MONTREAT, N.C. -- "We're just ordinary radicals," Shane Claiborne told 800 young adults gathered at the College Conference at Montreat Conference Center in western North Carolina on Friday, January 4. With unassuming anecdotes and lots of humor, he told the students that the world could use a few more ordinary radicals. Claiborne clarified that he and the fellow members of the Potters Street Community in Philadelphia are quite ordinary. Jesus, whom they love and aim to follow, is the radical. Most in the room probably would not call Claiborne ordinary. His appearance was arresting -- a scruffy beard, dreadlocks partly covered by a bandana. His message equally so as he called people to take Jesus seriously and really follow him; he caused the students to take a hard look at their lives and to entertain the possibility of doing something important.
MONTREAT, N.C. -- "We're just ordinary radicals," Shane Claiborne told 800 young adults gathered at the College Conference at Montreat Conference Center in western North Carolina on Friday, January 4. With unassuming anecdotes and lots of humor, he told the students that the world could use a few more ordinary radicals. Claiborne clarified that he and the fellow members of the Potters Street Community in Philadelphia are quite ordinary. Jesus, whom they love and aim to follow, is the radical. Most in the room probably would not call Claiborne ordinary. His appearance was arresting -- a scruffy beard, dreadlocks partly covered by a bandana. His message equally so as he called people to take Jesus seriously and really follow him; he caused the students to take a hard look at their lives and to entertain the possibility of doing something important. One thing he made clear: Christian witness in our country has to change. He referenced a recent survey that reported non-religious Americans perceive Christians as "first, anti-gay, second, judgmental, and third, hypocritical." To change the way we're seen in the world, he said, "we need to have better eyes to see the world how Jesus sees it." His hour-long plenary session was built around his travels, first to Calcutta to work with Mother Theresa, later to Baghdad during the post-9-11 bombing, and then back to Philadelphia's inner city to apply all he had learned. The journey began with a search. "We were looking for people who think that Jesus really meant what he said," he told the crowd. Mother Theresa seemed to be a good place to start. So, he made enough inquiries to find the right phone number, spoke directly to her, and soon found himself working alongside her, caring for the poorest of the poor. "In India I began to see people differently. People with leprosy were totally outcast. Mother Theresa got them together and started a little clinic along the railroad tracks. They built a little village, a farm, a school, a little clinic all run by people with leprosy. Even the doctors were lepers." In their woodshop they made new limbs for folks who lost limbs to leprosy. He was impressed with the efficiency. "One day one of the doctors looked at me and said, 'You've been watching this. I have to leave early, so I want you to take over what I've been doing over here.'" So Claiborne turned to a patient, an 80-year-old leprous man. "He was just staring into my eyes." The moment was transformative. "I was looking into the eyes of Jesus." What's more, the man uttered two simple words that meant, "I honor the holy one that lives in you." Back in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, one of the poorest parts of the city, they wrestled with how to put the Calcutta lessons into practice. They "tried to do little things with big love," he said. Soon 9-11 happened, and it occurred to them that the best thing they could do was to go to Iraq, not to bear arms but to carry God's love. They wanted to see the Iraqi people the way God sees them. "I saw some of the hardest things during the bombing; the shock and awe campaign was unleashed while we were there in Baghdad. ... It haunts me. But a strange thing happened. We could never lose hope. We sensed that life was more palatable than death." Huddling together with the Iraqis during that time convinced their hosts that they were genuinely interested in them. They let down their guard, told stories, even shared fun moments. Claiborne was attending a 13-year-old's birthday party when a bombing run filled the air with explosions. He asked the birthday girl what gift she wanted. "She said, 'I'd like peace.'" Her next thought showed her real age -- a typical young teen. "Then she let out a snicker and added, 'but if in the middle of the night, if nobody was there, I wouldn't mind if one of those bombs would blow up my school.'" She smiled broadly. He and his friends returned to Philadelphia, and couldn't help but note, "Right now in the world, there are so many things that don't look like God's dream for it." Indeed, "In Philly when people were asking, what are you doing to get ready for more welfare cuts, [the politicians] said, 'We're building five new prisons.'" He reflected, "When you've raised so many people out of the ditch there comes a time to ask if maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved." He later explained that the Potter Street Community