
All this is nonsense, of course. But the government-as-god church is full of credulous believers. The devotees can get really angry when their gods do not perform as expected.
So now we know that unemployment is on the rise again. This was not supposed to happen. Here we are, with our government-as-god blithely borrowing $250m a week to sustain its "buying-us-time-while-we-right-the-ship" strategy, and the ship is not co-operating. There is now an uneasy murmur and stirring to be seen amongst the congregation. What is our government-god doing? Does our Prime Minister--aka High Priest--really have a plan that will work? Does he have a plan at all? Are the gods angry at us? Should we be getting angry at them, since we created them, and we own them, after all.
He Who sits in the heavens laughs at us (Psalm 2:4). What sort of laughter is this? It is the derisive scoffing at puny upstarts who deserve every bit of merciless mockery they receive. No doubt there will be many in the government-as-god congregation who would be greatly offended at the idea of the Living God scoffing and mocking at them. Why, the very idea of mocking those who believe their own press of being semi-divine is not just downright offensive, it is getting close to blasphemy, non? "You Christians have a horrible God. He laughs at us, you say, when we are struggling. We thought you Christians proclaimed a God of love. Hypocrites! How dare you defame our idols. How vile of you to impugn the church of the government-as-god, let alone its High Priest and ministers."
Imagine for a moment that the prophet Elijah was amongst us. It's not too much of a stretch really, since many of the conditions present in Israel in Elijah's day have their parallel here. Ahab and Jezebel busily propagating and promoting a false religion. Altars and places of veneration to false gods set up in every place. The servants of the Living God mocked and reviled. And then comes Elijah's great confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. When those false prophets were leaping about, cutting themselves, yelling and shouting--all in the vain effort to get their god to do something, Elijah took up the tones of the God of the heavens and the earth.
And it came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened." I Kings 18:27 (The phrase "gone aside" is a reference to Baal needing to relieve himself.)It was cutting--but the truth, nonetheless.
These are perilous times. A gnawing doubt is beginning to rumble in the gut of the government-as-god congregation. God will continue to mock us for as long as we reject Him, and remain devotees of our false national religion--that our government is as god amongst us, as we, the people, are semi-divine.
"And the people bowed and prayed, to the neon god they made."
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