'It is important for us to realize that the first and chief reason why we should understand and repudiate idolatry is that it is so deeply insulting to Almighty God. If we start with its effect on us, we make ourselves the centre of everything: we simply analyse idolatry as a cause of depression or anxiety...But that would sell God short.
It is much worse than the source of my own pain: my idolatry sets the stratosphere howling; when I prefer idols to the living God, I send spasms of horror through the galaxy. My drinking from the cisterns of idolatrous sex, idolatrous attitudes to family, idolized careers and accumulated possessions appals the entire universe.'
Julian Hardyman, Idols, p.137.
