Wittenburg Door: Finding the Simple Way

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Philly is a tough town. Big guys, big attitudes, big cheese steaks. It takes a tough guy to make a difference. Meet Shane Claiborne.
His vision for ordinary radicals ready to change the world with little acts of love is really catching on. You know something is up when even an Episcopal book group called the Peppy Ladies (Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli, Penn.) are reading his book The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical (Zondervan). Granted, Paoli isn't as tough as Philadelphia ...
Shane is the face of the new monasticism, which includes a very strong solidarity of living with the poor a.k.a. Catholic Worker Movement. He walks the walks and lives in the most "transitional" neighborhood in Philadelphia. Plus he's a big fan of the circus. What's not to like? Here's what happens when you hang out with Shane at the Simple Way for a day.


WITTENBURG DOOR: How do you go from becoming high school prom king to becoming an ordinary radical?

SHANE CLAIBORNE: I did a dangerous thing of reading the Bible, and asking what if Jesus meant this stuff He said. And found a group of people that sort of allowed me to think that maybe He did. I'm still recovering from all the sexism, and racism, and everything I grew up with.

...

DOOR: You've done work with Mother Teresa, right?

CLAIBORNE: We wanted to volunteer, so we just called and she picked up the phone. To me that was Mother Teresa. The kids that I knew who were orphans, when they called her "Mother Teresa," they weren't saying she was some saint, they were saying she is mom. That was beautiful. In fact a lot of people ask, "Oh, you met Mother Teresa..." like she glows in the dark or something.

DOOR: Um, she doesn't?

CLAIBORNE: Someone asked me after she died, "Is her work going to live on?" I actually think Mother Teresa died a long time ago when she submitted herself to Christ, and the thing that everyone loves about her was her work, that's Jesus. That's going to live forever. I've been to Calcutta since Mother Teresa died, and there were more people there than were ever there when she was alive. She's sort of like the seed that dies, and fruit is born.

...

DOOR: Why do you think so many churches can't be as inclusive as Jesus was?

CLAIBORNE: What I've seen is a self-righteousness that we've got it all together on both sides. It's, "Thank you that we're not like people that listen to secular music or are homosexuals" or, on the other side it's, "Thank you that we're not like those people that don't eat organic or are Bush lovers." I see a lot of hope, though, because I think there are a lot of younger folks who are marked by humility, and post-modernity gives a chance to sort of go, "Hey, we don't really fit into any of those categories."

...


DOOR: Why did you go to Iraq?

CLAIBORNE: I needed a sabbatical.

...


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