is comprised of just six resident members. But they have organized many efforts under the umbrella of Simple Way Ministries to help people and to influence the city in more positive ways (see Outlook cover story, Nov. 26, '07). They have been arrested repeatedly for breaking laws that deny basic human rights to the homeless. Holding his small Bible, he commented, "If you read this book it's going to get you in trouble. I get so excited I get giddy. I'm so in love with Jesus. But there's a part of me where I ask, 'What trouble is he going to get me in this time?'" His message urged the students to put their focus on the teachings of Scripture and to put their hope in God. "We as a church don't need to wait for Congress to tell us how to live," he told the students. "We don't need politicians telling us how to treat immigrants. The Bible tells us how to treat immigrants." Pressing that point, he passed on to the audience a reminder given him by an Iraqi: "You didn't invent Christianity in America. You only domesticated it." In a question and answer session that followed his lecture one of the first questions raised the issue of Mother Theresa's doubts and spiritual loneliness. He responded, "Don't you think it's beautiful, the honesty of it? To me it's no surprise that she had struggles. It humanizes the great people we respect. ... Read Dark Night of the Soul, by John of the Cross. That should also teach us not to put people on a pedestal too high. ... Frankly, Mother Theresa died long ago. What has lasted of her has been Jesus in her." One question asked him how he deals with his own celebrity status. He responded, "When we have influence, we cannot think too highly of ourselves. As Rich Mullins used to say, 'God chose to speak to Balaam through his ass, and he's been speaking through asses ever since. So if God chooses to speak through you, don't think too highly of yourself.'" He concluded, "That's why I speak of being 'ordinary radicals.'" Several students questioned the appropriateness of his taking a trip to Iraq at a time when others in our country were hanging flags and yellow ribbons. He assured that it wasn't a knee jerk reaction but a choice he made after almost a year talking and praying through it. In fact, the trip was encouraged by the organization, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, which is comprised of families of 9-11 victims. "It had so much integrity to be there with people. People there would give us meals. One person told us that they have a saying in Arabic that when everything's good you don't know who your friends are, but when things are bad, you do know. They saw us as friends because we were there in the bombing." The trip proved to be a mission not only to the Iraqis. It also made an impact upon U.S. soldiers. "I received letter after letter from soldiers in Iraq saying that they were reading my book ... saying 'thank you for giving legitimacy to what we're feeling; we're feeling like we're serving two masters.'" Some questions asked about the relationship of faith to patriotism. Is there a conflict between patriotism and faith? He responded, "I think that without a doubt one of the greatest tragedies of faith in the U.S. is that we have dubbed this a Christian country. But where everything's Christian, nothing's Christian. Our money can say, 'In God we trust', but our economy looks like the seven deadly sins." Referencing the book Myth of a Christian Nation, he pointed out that author Gregory Boyd claims, "The litmus test for being Christian is 'Does it look like Jesus?' Let's celebrate where we have represented Jesus, but let's mourn when we haven't looked like Jesus." He acknowledged that part of the American dilemma is its sheer power. "The beatitudes are not a great way to live as a superpower. Ultimately our faith is not to be placed in the commander-in-chief of the largest army in the world. Our leader washed feet." The real issue for us as American Christians is not just how we vote on Nov. 2nd but "how we also vote on Nov. 3rd and Nov 4th, etc." He added, "What people loved about Mother Theresa wasn't that she wore a t-shirt opposing abortion, but because when a woman said she didn't want to have her baby, she said, 'You can give the baby to me.'" He also added a comment on conflicts among Christians in our country. "Our ideologies aren't worth anything if they're not rooted in love. We need to be talking about political stuff. But, we can disagree well. That's all right. One of our better witnesses to society is to show them how to disagree well. One thing I've learned from both conservatives and liberals is that both can be right, but also both can be really mean. And nobody wants truth from mean people." Claiborne concluded, "When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he's the one we've been waiting for, Jesus didn't say, 'Yup.' He did say, 'Go tell him what you see.' That's what we should be able to say, too." Editor's note: Shane Claiborne will return to the Montreat Conference Center to serve as keynote speaker for the "Church Unbound"conference, July 1-5, which is co-sponsored by Montreat, the Cross-Cultural Alliance of Ministries, and by The Presbyterian Outlook.
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