Amid the brouhaha of a presidential campaign that has lasted nearly two years and the anxiety of a stock market meltdown that has lasted two months, it is to be expected that many people will invoke traditional religion for clairvoyance and guidance. But since when does any traditional religion ask us to pray before a golden calf?

Worshipping the Bronze Bull

OK, the object in question is actually a bronze bull. But the visual impression is the same. The only traditional religion of which I’ve heard that advocates worshipping metallic bovine effigies is the ancient Egyptian cult of Osiris — and, according to the Bible, when the Israelites fashioned such an effigy during their exodus from slavery in Egypt, suffering temporary amnesia about which god had freed them, The One God rather forcefully clarified it for them.

Followers of self-described prophet Cindy Jacobs bowed their heads in prayer before the bronze bull statue on Wall Street in New York last week. The Christian Broadcasting Network promoted it as a “a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies on Wednesday, October 29, 2008. They are calling for prayer for the stock markets, banks, and financial institutions of the world on the date the stock market crashed in 1929. They are meeting at the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, and its 12 principal branches around the US that day.”

The blog Pharyngula called this bullish prayer “peculiarly oblivious” in light of clear Biblical prohibition. That’s Exodus 32 as well as the second commandment* for you. (*Or first commandment, according to some Christian traditions. But idolatry is forbidden no matter which way you slice the Ten Commandments.)

These are troubled times, even desperate times for some. On the cusp of the election, I feel as if I am reaching the end of an ancient suffering only to face the prospect of an interminable schlep through a new desert. The analogy reminds me not to be so peculiarly oblivious.