Missions Resources - Bibliography
Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals
Authors: Shane Claiborne, Chris Haw
ISBN: 978-0310278429
Publisher: Zondervan
Number of pages: 348
Type of cover: Soft Cover
Summary:
Calling Easter Sunday “President’s Day” hardly seems revolutionary, let alone rational. But as radicals for Christ, that is exactly what we are called to do, according to Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw’s Jesus for President.
Claiborne and Haw, two self-proclaimed “ordinary radicals” and members of intentional communities in Philadelphia and Camden, collaborate to enlighten the frustrated Church-goer with answers to tough political and social questions.
Separated into four sections, their book opens with the story of God, in simplistic bedtime narrative: “Once upon a time, there were no kings or presidents. Only God was king.” From the sole perspective of a redemption story, Claiborne and Haw continue the God story by introducing Jesus in section two as “A New Kind of Commander-in-Chief.” Here, they portray Christ and his teachings for what they were: dangerously radical.
With thorough research, Claiborne and Haw show Jesus in a contextually revealing spotlight to prove how cutting edge he was. When Jesus responded to King Herod’s threat in Luke 13 by calling him a fox, the authors point out, he was giving the greatest possible insult. A fox was then considered skiddish, and the opposite of the regal lion. The crowd’s response, the authors imagine, was no doubt an eruption of whispering, “Did you hear that? Holy cow! Jesus just called Herod a fox! He’s going to get himself killed!”
In this same spotlight, Jesus’ new commands were equally cutting edge. Face slapping at the time was done only with the right hand. So turning the other cheek meant offering a backhand slap (even more degrading) and a resulting look in the shamed offender’s eye. It wasn’t meek cowardice Jesus walked and talked, but a radical enemy love.
The second half of the book shifts to the present day for North Americans. The authors dare to compare the United States in all her capitalist pride to a “ruling empire” from which the Church must “pull out” of intimacy. Claiborne and Haw don’t leave their suggestions in Mother Teresa quotes and poetic metaphors. They provide countless real life examples of what “pulling out” of an empire looks like: soldiers laying down arms, mugging victims offering more than their money, and churches throwing pizza parties in the city in spite of bans on feeding the homeless.
While calling readers to follow the revolutionary Jesus as president, Claiborne and Haw suggest “the Amish for Homeland Security,” using their examples of active forgiveness and love toward the perpetrator of their school shootings.
They also offer practical lifestyle suggestions, like making one’s own clothing, pottery and vegetables. Though written by men who have chosen simpler lifestyles and gotten arrested for protests, Jesus for President is not just a hippie’s diary of ideals and dreams. It is a logically mapped call to return to the true heart of Christ’s radical love for the world.
This book is not only revolutionary in its content, but also in its look. Every page grabs attention as an individual work of art, visually textured with old family photos, paper bags, pressed dandelions, coffee stains and margin sketches to create the down-to-earth impression of a handmade journal. Interspersed between pages of text are powerful images and photos, like that of children seated on a war tank with the caption, “Dear world, this is not my Jesus.”
The text gives a similar down-to-earth feel, with splashes of humor (“you can always tell the true prophets because they usually end up getting killed—though they might get a national holiday in their honor”), original terminology (“Hebrew Scriptures” rather than Old Testament, which suggests outdated), and flat out honesty (“Ezekiel pulled off a protest in the nude…Yes, the prophets are weird”).
Claiborne and Haw have found a way to condense the stuffy Christian social and political talk into layman’s terms without the dumbing down. Jesus for President is a relief to read—a God follower’s political guide so crazy that it’s legitimately biblical. It will coax its Christian readers to clearer self-awareness and the boundless hope of the political misfits they are called to be. It will keep them from reading their Bibles in the same way ever again.
by Shannon Whiting
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