While TV evangelists still carry on,
It’s money that’s ruling today’s pantheon.
The rich and the powerful worship their gold.
The ancient and Biblical gods, all long gone.

Lip service is paid to all these gods of old;
The formerly faithful stream out of the fold.
The richest of men, with unlimited cash,
Make our leaders kneel as their favors are sold.

It’s not done in secret but done with panache.
Politicians bow low, for cash in their cache.
They’re worshipping wealth and they’re bending the knee,
The rights of the common folk, dumped in the trash.

The lust for more mammon, outright gluttony,
And sometimes descending to frank larceny,
The worship of money pervades everywhere;
And one more epiphany: risks tyranny.

Our time-tested principles, such as: be fair,
Be kind to your neighbors; the wealthy should share…
The noblest of heroes are those who have served,
Not increased their own wealth, of that kind, beware.

And now, we are reaping just what we’ve deserved.
The lust of the president that we’ve observed,
The worship of money his sole deity,
Suggests that democracy won’t be preserved.

There may or may not be some grand deity
But worshipping money assures tragedy.
When, “You shall not have other gods before me,”
Yields to golden idols, farewell sanctity.

(1) See Exodus 20: 3. And Commentary on the Torah by Richard Elliot
Freedman, Harper San Francisco, 2001, p 236.