“I truly believe we can overwhelm the darkness of this world by shining something brighter and more beautiful…our world is desperately in need of imagination, for we have spent so much creatvity devising ways destroying our enemies that some folks don’t even think it’s possible (much less practical) to love them.”

There have been few books that have been as provocative as Claiborne’s book. As one of the primary architects/revolutionaries behind The Simple Way, the book is his group’s manifesto.

In it, you’ll read with edge-of-your-seat incredulity as he describes ministry activities in some of Baghdad’s bombed-out poor neighborhods, in India alongside of Mother Theresa and to lepers and also as an intern on staff at Willow Creek Community Church, one of America’s largest mega-churches.

His observations of American Christianity will have you nodding, and you’ll be amazed at the grace he shows in his assessment of our consumerism-consumed church culture. I would have been far harsher, I think.

However, some of Claiborne’s conclusions are still taking chip shots at some previously-unquestioned assumptions:

Claiborne says, and these will be proof-texted and summarized:
There is such thing as “just war” for the follower of Christ. Using Jesus’ examples of non-retribution, Claiborne goes so far as to say that our nation’s response to 9/11 was tragically anti-Christian.
He says that the prevailing mindset of Christians in our country is unbiblical and continues to unquestioningly support the “arrogant myth of redemptive violence.”
Claiming that the “monologue of the religious right is finally over,” he urges serious attention to Jesus’ teaching, words, and lifestyle. The biblically-guided believer cannot, he emphasizes, continue in blind support of one political party over the other today.
American churchgoers are consumed with preserving their own lives and comfort, in direct opposition to Jesus’ words that “he who seeks to save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” Claiborne says that the believers should stride boldly toward the war-torn places on earth, toward the poor and imprisoned, just as Jesus did.

In a powerful quote from one of his college professors,
“All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance; just don’t tiptoe.”

Claiborne also shares stories about intentional Christian communities springing up all over the world to literally practice ministry to the poor, outcast, overlooked and disenfranchised. He has a lot to say about redistribution of wealth, which upon first reading sounded like socialist or Marxist propaganda. However, Claiborne is able to share stirring biblical evidence for the radical importance of our churches’ need to seriously reevaluate our ministry to the poor.

I’m still processing, I confess; however, I deeply appreciate any book, thinker, or leader that simply does that… make me think deeply. While I am not stepping forward to embrace all that Claiborne advocates, I am moving forward. No one can say that they are following Christ and stay where they are.

With this book, I like that Shane Claiborne gives a voice to those dissatisfied with the various churches of society but still passionate about following the teachings of Jesus Christ. He gives us vocabulary to use to label ourselves, to speak with others, to address the issues at hand. He’s earnest in his ideas without being overly judgemental. Although I found this book somewhat tedious, a little repetitive, and just a bit disorganized, overall, the message is a good and useful one. If you’re too much of a grammar freak, too pedantic to see past syntax and into the heart of the matter, then this book will frustrate you to no end. If you’re interested in a new kind of Christianity, one that honors love and peace and Jesus’s teachings over tithing and confessions and judgement, then this is definitely the book for you. I hope it’ll convince you to give away everything you don’t need and join Shane in his irresistible revolution.

Quotes I like – will write more later:

“There is a movement bubbling up…a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of” (24)

“It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that scare me, but the parts I do understand” (40, attributed to Mark Twain)

”’We are called not to be successful but to be faithful.’ That sounds good, but it was the beginning of my years of struggling with the tension between efficiency and faithfulness. I remembered Ghandi’s saying that what we are doing may seem insignificant, but it is most important that we do it.” (78)

“We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.” (113)

“If you ask most people what Christians believe, they can tell you, ‘Christians believe that Jesus is God’s Son and that Jesus rose from the dead.’ But if you ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life. Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way. And doctrine is not very attractive, even if it’s true. Few people are interested in a religion that has nothing to say to the world and offers them only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death.
As my teacher Tony Campolo used to ask, ‘Even if there were no heaven and there were no hell, would you still follow Jesus? Would you follow him for the life, joy, and fulfillment he gives you right now?’” (117)

“We have narrowed our vision to this: love God, love people, and follow Jesus” (121)

“Simplicity is meaningful ony inasmuch as it is grounded in love, authentic relationships, and interdependence.” (143)

“The tragedy of the church’s reaction to September 11th is not that we rallied around the families in New York and D.C. but that our love simply reflected the borders and allegiances of the world. We mourned the deaths of each soldier, as we should, but we did not feel the same anger and pain for each Iraqi death, or for the folks abused in the Abu Ghraib prison incident. We got farther and farther from Jesus’s vision, which extends beyond our rational love and the boundaries we have established. There is no doubt that we must mourn those lives lost on September 11th. We must mourn the lives of the soldiers. But with the same passion and outrage, we must mourn the lives of every Iraqi who is lost. They are just as precious, no more, no less. In our rebirth, every life lost in Iraq is just as tragic as a life lost in New York or D.C. And the lives of the thirty thousand children who die of starvation each day is like six September 11ths every single day, a silent tsunami that happens every week.” (203-204)

“Sometimes people ask me if I am scared, living in the inner city. I usually reply, ‘I’m more scared of the suburbs.’ The Scriptures say that we should not fear those things which can destroy the body, but we are to fear that which can destroy the soul (Matt. 10:28). While the ghettos may have their share of violence and crime, the suburbs are the home of the more subtle demonic forces – numbness, complacency, comfort – and it is these that can eat away at our souls.” (227)

“The person who loves their dream of community wil destroy community [even if their intentions are ever so earnest], but the person who loves those around them will create community.” (320, attributed to Dietrick Bonhoeffer)