Our cultural Jesus

More from

The Irresistible Revolution
by Shane
Claiborne.

Our cultural Jesus

As George Bernard Shaw said, “God created us in his image and we decided to return the favor.”

Everyone in our culture has been deeply polluted by the noise and garbage of this world, and we all need to be washed clean. The cult of civil religion is infecting the church. We need minds that are free to dream again.

For us, belief is only the beginning. What really matters is how we live, how what we believe gets fleshed out, so we also have a statement of orthopraxis (meaning “right practices”). Believers are a dime-a-dozen nowadays.

Conversion is not an event but a process, a process of slowly tearing ourselves from the clutches of culture.

Family is one of the most significant barriers to potential risk-takers who would leave everything for the way of the cross.

About seeker-sensitive churches: It is a dangerous day when we can take the cross out of the church more easily than the flag.

Violence is always rooted in a myopic sense of community, whether it be nationalism or gangs. Our central allegiance is no longer national. Our new “us,” as Jesus teaches, is the church, the people of God doing the will of the Father.

Community

Community is what we were created for. We were made in the image of a God who is community.

Everything in this world tries to pull us away from community, pushes us to choose ourselves over others.

Redistribution is a description of what happens when people fall in love across class lines. The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat in your wardrobe belongs to the naked.