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GUEST: Erin Runions is Associate Professor at Pomona College in Religious Studies and Gender Studies, and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies. She is the author of several books on the intersection of biblical interpretation and culture. She has also been an activist for many years, working on police brutality and prison injustice, globalization, antiwar activism, feminist and queer organizing.

At a national prayer breakfast in 2010, President Obama reflected on the devastating earthquake in Haiti that had just taken place, saying, “We become numb to the day-to-day crises. We become absorbed with our abstract arguments, our ideological disputes, our contests for power. And in this Tower of Babel, we lose the sound of God’s voice.”

Babylon, and its related biblical symbolism are popular features among both conservatives and liberals in the US. It is a favorite metaphorical device of Pat Buchanan. And, according to my guest, Erin Runions, it is a useful lens through which to examine the contradictions of the current American political landscape, on issues such as war, militarism, capitalism, global trade, sex, and sexuality. Her new book is called The Babylon Complex: Theopolitical Fantasies of War, Sex, and Sovereignty.