The Irresistible Revolution

Shane Claiborne

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 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 charity. People are crucified for living out a 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.

While The Irresistible Revolution is a book of many grandiose statements and not the best writing, the reality behind it overcomes these failings. Claiborne tells of a Christian life lived with a genuine focus on Christ. I would hesitate to call anything he describes in his book (and there are many exciting stories) incredible. Claiborne's call is to a reality check. The Christianity he describes is not a Christianity that is strange or wild as defined by Christianity--it is what it is.
Claiborne manages to find a good balance between criticism of the modern Church and hopeful directions toward renewal in the Church.
There are three phrases that should give you the first whiff of the truth Claiborne is speaking in this book:
1. The Christian life will take everything you have.
2. Want to be a Christian? It will RUIN you for life.
3. If they come for the innocent and poor and do not come over our bodies then a curse be on our religion.
(The second is actually the Jesuit Volunteer Corps's unofficial motto but gets at the same thing).