The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical - Tapa blanda

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Shane Claiborne is an activist, author of Jesus for President, coauthor of Common Prayer, and is a founder of The Simple Way, a community in inner-city Philadelphia that has helped birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. 

 www.thesimpleway.org

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Living as an Ordinary Radical

Many of us find ourselves caught somewhere between unbelieving activists and inactive believers. We can write a check to feed starving children or hold signs in the streets and feel like we've made a difference without ever encountering the faces of the suffering masses. In this book, Shane Claiborne describes an authentic faith rooted in belief, action, and love, inviting us into a movement of the Spirit that begins inside each of us and extends into a broken world. Shane's faith led him to dress the wounds of lepers with Mother Teresa, visit families in Iraq amidst bombings, and dump $10,000 in coins and bills on Wall Street to redistribute wealth. Shane lives out this revolution each day in his local neighborhood, an impoverished community in North Philadelphia, by living among the homeless, helping local kids with homework, and “practicing resurrection” in the forgotten places of our world.

Shane's message will comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable . . . but will also invite us into an irresistible revolution. His is a vision for ordinary radicals ready to change the world with little acts of love.

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The Irresistible RevolutionCopyright 2006 by The Simple WayRequests for information should be addressed to:Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataClaiborne, Shane, 1975 --The irresistible revolution: living as an ordinary radical / ShaneClaiborne. --- 1st ed.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references.ISBN-10: 0-310-26630-0ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26630-31. Claiborne, Shane, 1975 -- 2. Simple Way (Religious community:Philadelphia, Pa.) --- Biography. 3. Christian biography --- United States.4. Christian life --- United States. 5. Church and the world. I. Title.BR1725.C472A3 2006277'.3'083092 dc222005029961All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HolyBible, Today's New International VersionTM. Copyright 2001 by InternationalBible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as aresource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply anendorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for their content forthe life of this book.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored ina retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means --- electronic,mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other --- except for brief quotationsin printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.Interior design by Michelle EspinozaPrinted in the United States of AmericaIt's what always happens to the saints and prophets who are dangerous: we bronze them, we drain themof their passion and life and trap them in stained-glass windows and icons, confining them safely in memories of the past. St. Francis becomes a birdbath, Malcolm Xis put on a stamp, and Martin Luther King gets a holiday.And Jesus gets commercialized, whether it's theplastic night-lights or the golden crucifixes. (And nowthere is a bobbing-head 'Buddy Jesus' for your car andthe 'Jesus is my homeboy' T-shirt.) It becomes hardto know who Jesus really is, much less to imagine thatJesus ever laughed, cried, or had poop that smelled.I can remember when Christianitywas still safe, comfortable, trendy. I grew up in the Bible Belt, in EastTennessee, where there's a church building on nearlyevery corner. I can't remember meeting anyone Jewishor Muslim, and I distinctly remember being dissuadedfrom dating a Catholic girl because she 'prayed toMary.' I attended two or three different youth groups,whichever had the best entertainment and drew thelargest crowd. Church was a place where there werecute girls, free junk food, and cheap snowboardingtrips. I discovered a Christianitythat entertained me with quirky songs and velcro walls.1In middle school, I had a sincere 'conversion'experience. We took a trip to a large Christian festivalwith bands, speakers, and late-night pranks. One nighta short, bald preacherman named Duffy Robbins gavean invitation to 'accept Jesus,' and nearly our wholeyouth group went forward (a new concept for mostof us), crying and snotting, hugging peoplewe didn't know. I was born again. The next year, we went to thatsame festival, and most of us went forward again (itwas so good the first time) and got born again, again.In fact, we looked forward to it every year. I must havegotten born again six or eight times, and it was greatevery time. (I highly recommend it.)But then you start to think there must be more toChristianity, more than just laying your life and sins atthe foot of the cross. I came to realize that preachers were telling me to lay my life at the foot of the cross and weren't giving me anything to pick up. A lot of us were hearing 'don't smoke, don't drink, don't sleeparound' and naturally started asking, 'Okay, well, thatwas pretty much my life, so what do I do now?' Wherewere the do's? And nobody seemed to have much tooffer us. Handing out tracts at the mall just didn't seemlike the fullness of Christian discipleship, not to mentionit just wasn't as fun as making out at the movies.I was just another believer. I believed all the rightstuff --- that Jesus is the Son of God, died and rose again. Ihad become a 'believer,' but I had no idea what it means to be a follower. Peoplehad taught me what Christians believe, but no one had told me how Christians live.So as we do in our culture, I thought perhaps Ineeded to buy more stuff, Christian stuff. Luckily, Ifound an entire Christian industrial complex ready tohelp with Christian music, bumper stickers, T-shirts,books, and even candy ('Testamints' . . . dead serious .. . mints with a Bible verse attached, candy with aChristian aftertaste). They had lists of bands and theChristian alternatives to them, so I got rid of all my oldCDs. (And I must confess, I was a bit disappointed bythe Christian counterfeit. Who could compare to Guns N' Roses and Vanilla Ice?)