The New Olympus

If you were to meet a man claiming to still worship the outdated deities of Ancient Greece and Rome, you would call him crazy. Perhaps, because of our excessive reliance on tolerance, you would outwardly express your acceptance for their chosen belief system. But on the inside, yes, you would call them crazy. And for good reason. The old pantheon of Zeus and Hera (or Jove and Juno depending on your preference), has died out. They and their worshipers all but disappeared with the Christianizing of the Roman Empire under Constantine.

But what if I were to tell you that there is a new pantheon of gods? Their worshipers are not limited to any geographical location, they span the globe. The sacrifices made to these gods cannot be measured in the millions but rather in the billions of dollars. There were only twelve Greek gods worth mentioning. These new gods number in the thousands. '

Who are these gods? They are not hard to find. You do not need to climb Olympus to gaze at their thrones. All you have to do is turn on the TV or browse the Internet. The Olympians of today, the gods of the culture of death, are the actors, the athletes, the musicians. The new Olympus sits in Hollywood and in New York City. The altars of these new gods do not burn with the flesh of slaughtered animals, but rather wads of American dollars.

Here's a fact. According to the Statistic Brain website, American teenagers spend $258.7 Billion every year. To give that number some context, that's just about equal to the GDP of Chile. And where does all this money go? Somehow I feel confident in venturing a guess that the majority does not go to charity. No, this money is placed on the altars of these gods. It is spend on movies, songs, clothing, all inspired by these new gods. Now, I am not saying that these are not good things to spend money on. I am merely showing the financial influence that these new Olympians have.

Money is not the issue. It's culture. St. Augustine, contemporary of the old gods of Rome, noticed the social dangers of their worship. Writing of Homer, the Greek poet who wrote about the escapades of the Olympian gods, Augustine said "These are, indeed, his fictions, but he attributed divine attributes to sinful men, that crimes might not be accounted crimes, and that whosoever committed any might appear to imitate the celestial gods and not abandoned men" (Confessions XVI).

Look at any of the myths surrounding the old Olympus. The "gods" are selfish, arrogant, petty, and deceitful. They are very human. Jove was a serial adulterer. Neptune and Apollo were rapists. Minerva was conceited. How are these supposedly divine beings supposed to serve as examples of right behavior? Their worship encourages sin! As Augustine said, any wrongdoing can be justified by saying that the Olympic gods did the same.

The same is true for our gods. It is a rare occasion indeed when the male star of an action movie is not a womanizing drunkard who acts only for his own gain. You do not need to look through your newsfeed for long before finding a story about an athlete that got arrested. As for music, all you have to do is listen to the lyrics of any Eminem song to realize the oppressive moral degeneracy of many musicians. And yet these are the people we worship!

We are more forgiving towards our famous actor than towards our best friend. Sure he abuses drugs and has seven DUI's on his record... but just look at his hair!

I am not saying that to be a good Catholic you have to renounce all modern culture and only listen to classical music or only watch movies that are rated G. We do not need cultural hermits who shudder at the name of Tom Cruise or Matt Damon. What we need is simply a greater awareness. Do not fall into the same error as the Greeks and Romans. Remember that these "gods" are not divinities given human attributes, but rather humans given traits of the divine.

Deus Volt!