We worship the gobble-god. …

We worship him everywhere. We call him by different titles and commit blasphemies in the name of worship. We were given magic to use in creating wonder, and the gobble-god has sucked it dry. His followers reject mystery and madness and marvel. They cannot tolerate questions. They can believe any answer, no matter how false, so long as it is a certainty nailed firmly onto the cross of money. They yearn for the rapture to come, without knowing that they have killed rapture forever. …

the Holy One, Blessed be He, will not forgive mankind for that.

From Beauty, by Sheri S. Tepper (Bantam edition, 1992)