Out of our faith in gold, we build ourselves the golden calf: Mammonism, capitalism, profit economy. And out of our drive toward power and violence and our faith in them, we develop militarism and imperialism. We revere the flag as a sign of the divinity of the nation. We elevate blood and soil, nation and race, and even the state to a godly status. Out of our sensuality rises the idol of prostitution. All of these we elevate to a cult full of symbols. We serve Baal, who binds people to their unredeemed nature, to the sex drive, to alcohol, and even to sport. We serve Moloch, who demands that people be sacrificed.
The fruit of idolatry is always dehumanization of people, servitude, prostitution, elimination of opposition, decay, and death. When one remains true to God one has in him all that one needs: fulfillment, joy, strength, power. God fills with his infinity the infinite longing of the soul. If man separates himself from God, however, then his soul is filled with greed, and this greed seizes everything for itself in order to consume it.
Leonhard Ragatz in Signs of the Kingdom: A Ragatz Reader, 108 (1943).