Ad -- Start Your Own Religion

This ad appeared on my daughter's Facebook page recently. (It was heartening to see her outrage :-)

If you click through you go to an Amazon sales page for a 40 page self-published book titled "How to Build a God in Your Garage" that is categorized in both Humor and Religion.

I haven't read the book, so can't comment on its humor potential. The Bible uses humor effectively to ridicule the idea of idols and home-fashioned 'gods.'

"So who even comes close to being like God?
To whom or what can you compare him?
Some no-god idol? Ridiculous!
It's made in a workshop, cast in bronze,
Given a thin veneer of gold,
and draped with silver filigree.
Or, perhaps someone will select a fine wood—
olive wood, say—that won't rot,
Then hire a woodcarver to make a no-god,
giving special care to its base so it won't tip over!" (Isaiah 40:18-20)

"Don't take the godless nations as your models.
Don't be impressed by their glamour and glitz,
no matter how much they're impressed.
The religion of these peoples
is nothing but smoke.
An idol is nothing but a tree chopped down,
then shaped by a woodsman's ax.
They trim it with tinsel and balls,
use hammer and nails to keep it upright.
It's like a scarecrow in a cabbage patch—can't talk!
Dead wood that has to be carried—can't walk!
Don't be impressed by such stuff.
It's useless for either good or evil." (Jeremiah 10:1-5)

And when deprecating humor is inadequate, God sends judgment.

Now most readers of this blog aren't crafting idols in their garage. We're far too sophisticated for that! No, our modern idols are subtle and invisible most of the time. Our idols are crafty, stealthy, and deadly dangerous to our hearts and our families' hearts. Sometimes we manipulate our idols so that people follow us and shower us with attention.

John's counsel remains for us: "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." (1 John 5:21)