The Next Step for Christian Big Thinkers: Part 2 May 1, 2008
Posted by Zack in Missouri | 21 commentsI grew up an atheist, but recently I have fallen in love with a movement that seems to be the most dynamic element of Christianity in American today. It’s a movement based on radical idealism, a faith that “all of creation will be redeemed.” These people are working toward a world with no poverty, no violence, no hatred or racism. And they believe they can do it. Even some of the most conservative evangelical churches are beginning shift away from the narrow, exclusive theology of “personal salvation” to a holistic gospel that calls Christians to build the “Kingdom of Heaven” right here on Earth. My whole life, I’ve been searching for a movement that has the guts to try to truly save the world. The progressive movement in which I grew up has been in a downward spiral of lowered expectations. Meanwhile, Christians are charging forward with revolutionary zeal—and are even calling themselves “revolutionaries”!
There is one big problem, though: These revolutionary Christians have adopted a theory of social change that is just as narrow and unimaginative as the old theology they just left behind.
Revolutionary Christians are throwing themselves into direct, person-to-person anti-poverty projects at home and around the world—sometimes with reckless abandon, sometimes with careful planning, but always with passion and love. And it’s a beautiful thing. It’s helping a lot of people, and it’s teaching wealthy Americans a lot about the world. (In this context, middle class Americans are wealthy.)
Even the Christians who are doing the most see that what they’re currently doing is not enough to really fix this broken world. And so they feel God’s call to do more. But most think that means only more of the same: dig more wells, fund more micro loans, build more schools and orphanages, etc… And for sure, God is calling us to do as much of that as we possibly can.
But a certain dogma regarding social change has taken hold of the Christian imagination, and limited it to only projects that are small, local, “relational” and that they can personally witness themselves. Those who have been bitten by this dogma go on the faith that, if we all just live as followers of Christ in our neighborhoods, churches and workplaces, then God will work out the rest. They believe it’s wrong to work for social change at the level of the whole society because that requires political power, and therefore leads to all kinds of messy compromises, unintended consequences and, ultimately, corruption.
For me, this selective limitation of imagination is heartbreaking because these are the only people I can find with an otherwise boundless imagination and faith that we can make the impossible possible. And it’s totally unnecessary.
This dogma, which is strangling the radical Christian imagination, has nothing to do with the Bible or any Christian tradition, but is actually just old-fashioned laissez-faire economic doctrine recast in a new role. We’ve been fed this doctrine all our lives in many forms, so it’s understandable that it should shape our instincts, usually without us even knowing it. (Those of us who went to college have been especially dumbed down by this doctrine.)
Radical Christians are dreaming of big, deep social transformations—such as reshaping a whole economy to make sure everyone has the means of making a living, and cleaning up the environment while we’re at it. Laissez-faire says that only families, small communities or individual companies can plan collectively, inside themselves, for goals like that. If you want any higher-level organization, then what you can do is form a “community of communities,” a trade association, or something like that, where no one member can be coerced by the larger body. The minute you try to plan on a social level, let alone a global level, then your on the road to serfdom with Stalin, Mao or…Caesar.
If you’ve read radical Christian writers like Shane Claiborne or Greg Boyd, that all sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? How did it happen that the global capitalists who party at Davos share the same fundamental ideology about society’s role in economics as the people camping out at Christian anarchist festivals?
Well, the doctrine of Laissez-fair is so alluring because it is so beautiful in its simplicity: Every individual, family, community and company only needs to take care of itself and act responsibly towards others*; if we would all just do that, then the big picture would take care of itself. It all goes back to Adam Smith (and a bunch of other classical economists) who created these ideas when feudalism was breaking down in order to justify the rising economic system that would eventually be called Capitalism. Nowadays, laissez-faire economists (also called neo-liberal, neo-classical and conservative) have math equations and charts to show how it works. But Smith said the “invisible hand” of God was the driver. In a way, laissez-faire is the big brother in economics of biology’s theory of “Intelligent Design.”
But is it biblical? Obviously, my answer is no. But before I get into that, let’s dig a little deeper into what exactly we’re talking about here.
