Deadly Connections: Idolatry, Addiction, Economics, and Politics
NRSV
Hos 12:7–9, and Rom 1:24–25, together can help us to understand the connections among idolatry, addiction, economics, and politics. While neither text refers directly to addiction, the problems associated with addiction can be teased out of Hosea’s historical context. Other parts of the book of Hosea deal with idolatry, as do the focal verses in Romans. The powerful connections among idolatry, addiction, economics, and politics constitute a serious malady today, which could also be observed in biblical times.
While the term “addiction” often connotes drugs, alcohol, or other abusive substances, the word actually encompasses any compulsively destructive behavior such as indiscriminative sex, gluttony, or excessive accumulation of wealth. The ancient world was different from today in many respects, but addictive behavior has been a human problem for many centuries.
The book of Hosea deals with Israel’s idolatry, but its apostasy was more complex than is generally understood. Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, whose side of the story is not given, was dysfunctional. Hosea represents God while Gomer, sinful people. Gomer’s alleged sexual infidelity represents the people’s religious unfaithfulness as evidenced by their worship of many gods, especially Baal. God orders Hosea to marry “a whorish woman.” He obeys and has three children from Gomer. While the first child is legitimate, the second and third may not be if the subtle hints in the Hebrew text are believed. In any case, Hosea accuses Gomer of infidelity and threatens her with such sexual violence that if spoken today, he would face arrest. When Hosea threatens to strip Gomer naked in public and lock her up, these acts pose a problem for us since Hosea is a spokesperson for God. Note that Hosea’s threats did not bother his original audience who seem to have regarded his threats as normal behavior. Times have changed.
Hosea woos Gomer again, and they are reconciled. There are even problems here for a contemporary audience, for we have become aware of the pattern of spouses who abuse, make-up, only to abuse again. Nevertheless, the point that the ancient prophet was making was that God loves us so much that no matter how much we sin God will always take us back.
Hosea has more to say. In his day, as throughout history, religion, economics, and politics were often intertwined. The king and his minions taxed the peasants heavily and exported their agricultural products to Assyria in trade for luxury items for the upper class to purchase. Of course, the peasants got very little in exchange for their toil. Hos 12:7–9 indicates that Hosea was concerned about more than the religious aspect of idolatry. Hos 12:7–8 reads:
A trader, in whose hands are false balances,
he loves to oppress.
Ephraim has said, “Ah, I am rich,
I have gained wealth for myself;
in all of my gain
no offense has been found in me
that would be sin.”
So Israel is being accused of using false balances. This metaphor concerns traders who used stones to weigh commodities; they were supposed to use the same stone for both the seller and buyer, but this did not always happen. In addition, Ephraim’s claim to have become rich without hurting anyone is how people may excuse bad behavior. In this case, it was the poor who were cheated. It is easy to deceive ourselves about the ill effects of what we are doing, even ill effects on ourselves.
Hosea’s concern with Israel’s oppression of the poor was not unrelated to his concern about religious idolatry, in particular worship of Baal, a rain god and thus a god of the harvest. Baal worship was to ensure having abundant crops, but the elite were taking an excessively large share of the crops through taxation to sell abroad. Thus, their economic and religious practices were intertwined. It is still more complicated, though. Since receiving the foreign goods also was dependent on being in the king’s favor, politics was also involved. Thus, the rich people’s addiction to luxury goods fueled their worship of a fertility god as well as their oppression of the poor. These elements formed an evil triangle.1
Turning to the New Testament, we read in Rom 1: 24–25, “Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever….”
Paul’s basic point is that because of idolatry, God left the idolaters to their lusts, which Paul considered impure and would degrade their bodies. Paul may have had some problems in the area of sexuality. At the same time, it is possible that the specific kind of sexual practices that Paul was concerned about in both Rom 1:24–25 and 1:26–27 were degrading. We can give him that possibility, even while maintaining the basic goodness of human sexuality in all of its varieties. For example, Paul could have been concerned about what we call sex trafficking today, which is degrading and cruel.
Earlier, the connection between idolatry and oppression was established, but now we need to understand how idolatry and addiction are related and complete an unholy trinity. The way we structure our society contributes to the level of stress that may drive a large portion of the population to turn to an addictive substance and/or practice, which in turn may make a substantial profit for someone, just as in Hosea’s day. The structure of society helps to determine how much work is required to survive; the more hours people have to work, the more stress they will be under and the more they may seek the addictive gods. Thus begins the cycle of need, and temptation ending in addiction. The gods of economic survival and success are powerful. They can drive some to worship them and sacrifice health, family and much that is dear. Bowing down to them is destructive to both the quality and length of lives. People with the strength to resist these modern addictions and idolatries, will stand as models and help to lead the way out of the quagmire that some in our culture are currently experiencing. With God’s help, healing is possible.
In Hosea’s day, elite wealthy individuals and the royalty conspired to benefit themselves at the expense of the poor. And just as in Paul’s day, the modern results of idolatry can be seen in our bodies, with rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The malady has been diagnosed. What is needed are faith communities determined to be healing societies for our neighborhoods.
Notes
1. For a thorough analysis of Hosea, see Gale Yee, “Faithless Israel in Hosea: She is not my wife, and I am not her husband,” Poor Banished Children of Eve: Women as Evil in the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Augsburg FortressPress, 2003) 81–110.
