A Humbled Resistance

A Response to The Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

“The Irresistible Revolution (TIR) by Shane Claiborne rocked my world” is commonly heard today in the churches, especially among the younger crowd. I think I first heard about it from one of my daughters who was reading it at the time. She asked me if I’d heard of it and what I thought about it.  I later found out just how popular the book was among the college aged group when my other daughter told me about how there were some in their group who really believed it—the way she said it made me realize that it was a high impact book and was affecting the lives of our young people.

 

I wasn’t necessarily alarmed.  Our young adults are bright and we are blessed with a great group of elders.  I remember being “rocked” by a few books over the years that made significant impacts on my own life.   I started out by reading reviews on amazon.com.  Most were raving about how it rocked their world, etc. but there was one in particular that had significant concerns1 .  I found the review well written, and forwarded it to several people for comment.  Two things eventually led to my diving into this project.  The first was that I heard that my daughter had basically dismissed the review as being “by some random guy on the Internet.”  And the other was that a local pastor that I love and respect wrote back “why don’t you do a review?” Since then I wrote a review that turned out to be much too long to be a review, and focused far more on the message of the book than its form and style.  Just as I thought I had completed the project, I heard about Jesus for President (JFP—co-authored with Chris Haw) and decided to examine it and include it in a combined response.

 

There is a lot of good stuff in these books.  I have been significantly impacted by what I’ve read here and am continuing to study these issues and examine my own heart and life.  Claiborne effectively exposes some serious problems in contemporary evangelicalism to a wider and more receptive audience. (He is not the only or first to expose these issues, but his contribution is welcomed.) We as a church have some painful self-examination and repentance ahead of us.  I’ve titled the response “A Humbled Resistance” because the self-examination it has prompted in my own life has been and continues to be humbling.  As the response progresses, I believe the need for resistance becomes clear.

 

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