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I’ve been reading more from Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution, a book I’ve been wanting to read ever since my Bostonian friend was raving like a lunatic about it last Spring. Claiborne is a Christ-ian; a radical follower of Christ. Although he would twinge at the word “radical”, since he sees what he is doing as the ordinary - this is what people who actually follow Jesus’ teachings are supposed to do. Just listen to a few of his words: “We hang out with kids and help them out with homework in our living room, and jump in open fire hydrants on hot summer days. We share food with those who need it, and eat the beans and rice our neighbor Ms. Sunshine makes for us…We reclaim abandoned lots and make gardens amid the concrete wreckage around us…We hang out on the streets. We get fined for distributing food. We go to jail for sleeping under the stars…We wrestle to free ourselves from macrocharity and distant acts of charity that serve to legitimize apathetic lifestyles of good intentions but rob us of the gift of community.”
Christians have become a society of individuals with “good intentions”. We write checks to charities, who hand out government cheese. We donate clothes to Goodwill, or serve at a soup kitchenand feel like we’ve contributed to the homeless “problem” in our city. We head out on short-term missions trips, and return telling others how “blessed” we are. What a sham. I’m convinced that until we begin to truly KNOW the poor we’ve been serving across a desk or a checkbook, we wont be able to ask the bigger, more systemic questions like “Why is he poor and I am not?” That question cut you to the heart. Claiborne says, “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.” I don’t think Jesus was all about personal piety and “feeling good”. His mission went way beyond that. Know this! There will be more written on this book coming from this site! Culture, Giving, Gospel in Action, Holistic Faith, Homeless, Irresistible Revolution, justice, Resources, systemic oppression wisdom teethCulture, Giving, Gospel in Action, Holistic Faith, Homeless, Irresistible Revolution, justice, Resources, systemic oppression, wisdom teeth
Original content by: http://www2.godgrown.net:8881/2006/10/19/fishing-for-justice/.
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Scott Bartchy is a radical. He believes in a subversive system that embraces those on the fringes of our society and seeks to establish a new way of life that goes against the status quo.