TEN YEARS GONE: The Woman and the City (Revised)

 

When Culture Seduces Power — and the Church Must Decide

First published Saturday, December 5, 2015. Revised February 23, 2026.

And the woman whom you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.

— Revelation 17:18

Revelation does not whisper.

The woman — the harlot — is not merely an individual. She is a city. A system. A culture with influence so vast that it shapes kings themselves.

In 2015, I dared to wonder whether this could describe America. Not its founding. Not its moments of courage or sacrifice. But its current trajectory — its appetites, its self-confidence, its cultural intoxication.

And ten years later, that question feels less inflammatory and more inevitable.

The harlot in Revelation is not defined by one sin. She is defined by seduction. She intoxicates nations. She offers influence, belonging, pleasure, prestige. She promises that alignment with her guarantees relevance and safety.

That spirit is not limited to one ideology.

The Right sees harlotry in moral collapse — sexual libertinism, abortion, broken homes, celebrity excess.
The Left sees harlotry in greed — environmental destruction, exploitation, hoarded wealth, systemic injustice.

Both critiques may contain truth.

But Revelation’s warning is not ultimately about which list is correct. It is about alliance.

The harlot rides the beast. Culture rides power. Influence partners with force. And together they wage war — not always violently, but persistently — against the Church.

The tragedy is not that Babylon exists. It always has.
The tragedy is when the Body of Christ fractures and begins defending the harlot from within.

Imagine something far more disruptive:

What if Christians on the Right took seriously the Left’s warnings about greed and injustice?
What if Christians on the Left took seriously the Right’s warnings about moral collapse?
What if both agreed that seduction by cultural dominance — whether political, economic, or sexual — is the deeper danger?

That union would be a force neither beast nor city could absorb.

Revelation does not predict that unity. But it does imply something sobering: when the Church mirrors the city, it becomes vulnerable to the city’s fall.

When the Body is divided, it can be wounded.
When it is whole, it cannot be easily subdued.

The harlot is powerful.
But she is not eternal.