Featured Story

week of September 14, 2019

Another World is Possible

Condensed from Introduction to The Irresistible Revolution

by Shane Claiborne

What do we do when the foolishness of the cross actually makes more sense than the wisdom of the sword? What if a fragile world is more attracted to God’s vision of interdependence and sacrificial sharing than to the mirage of independence and materialism? What do we do when we are the ones who have gone sane in a crazy world?

When my dear friend and coconspirator Jim Wallis wrote his book God’s Politics, many of us were astonished when it jumped onto the New York Times bestseller list. Religion and politics, the taboo dinner topics, were two of the most popular things to talk about. And whether I was among wealthy expatriates in the Bahamas, the poor lepers of Kolkata, or the puzzled Christians in Iraq, I found that the solemn recognition that our world is very fragile is universal. And yet attentive ears can hear the ancient whisper reminding us that another world is possible.

No doubt, there is much noise in evangelical Christianity. There are many false prophets (and false profits) out there, and all kinds of embarrassing things being done in the name of God. Religious extremists of all faiths have perverted the best of our traditions. But there is another movement stirring, a little revolution of sorts. Many of us are refusing to allow distorted images of our faith to define us.

There are those of us who, rather than simply reject pop evangelicalism, want to spread another kind of Christianity, a faith that has much to say about this world as it does about the next. New prophets are rising up who try to change the future, not just predict it. There is a movement bubbling up that goes beyond cynicism and celebrates a new way of living, a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of. And this little revolution is irresistible. It is a contagious revolution that dances, laughs, and loves.

At the start of the war in Afghanistan, folks in my community here at the Simple Way organized an all-night vigil and sleep-out at Love Park in Philadelphia to remember the refugees and the cost of war. Shortly afterward, we went out to grab a pizza at a fabulous hole-in-the-wall pizza joint where the grease makes the paper plates transparent. We had become close friends with the owner, who is from Afghanistan. He told us with tears that he had seen us on the news and was deeply grateful. His family had become refugees, and he did not know what would happen to them. He said that what we were doing was beautiful but then added, “But we are only little people. We are like roaches, and they can crush us with their big feet.”

I said to him, “But there are many of us, and enough roaches can run an owner out of the house!” We all laughed. We are a modest revolution of roaches that can run money-changers out of temples or politicians out of office. And we can invite them to join us in creating another world.

A new conversation

This is a book of stories. The things that transform us, especially us “postmoderns,” are people and experiences. Political ideologies and religious doctrines just aren’t very compelling, even if they’re true. And stories disarm us. They make us laugh and cry. It’s hard to disagree with a story, much less split a church or kill people over one. Nonetheless, I know this is a risky venture. Dualism has infected the church, a dualism in which folks separate the spiritual from the political or social, as if the political and social issues were of no spiritual significance, and as if God had no better vision to offer the world. These stories, whether from the streets of Philly or the hospitals of Iraq, are political, social, and spiritual.

The issues we will stir up can be volatile and gut-wrenching. But I think there are enough of us so discontented with the old answers and traditional camps—whether believers or activists, capitalists or socialists, Republicans or Democrats—that the risk is worth it. The time has come for a new kind of conversation, a new kind of Christianity, a new kind of revolution.

Click here to download the full PDF version of this week’s bulletin