Greed

 I've been reading the Revised Common Lectionary every day. And there are usually Old Testament reading. And usually the prophets are railing against the Israelites about this and that. I don't mind when they fault people for cheating or mistreating the poor. But I got to thinking about when they chastise people about praying to Baal or Ashtoreth. Basically, the priests at the temple wanted everyone to come to the temple at Jerusalem to pray and bring their money. But the poor can't always afford to quit their job for two weeks to trek to Jerusalem, so they set up a little carved idol in their house or on a hill close by to pray to and it was cutting into the priests' profits. So from now on, when the Bible says, God or the Lord doesn't like this or that, I'm going to read, the priests at the temple don't like this or that.