For Rome, pietas or piety ran straight from the family hearth into the public piazza and to the shrines and temples and all the way to Rome itself. There was no distinction made between military might, political rulers and emperors, politics, and religion. Empire and religion were woven together into a seamless whole. To become a dissident living against the grain of the Babylons of our world, Christians need to have eyes to detect the presence of anti-God systems and institutions.
