"The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical" by Shane Claiborne

ISBN 9780310266303

This book was lent to me by a co-worker who'd read it and was challenged by its contents. She asked me to read it and so I am in the process of doing so. The following are my first impressions.

Some background: Shane Clairborne's theological leanings are revealed by the names that recommend his book and by the ministries that benefit from the sales of his book; all of the proceeds benefit different ministries, including the following:

Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Maryland (Brian McLaren)

Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan (Rob Bell); also provides a blurb on the back cover.

Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Doug Pagitt)

Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois (Bill Hybels)

After seeing this short list it should be clear that the contents of his book are going to lean towards the more liberal end of religious thought! :)

But anyhow, I have been slowly reading this book by Shane Claiborne and just wanted to share a couple of observations from the first few chapters. As I’ve mentioned, Claiborne is quite clearly emergent in his allegiances, and as a product of that worldview he does what those from that camp are good at doing…asking questions. Unfortunately he does not bother to give any really good Biblically based answers, but more on that in a different post. What I want to address is some of the questions with which he begins; questions that I myself have had but which led me to a totally different conclusion. Whereas Claiborne has embraced the Emerging Church movement and leftist politics (including encouraging soldiers to desert), I have been drawn to what he dismisses as conservative evangelical Christianity.

In what appears to be a resurrection of liberation theology (see the following website if you are unfamiliar with liberation theology: http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/liberati.htm), Claiborne begins his introduction as follows: “The Scriptures say that the entire creation groans for liberation…” Ignoring for a moment that he completely misunderstands what Paul is referring to in Romans 8:21-22, he then refers to the plague of Aids, poverty, and other such terrible things and mentions how famous secular rock artists are bringing attention to these issues but that Christian artists say nothing about it. “Perhaps it should not surprise us that Jesus says that if the Christians remain silent, then rocks will cry out…or the rock stars, I guess” is what he says regarding their silence.

Huh?

The context of that last reference of his is the triumphal entry as we read it in Luke 19:38-40 where Jews, not Christians, praise God as the Messiah. This passage says nothing about addressing the woes of the earth. If the people do not praise the Anointed of God, then the stones themselves would cry out praises. See the difference?

And yes, this is the kind of Scriptural analysis you can expect to find throughout the entire book. Such careless handling of the Word by someone claiming to be a student of the Word and a follower of the Lord sets off great big warning bells for me…as it should for anyone who is a Believer. Furthermore, as far as liberation goes….it refers to liberation from sin not from poverty and AIDS and other scourges, which are effects from sin and not sin itself!

But back to his questions. In relating his early life in youth groups he makes mention of how he knew what Christians believed but had no clue about how they lived. He says, “I thought perhaps I needed to buy more stuff, Christian stuff. Luckily, I found an entire Christian industrial complex ready to help with Christian music, bumper stickers, T-shirts, books, and even candy (“Testa-mints)…” After this he questions why Christianity has become so normal…so commonplace…so commercialized! And guess what? He’s right. This is what I mean by his asking good questions. The whole “Testa-mints” thing especially is one of my own pet peeves!

You see, Claiborne was disgusted by this commercialization and so should we be, don’t you think? Not that there is anything wrong with Christian music, or with T-shirts that bear a verse, it’s just that sometimes these are the kinds of things that make us lazy. Not the music, of course, but the shirts and the candy and the bumper stickers. These are the things that make us lazy because we see them as witnessing tools…we think to ourselves that putting that bumper sticker gets us out of actually telling someone about Christ; we think that a shirt with a Bible verse is enough of a missionary effort on our part and we thereby fulfill the great commission from our Lord! God forbid we should be taken captive by such foolish reasoning. And yes, even our theology is wrapped up in consumerism.

“Come to church and find your purpose!” “Come see what programs we offer!”

Too many churches today are in the hands of CEO’s and advertising gurus instead of shepherds and lovers of the Word…and because of that the Church suffers from a lack of clear Biblical teaching. The worst part of it is that as we embrace a seeker sensitive theology we bring in seekers that are not finding what they need! We invite them into our churches hoping they will hear the Word and instead they get a pep talk! So not only are too many shepherds not feeding the sheep, they are not even meeting the true needs of the lost among them! How sad….how truly sad.

Well, I will post more on the book later, but while one should not take Claiborne seriously as a teacher, we would do well to ponder the question of what in the world is the church doing? Why embrace the worlds tactics? Scary thing is that we have forgotten that our extended hand of friendship to the world means we are at enmity with God…and what does He say about this? He calls us “adulterers and adulteresses!” James 4:4

God bless