I missed this story last December, but perhaps many of you did too. The advocacy group Catholics United, who had in October taken the phrase "idolatry of the market" to heart and manufactured a "golden calf" to resemble the famous Wall St. bull, brought the golden bull to Washington.calf-capitolTheir application of the term "idolatry" to some mechanisms of a disordered market was not new (e.g., Blessed John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, no. 40), but the prophetic action with a symbolic idol was certainly innovative. After the group took the golden bull to Wall St. last October, they processed it to Speaker Boehner's office, along with a petition in support of a financial transaction tax (H.R. 3313). They presented the petition to an aide.I confess not knowing enough at this time about the bill to know exactly how it would affect the financial sector. But as a biblical scholar, I have to admire the tactics. Ezekiel would be so proud.

Michael Peppard is associate professor of theology at Fordham University and on the staff of its Curran Center for American Catholic Studies. He is the author of The World's Oldest Church and The Son of God in the Roman World, and on Twitter @MichaelPeppard. He is a contributing editor to Commonweal.

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