Activist spreads the simple way
Shane Claiborne shares insight with students
January 23, 2007
Jillian Snyder
Author and activist Shane Claiborne visited TWU’s campus on Jan. 8, speaking at chapel and in Fraser Lounge. Claiborne’s message of love for others is capturing the attention of socially conscious Christians across North America.
His recent publication, The Irresistible Revolution, chronicles Claiborne’s journey as a Christian university student who saw his life turned upside down by working among the urban poor in Philadelphia.
Eventually, he and a group of friends bought an abandoned house in a dilapidated neighbourhood and founded The Simple Way—an experiment in communal living that took literally the command to give up all they had and follow Christ.
Ten years later, Claiborne, wearing handmade clothing and sporting dreadlocks, shares the resulting story with audiences across North America.
In an interview with Mars’ Hill, he noted that while his lifestyle seems utterly different from most middle-class Americans, he believes that any other person who spent time with the poor would not think his choice was too outrageous. He said that as he “grew to love people in poverty… their discomfort disturbed [his] comfort.”
This discomfort took him from a life in the suburbs to the streets of one of the country’s worst neighbourhoods.
“Can we really sleep well at night when we know that one of the families in our neighbourhood is spending the night on the streets?” he asked. “What is our response to them?”
Despite his rapidly growing fame—the waitlist for those wanting to share a meal at the Simple Way spans months—Claiborne wishes to ‘despectacularize’ his vocation. His stated goal is to move people from insulated and isolated forms of living into one that loves and cares for others—especially those in need.
Responding to questions of whether living among the poor is compulsory for all Christians, Claiborne noted that it is not important “what we are doing, but who we are becoming.”
He insists that Christians, especially university students, can see their vocations in light of God’s kingdom rather than financial or occupational advancement. Referring to the Gospel stories of Zaccheus and Matthew, Claiborne offered that two men of the same occupation—tax collecting—could respond to Christ’s call in different ways. One gave a quarter of his possessions to the poor while the other left his position altogether to become Christ’s disciple. Claiborne believes that while each Christian’s response to vocation is different, the point is that they do respond.
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