Laissez-faire doctrine says that whenever society tries to organize and plan big solutions, it always fails. But for clarity’s sake, it’s important to understand that laissez-faire is OK with some types of organizing and planning. Most liberals and progressives believe in strong use of regulation and tax incentives to coax the economy in the right direction. And they believe in heavy investment in infrastructure (roads, research, etc…) and public services (schools, healthcare, etc…). All that is perfectly consistent with the laissez-faire doctrine, at least in it’s most honest form. If that sounds odd, just go to Frederick Hayek. He was the 20th century’s Godfather of laissez-faire who inspired and popularized the revival of the dogma after it had almost died out forever. Check out his book The Road to Serfdom in which he supports strong regulation, taxation for social services, socialized medicine, universal public education and more.
So, because of our upbringing/brainwashing in the laissez-faire ideology, we are OK with the society doing public services, regulation and tax incentives. But also because of that upbringing, we are terrified of the idea of we, as society, intentionally retooling our for-profit industries to make their impact on the environment sustainable, or to reduce the work week to give people more time with their families, or for any other non-accidental (a.k.a. “market-driven”) purpose.
The only way to do that kind of big transformation is with political power. And the rising generation of radical Christians are against anything that has to do with political power.
But, once again, is that biblical? I’ll have to get into that in the next installment.
Tags: anarchism, capitalism, economics, frederick hayek, greg boyd, Shane ClaiborneJesus for President, a book review for atheists; Part 1, What is Shane Claiborne? March 24, 2008
Posted by Zack in Pennsylvania | 6 commentsShane Claiborne has an exciting new book out called Jesus for President, this one co-authored with co-conspirator Chris Haw. It’s a beautifully designed, reframing of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation—sort of an activist introduction to a thing called Narrative Theology, which is all the rage among Christian Revolutionaries.
Last year, Shane gave me my single best piece evidence for convincing skeptics that something absolutely incredible is going on inside the church. First, I show them this picture (Shane, the speaker, is one of those specs down on stage). Some kind of right-wing Christian rally, right? It’s looks like they’re all on their feet reading something together off those screens. How fascist.
Then I play the audio. All those people—mostly white, Republican, Southern, born-again Christians—were on their feet reciting a “Litany of Resistance“. It was the end of a long sermon/lecture by Shane at at the Catalyst Conference in Georgia last year. The litany lasted about ten minutes (you can watch the whole thing here). Here’s one very short clip from it:
With governments that kill…
…we will not comply.
With the theology of empire…
…we will not comply.
With the business of militarism…
…we will not comply.
With the hoarding of riches
…we will not comply.
With the dissemination of fear
…we will not comply.
But today we pledge our allegiance to the kingdom of God…
…we pledge allegiance.
To the peace that is not like Rome’s…
…we pledge allegiance.
To the Gospel of enemy love
…we pledge allegiance.
To the poor and the broken…
…we pledge allegiance….
Usually the reaction I get is something like: “Huh… [long pause] How did that happen?”
In this case, it happened because Shane has been fearlessly, creatively and lovingly preaching that gospel of resistance from inside of mainstream Christianity. He doesn’t stand on the outside criticizing and condemning. As a result, people listen. Almost all the speakers at that three-day conference preached on social justice issues, but usually they remained just inside of the audience’s comfort zone. Shane crossed that line and kept on going, and going, and going. But he has a magical ability to keep people with him as he goes. After his talk, I heard kids clustered in the hallways grappling together with all the ideas he had introduced. It was an incredible thing.
But the truth is that same thing is happening all the time, all over the country, every day — at big Christian conferences, in living room Bible studies, in Bible college classrooms, in little churches and in mega churches. Shane has become one of the most famous and effective voices in this continuation and transformation of the church. But this was all happening long before Shane uneasily consented to glamour shots at Christian mega-publisher Zondervan.
Claiborne’s first and best-selling book, Irresistible Revolution, tells the story of his own journey from church youth group jock to radical follower of “the God of the oppressed.” It begins with trembling first outings to the midnight streets of Philadelphia with his Bible college buddies. (They asked “What Would Jesus Do?” and, after studying the Bible, concluded: Hang out with homeless people, drug addicts and prostitutes.) He takes detours to work with Mother Teresa and intern at a “seeker sensitive” mega church in Chicago. Eventually, he returns to Philadelphia to co-found a Christian commune that humbly attempts to live in solidarity with and support of the poor and oppressed of a broken neighborhood.
