The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
October 12, 2008
Vol. 11 no. 40

Everything But...
           What do you do with a golden calf, a big one? Those ceramic pigs placed all around downtown Regina several years did more good. We had a good laugh at some of the pigs and were impressed by their owner’s art work in some others. I haven’t found reason to laugh at a golden calf for the longest time. Why a calf, why not a bull or cow? Did anybody ever report these idol worshippers for the abuse of young animals?
           This story sounds so ancient and out of touch with our world that it almost makes us laugh. We have our own problems, but we would never be so dumb as to do that! Idols are just lumps of something, even if it is pure gold lumps. Intellectually we understand, but believe it or not, we don’t always act according to our intellects. The golden calf parodies how so often when face to face with real freedom, insecurity and unwillingness to take a risk forces many a person to choose slavery.
           I’ve always wondered why Aaron was not punished severely as a result of this escapade. The spare narrative reports that the frustrated, angry people demanded new gods from Aaron and he jumped right to the task, coming up with the idea of the golden calf, and making sure it was properly constructed. Then he slipped one by them, declaring that they would all participate on the morrow in a feast of the Lord. Wasn’t the point of all this that the calf wasn’t the Lord, a supposedly more effective substitute? Nobody objected, so in a way they ended up worshipping the Lord God they had rejected, though I doubt the Israelites were thinking of God while they danced. Yet when Moses came down from Sinai to rectify drastically the situation, Aaron wasn’t touched. Was he forgiven or conveniently overlooked? Given the golden parachute? This sounds contemporary.