[Referring to Revelation] "The world around John is detestable according to Rome's standards (Rome was certainly 'respectable') but, according to the standards of his great prophetic tradition, flowing backwards from Jesus, to David, to Elijah, and to Moses, the economy of Rome is not worthy of God's creation, according to this tradition. Rather, we should look to Moses' anti-imperial politics of debt-forgiveness, land redistribution, welcoming immigrants, keeping honest scales in the market, not charging interest or defrauding your neighbor, and helping even one's enemies - all of it worlds apart from the Roman empire.
And for the early Christians this was a major point of debate: Can they eat meat and wine of Rome? Can they eat the food that is polluted by the imperial cult?
...It is not easy to pull out of a relationship of dependency and romance. of lavish gifts and captivating beauty, especially with a bride as beautiful as Rome."
Now, substitute all occurrences of the word "Rome" with "America".
"We may live in the best Babylon in the world... but it is still Babylon and we are called to come out of her." - Tony Campolo*
( *See SImple Living)
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