Worshipping Greed - Cause and Effect?

So, the wave of rioting and looting spreading across the country reached Leicester last night, with gangs rampaging through Gallowtree Gate and with the window of Jacobs, the camera shop stove in and the stock stolen.

The television studios are full of people being asked the question "why?" One answer, which seemed to make sense was the way that people have been encouraged to worship greed for the last 20 years – greed dressed up in the names of consumerism, acquisitiveness and market economics. This idea of what constitutes “worth” can only be more distressing in the face of poverty, unemployment and deprivation. We have seen the consequences of greed in the City finance houses. Are we now seeing it on our High Streets?

But at the same time as the rise of the worship of greed, the worship of God has been decreasing dramatically. God is a God of love but he's also a God of standards. Those who love him will want to follow his standards – which puts an absolute no! no! to robbery and burning people’s houses. But recognition of God as authority is a position that people have turned away from – encouraged by intellectual middle-class atheists. Now we are reaping the consequences.

Jesus himself compared the worship of God and the worship of Money and declared that one had to be your priority. You cannot serve both.

Sadly, are we seeing the consequences of a society that has chosen money – greed.