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

by Michael J. Gorman

I would contend, in fact, that the most alluring and dangerous deity in the United States is the omnipresent, syncretistic god of nationalism mixed with Christianity lite: religious beliefs, language, and practices that are superficially Christian but infused with national myths and habits.

Babylon is allegorical of the idolatry that any nation commits when it elevates material abundance, military prowess, technological sophistication, imperial grandeur, racial pride, and any other glorification of the creature over the Creator . . .

Without a close connection to the church’s saints and martyrs, Christians will often follow the cultural norm and make their nation state (or tribe or race), rather than the Gospel, that ultimate.