Shane’s story comes out of an organic and spontaneous movement. When I was telling activist theologian Brian Walsh about all the different places I was seeing this movement sprout up, he said, “So it’s a movement of the spirit.” That means something that God is making happen all over the place at the same time—and that sure is what it feels like.
Irresistible Revolution is still making its way deeper and deeper into the heart of mainstream Christianity. I have seen it discussed in several Bible study groups and Sunday school classes—even in conservative and rural churches. Some say it changed the course of their life. Others say it “challenged” them to think differently about God. Reading the book communally has spurred some churches to reach “outside of the four walls” to get involved more deeply in their community.
And then there are the young Christians who were already living out stories very similar to Shane’s. They’re usually thrilled to realize that they are in fact part of a large movement. But they’re also made uneasy by the possibility that their own radical choices are just part of a passing fad to be commoditized by the very “Christian Industrial Complex” that Shane rants against the first chapter of the book. In Irresistible Revolution, Shane gives voice to a generation of young Christians who aspire to live wildly and dangerously selfless lives. But one of the ethics of that life is that you don’t go seeking credit. Shane himself wrestles with the contradiction in an author’s note at the beginning of the book. Sensing he is about to become one, he argues the last thing the world needs is another Christian subculture superstar.
In that respect, Jesus for President is the perfect companion to Irresistible Revolution. Having unexpectedly captured the attention of mainstream Christianity, Shane and Chris don’t water down their politics or theology one bit. Instead, they deepen and broaden their radicalism. In Irresistible Revolution, it still sounded romantic when Shane said, “Jesus didn’t fix my life, he wrecked it.” It seems to be possible for some to read that book and conclude the Gospel is just about helping others. In Jesus for President, Shane and Chris unambiguously take aim at capitalism and empire; and they are much more explicit that Jesus calls upon his followers to actively resist systems and structures of oppression in ways that will ultimately put you in danger.
Since Irresistible Revolution, Shane has been speaking at tons of Christian conferences and mega churches. The more sharply he delivers his message, the more invitations he seems to get. I imagine he probably gets scolded by his hosts from time to time, but there are many in the audience electrified by what they hear. Christians recognize him as a prophet. And even the crankiest of conservative preachers knows that a prophet’s job is to say things people don’t want to hear. In that way, a certain kind of radicalism is built into Christianity. And Shane is taking it about as far as it goes.
OK, so that’s an introduction to the Shane Claiborne phenomenon. In part two of this review I’ll focus on Jesus for President itself.
Tags: Chris Haw, irresistible revolution, Jesus for President, Shane ClaiborneCommunities and their stories March 21, 2008
Posted by Zack in Pennsylvania | 2 commentsI spent part of this week visiting with a community in Joplin, MO. A few different circles of friends, classmates, neighbors, church members & leaders, professors and students there are up to all kinds of amazing things. I’m hoping to write a big story about how all the pieces fit together.
One of the pieces is a neighborhood project that has students and young couples from a church and Bible college moving into a broken neighborhood and helping out. It’s been a story similar to the one told in Shane Claiborne’s Irresistible Revolution about the Simple Way community. Except, the people in Joplin mostly only heard about Shane & his book recently, and most still haven’t read the book. One who read the book remarked it made her realize that she was part of a “movement of the spirit” happening all over the place.
I hope that story telling somehow becomes a new standard part of these Christian communities. Because these Christians are so focused on being humble, and not going for credit, they shy away from telling the world about what they’re doing. Even in the churches that support neighborhood efforts like the one I visited in Joplin, there are usually only brief announcements on occasional Sundays — let alone public blogging and book writing.
Through Shane’s books, as well as blogs, and videos like the ones below (by Jamie Moffett), people have been able to follow the trials and successes of the tiny Simple Way community in Kensington, Philadelphia. Shouldn’t there be a way to follow a whole bunch of similar communities? We need some kind of new RSS feeds that go to whole communities, not just blogs. How would that work?
Tags: Joplin, Shane Claiborne, Simple WayAmazon: Revolutionary Christianity #1 “radical political doctrine,” #2 “political philosphy” February 14, 2008
Posted by Zack in Pennsylvania | 4 commentsI just think this is kind of funny. These are Amazon best seller rankings for the three categories in which Shane Claiborne’s Irresistible Revolution is high up top:
Shane’s book came out two years ago. And yet it’s consistently in the top 1000 sellers on Amazon — which is pretty amazing in itself. But how funny is it that a born again Christian’s book is the #1 work of “radical political doctrine” and the #2 work of “political philosophy” among Amazon customers?
