Shane Claiborne
Shane Claiborne
Shane Claiborneis a Christian activist and author who is a leading figure in the New Monasticism movement and one of the founding members of the intentional community, the Simple Way, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Claiborne is also a social activist, advocating for nonviolence and service to the poor. He is the author of the book, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth11 July 1975
CountryUnited States of America
Prayer is not so much about convincing God to do what we want God to do as it is about convincing ourselves to do what God wants us to do.
We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy, too. But I guess that's why God invented highlighers, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.
A pastor friend of mine said, "Our problem is that we no longer have martyrs. We only have celebrities.
We have been mentored from the very beginning by Catholic folks who are invigorating the best of the monastic spirit.
Only Jesus would be crazy enough to suggest that if you want to become the greatest, you should become the least. Only Jesus would declare God's blessing on the po0r rather than on the rich and would insist that it's not enough to just love your friends. I just began to wonder if anybody still believed Jesus meant those things he said.
Jesus taught us a prayer of community and reconciliation, belonging to a new people who have left the land of 'me'.
Our churches should attract the people Jesus attracted and frustrate the people Jesus frustrated.
God doesn't want to change the world without you.
Violence is for those who have lost their imagination.
Little movements of communities of ordinary radicals are committed to doing small things with great love.
I wondered if there were other restless people asking the question with me: What if Jesus meant the stuff he said?.
But what had lasting significance were not the miracles themselves but Jesus' love. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, and a few years later, Lazarus died again. Jesus healed the sick, but eventually caught some other disease. He fed the ten thousands, and the next day they were hungry again. But we remember his love. It wasn't that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers.
When the church takes affairs of the state more seriously than they do Jesus, Pax Romana becomes its gospel and the president becomes the Son of God.
I'm just not convinced that Jesus is going to say, "When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way and they fed me.