The Importance of Civic Engagement in the Roman Empire

"I get this question a lot that we can't map the Roman Empire onto America," he says. "We just always need to be very suspicious of the deep, seated, multilayered differences between the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of God." The church is political; every time we come to church together, right? How do we greet one another? Brother, sister?! That's not a religious statement. That's a political statement. Fail to participate in the civic liturgies is a pretty risky thing to do".