According to Peters, the first commandment goes like this: You shall have no other gods before me.  You shall not make for yourself a pesel (Exod. 20:3-4).

A “pesel” is “a graven image”.  The Greeks translated “pesel” into “eidolon”, which is related to the word “eidos” or “form”.  Today, we are familiar with a word derived from eidos: “idol”.

The idolatry of the modern world does not come in the eidos of pesel.  Instead, we have made pesels of our ideas (another word derived from eidos).

What ideas have become “graven images”?  In 1969, Langdon Gilkey argued that, for Americans, “the idea of freedom” was our equivalent to a graven image.  I guess some graven images do not last long.  In 2012, “Freedom” pales in comparison to modern “Celebrity”.  Is “Celebrity” the next “American Idol”?

Do “free people” define “reality”?  Do “celebrities” define “reality”?

The answer is “yes” for both questions.  But there is a difference.  The difference can be seen on the pages of the Enquirer every week.