Political Thoughts

Shane Claiborne's book Irristible Revolution is one of my favorite books! He pretty much sums up thoughts I have had since childhood. At every page I was nodding, thinking- Finally, someone who understands my feelings! So I found a website with some of his quotations from the book. This is great, because I didn't want to type it all up, but I did want to share some things he said on the ole blog.



"There are some things to die for but none to kill for. "

"Today the logic goes something like this: 'Calling a ruler Son of God is out of style. No one really does that nowadays. We can support a president while also worshiping Jesus as the Son of God.' But how is this possible? For one says that we must love our enemies, and the other says we must kill them; one promotes the economics of competition, while the other admonishes the forgiveness of debts. To which do we pledge allegiance?"

"One thing that's clear in the Scriptures is that the nations do not lead people to peace; rather, people lead the nations to peace."

"And that’s when things get messy. When people begin moving beyond charity and toward justice and solidarity with the poor and oppressed, as Jesus did, they get in trouble. Once we are actually friends with the folks in struggle, we start to ask why people are poor, which is never as popular as giving to charity. One of my friends has a shirt marked with the words of late Catholic bishop Dom Helder Camara: “When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist.” Charity wins awards and applause but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for living out of love that disrupts the social order that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them."

"When we truly discover how to love our neighbor as our self, Capitalism will not be possible and Marxism will not be necessary."

"Biological family is too small of a vision. Patriotism is far too myopic. A love for our own relatives and a love for the people of our own country are not bad things, but our love does not stop at the border."

"We are faithful not to the triumphant golden eagle (ironically, also an imperial symbol of power in Rome) but to the slaughtered Lamb."


In summation: un-nationalist, pacifist, alternatively economical, and radically loving. These ideas make my heart comfy.