"And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it."

"Ironically, if the United States is truly sliding down a slippery moral slope, that may better allow the church - is it did in Rome and also in China - to set up "a new sign... which is full of promise." I would prefer, I must admit, to live in a country where the majority of people follow the Ten Commandments, act with civility toward each other, and bow their heads once a day for a bland, nonpartisan prayer. I feel a certain nostalgia for the social climate of the 1950s in which I grew up. But if that environment does not return, I will not lose any sleep. As America slides, I will work and pray for the kingdom of God to advance. If the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church, the contemporary political scene hardly offers much threat."

-Philip Yancey

The politics of Rome were virtually irrelevant to the kingdom of God.