Maybe it’s a quirk of Amazon categories. Or maybe it says something about the left: that born again Christians are the only radicals anymore with a mass audience.
Tags: Amazon, politics, Shane ClaiborneJesus for President December 8, 2007
Posted by Zack in Pennsylvania | 6 commentsShane Claiborne, one of the most compelling voices of the Revolution sweeping “Jesusland,” is still taking applications for stops in his “Jesus for President” tour. He, Chris Haw and other friends will be visiting dozens of communities this Summer, at the height of the U.S. presidential campaign season, stirring up a different kind of politics. Just what kind of politics they’ll be advocating, I have no idea—except that it will be a challenge both to non-Christians and Christians alike.
This tour is an event to keep your eye on. Each of their stops (they’re criss crossing the nation in a veggie oil powered bus) will likely attract thousands of young (and old) Christian seekers. These will be people who have found Jesus, as the “God of the oppressed,” but are now seeking a way to live out a gospel that was forged in ancient Israel, at the periphery of a global empire, in today’s America, in the belly of a global empire. The subhead of the tour is: “Visiting cities across the empire. Summer 2008.”
You can still request a visit from the Jesus for President tour in your city at jesusforpresident.org. Check out the form below—it’s a really cool way to set up a tour.
Here’s their app for stops:
unChristian at Catalyst October 4, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | 4 commentsThe final session of the Catalyst “lab day” last night was fascinating. Gabe Lyons, of the Fermi Project, and David Kinnaman, of the Barna research group, teamed up a couple years ago to study perceptions of Christians among young non-Christians (as well as young Christians too). They turned the study into a book, unChrsitian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters. In the final session last night, Gabe and David presented the research, and then brought up Shane Claiborne and Rick McKinley, two Christians who have done a lot to reach outside of the Church, to join them in discussion.
David reminded the audience several times that results of big-study research are hugely complex, and warned against over-simplification.
So I don’t want to oversimplify.
HOWEVER, one thing really stood out, and subtly became the main focus of the evening forum. Apparently, all the anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives and other anti-gay campaigning have really been ravaging the perception of Christianity among the general public, and even among young Christians. He showed one graph that showed favorability ratings over the past several decades for gays shooting up from low single digits to 33% today. (That might have been just among young people, I can’t remember.)
Meanwhile, right along with that, the favorability rating for “evangelicals” among the same group plummeted from high numbers to 3%! David didn’t argue for a direct correlation between those two numbers. But he talked about how today most young people know openly gay people, and they are having a hard time reconciling what their church says and their valued relationships.
He gave an anecdote from the research of one person who said he was sitting in church, with a gay friend who they had brought, and the pastor was preaching that “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”
This topic requires a long, in-depth article, not a blog post. But you could hear a pin drop at moments last night, as the audience (a couple thousand strong) wrestled with the results. Shane and Rick gently danced around a different—more loving—way of relating to gays. But they weren’t arguing that homosexuality was Biblical. Looking around the audience, some people looked thrilled and enthusiastic about what Shane and Rick were saying. Others looked troubled.
At one point, Shane gave a rousing and beautiful little speech that closed with something like, “We need to be able to disagree with each other and with others, and still love each other.” Maybe 1/5 or 2/5 of the audience applauded enthusiastically. The rest sat still. I saw one head shaking.
Don’t misunderstand: that head that was shaking almost certainly would agree with the cliche “love the sinner, hate the sin.” In other words, he believes in loving gay people, but thinks homosexuality is “not the way God meant us to live,” right along with pre-marital sex. What he probably disagreed with was that his church should tolerate open and practicing gays as a member of the community. (Shane had earlier explicitly argued that the church must welcome gays.)
So, is the Christian right (with its high profile anti-gay campaigning) shooting the Church in the foot? That 3% favorability rating sure suggests it. There is a new generation, a new guard, who are trying to undo the damage by practicing “uncensored grace”. If Catalyst is any indication, they are well placed, and well prepared to succeed.
Tags: Barna group, Catalyst, Catalyst conference, David Kinnaman, Gabe Lyons, Rick McKinley, Shane Claiborne, unChristian
