This week minister Aaron Hill begins a new series entitled Identity Politics, during which he will examine ways people in Bible times interact with their culture and respond to the politics of their day and how that relates to how we respond to politics in our time.

In this first episode, Hill uses the text from Daniel 1 to illustrate the way political power worked in Daniel's day. King Nebuchadnezzar besieges Israel and takes captive many of the people, taking them away to exile. In this process, the Babylonians do everything possible to separate their prisoners from their identity. They try to educate them in Babylon's wisdom even giving them new names. What is the prisoners' response? They cling to the God of Israel, not taking the easy path of accepting Babylonian culture as their new normal.

How does this relate to us? We battle culture daily. Do we support the politics of the donkey or the elephant? What about the politics of the Lamb? Are we Christians who crucify our Christian identity in favor of our political identity and let that determine how we live? Whom do we trust? God or politics?