Carved amulets in pockets

"Make no mistake about it: Whatever our time and place, the cultures of this present age are catechizing us all. We may see this more evidently in places other than our own...But that's 'over there,' right? This is America, after all, born in the cradle of Judeo-Christian civilization. We forget that ever since our founding, our culture (including religion) has been a mixture of traditional Christianity and successive waves of infidelity, pseudo-Christian sects and cults, and esoteric spiritualities. We are catechized more by the rituals of the market than those of historic Christianity. Although bells rarely announce the assembly of saints today, the ringing of the opening bell on Wall Street is a daily ritual. We may recognize idolatry in the tribesman's dependence on the carved amulet in his pocket, but it doesn't occur to us that we may be idolaters as we clutch our iPhones for security, look to the market's daily news for our hope, entertain ourselves to death, and crave an identity that is shaped by the fashions of the moment."

-Michael S. Horton in "Trees or Tumbleweeds?",  July/August 2011 Modern Reformation, p. 14