One way to understand the spiritual lukewarmness of the contemporary church is to examine it against the backdrop of the society it inhabits. That society is largely the product of its history, and tracing that history reveals a pattern of changes that carry real spiritual weight — changes not merely in religion or politics, but in how we order our deepest priorities.

The tension between faith and money is, of course, nothing new. Jesus warned plainly that no one can serve two masters. Paul went further, identifying greed — the elevation of money above all else — as a form of idolatry (Colossians 3:5). And Revelation’s portrait of Babylon situates the excesses of commerce at the very heart of worldly evil, framing the conflict between money-driven systems and the love-and-witness mission of the church as one of the defining fault lines of history. This is ancient ground. What is worth examining is how modern America has navigated it — and how decisively it seems to have chosen a side.

Continue reading “The Religion of Mammon” →