Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation

by Michael J. Gorman

These are strong words, and not everyone will agree with them, though numerous significant North American interpreters of Revelation have drawn similar conclusions. Mainstream biblical scholars who have taught Revelation in places as varied as South America and India have found their students connecting the beast of Revelation 13 to the U.S.35 More popularly, but no less insightfully, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove recounts his experience of America as Babylon while traveling in the actual land of Babylon (Iraq) with Christian Peacemaker Teams during and after the 2003 U.S. invasion of that country.36 Howard-Brook and Gwyther draw sophisticated parallels between Roman and contemporary manifestations of empire in “global capital,” in which the U.S. of course participates, but according to them neither the U.S. nor any other nation is the world’s dominant empire any longer.37 Is the United States an empire? That depends on several factors, including one’s definition of empire. I would offer the following definition for consideration: An entity that has come to widespread (global or nearly global) dominance through deliberate expansion by means of the extreme exercise of some form(s) of power—economic, political, military, and/or religious—resulting in the creation of colony-like clients of the entity and of enemies who perceive the entity as oppressive. Howard-Brook and Gwyther cite the following as evidence that the United States has at least had “imperial earmarks”: “slave labo...