Postcards from Babylon: The Church In American Exile

by Brian Zahnd

But haughty arrogance leading to insanity is not unique to Babylon, rather it’s a template imitated by empires throughout history. According to the New York Times Magazine, in 2002 a senior White House advisor told a journalist, We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors ...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.[12] “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” Really? Creating “your own reality” could be a textbook definition of insanity. Reality is ontological being—and being is a gift from God. We can no more create our own reality than we can create our own universe. We may think we can, but that’s a form of insanity.