Being Radical by Just Being

Jarrod’s post about Brian McLaren reminded me to post up a link to Shane Claiborne’s book The Irresistible Revolution. I’ve only read the excerpt from ch5 (3.1mb pdf) but wow! What great stuff.

A few powerful quotes:

Charity wins awards and applause, but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for charity. People are crucified for living out a love that disrupts the social order, that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.

and

We are about ending poverty, not simply managing it. We give people fish. We teach them to fish. We tear down the walls that have been built up around the fish pond. And we figure out who polluted it.

The chapter is full of anecdotes about living in an urban slum in Philadelphia. The Simple Way community is just trying to keep it simple: love God, love people, follow Jesus. The ‘constructive program’ of nonviolence at work.

Shane and the gang at the Simple Way remind me of a great phrase, I think from Daniel Berrigan, about how we need to start “living as if the truth was really true” – sounds like they do just that.

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