Why, why did the awful event befall us [the destruction in Jerusalem in 586 BCE]? Why was the Temple reduced to rubble, the city sacked, noncombatants murdered, survivors driven into exile? . . . Because we had sinned, the poet insisted. Because long since we had fallen to idolatries, to worship of money and weaponry and domination and betrayal.
Hold the mirror, dare to look! In massive falling away, we came to resemble the idolatrous nations surrounding us.
— Daniel Berrigan, Lamentations