Irresistible Revolution - Intro

This is a response to the Intro of Irresistible Revolution. To understand where this is coming from a bit better I highly suggest you read the book, it is one of the best I ever read, and definately read my previous blog reviewing Irresistible Revolution.


What better place for a book to start than good news? Well in his introduction to Irresistible Revolution Shane Claiborne is all about the good news. In his introduction Shane proclaims that a new movement of "ordinary radicals" is sweeping North America, Westernized countries and the World.

At first glance you might not understand how this is good news. That is OK though because whoever you are, wherever you are this will probably unroll at some point as good news. Let me explain:

Ordinary Radicals is an important title/name/whatever to understand if you are going figure out why this is good news and join the movement. And trust me, you want to join the movement! So since this title/name/whatever has two parts why not break it down?

The first part is ordinary. Ordinary defines the people of this movement. If you are reading my blog you are probably an ordinary person. Hello my ordinary friend (or Mom, Dad or Pete). Now ordinary is not a derogatory term. In this case I believe it just cancels out superheroes and sub humans, or narrows us down to fallen men (and women). That we all are, fallen and imperfect, but good or ordinary none the less. Ordinary from the dictionary means "with no special or distinctive features". I love this because in my opinion that defines all of us without the goodness of God in our lives. I'll tell you humbly that without the work of God in my life the only characteristic I can come up with for myself is dead. Considering all the dead people in the past hundreds of years I don't think I or anyone else would stand out...

The second part is radical. I dropped the "S" but it will come back soon. Radical is the actions. One definition of radical on my Lappy's Dashboard dictionary is "relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something" and this definition is characterized by when radical is used as an expression of change. The actions of our Ordinary Radicals are going against the grain and changing things. Shining light on issues at new angles, providing new perspectives and having enough effect to cause change.

So far we have Ordinary Radical. The good news to everyone is the "S". Over the past dozen years there have been more and more Ordinary Radicals popping up. Where ten years ago an OrRad might find him or herself trapped between unbelieving activists and inactive believers now there are OrRads sparking up everywhere. Now we can connect and find strength in each other. And as the Bible says where one can cause ten to flee and two can cause a hundred to flee, but, three can cause ten thousand to flee. We are more than three and we are not alone. Change will come as long as we pursue it.

So if you are not one of these ordinary radicals and you are reading this you might be thoroughly confused. Thats OK I can understand why. I am going to try to quickly catch you up. Just a warning you might be offended. That is OK too, most Jewish people were offended by the prophets of their day. When someone is OK with things as they are change and the people pursuing it can be offensive. I am sorry.

So where did these OrRads come from? Well us OrRads come from a difficult place. In each of our lives the details will be very unique, but, the gist of it is that we come from a place of God instilled compassion. Whatever our story, whether through our own suffering or witnessing another's suffering we have realized the current ways are overlooking righteousness or justice in too many ways and we wish to pursue the foundations of God's Throne which are Righteousness and Justice (Ps 89:14).

So what are some examples of Righteousness and Justice being overlooked? I am glad you asked for there are many.

Hypocrisy in the Church - "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door, and deny him with their life style... That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."
Hypocrisy or as I might call it "fake righteousness" plagues North American and Western churches in so many ways. Whether it is blatant hypocrisy like our young adults known for arriving at University, drinking, sleeping around and experimenting in other ways before leaving the Christian walk altogether, our Youth who clique up in high school and are almost indistinguishable when placed next to other students from their classes or our adults who write single parents off as failures while they cheat on their own perfectly acceptable spouses jeopardizing their own marriage and family. There are many ways which we live which are in distinct opposition to how God guides and somehow some still remain oblivious to this fact.

Hollow Perfection - Have you ever seen one of those Christian TV personalities who are just too good to be true? The ones who pray and read their Bible going to bed and waking up, have perfect marriages, perfect families and are all still perfectly attractive (yes physically) by the world's standard? How absurd is this? No one has it all together and you are not helping anyone out by pretending that you do. Still millions of Christians put on nice (fake) sets of clothes and fake smiles to go to church and give fake smiles, fake hugs and have fake laughs with other people who are faking perfection. Everything is not OK!!! That is OK!!! This fake perfection is an attempt to look righteous on the outside when all God cares about is the inside. No one pleases God (or ordinary people) with Hollow Righteousness.

Ignorance of Justice - I am not talking about Canadian justice, American justice, United Nations justice or any other kind of worldly justice. I am talking about God's justice. Justice where one Canadian soldiers life is worth one life of a Taliban insurgent, or Afghani civilian. Where restoring peace to war torn Africa is as important as restoring peace to an oil rich Middle East, where every child is valued equally no matter which race, nationality, gender or skill set. Justice on the whole isn't being pursued enough by a church which is more occupied with building its own wealth and infighting between denominations over petty theological differences that make NO difference to how God will judge us in the end. How idle are words wasted over proper communion techniques when they are all very different from the original communion and representative of the same symbolic action. Instead these words and the study and effort behind them could be freeing child sex slaves (yes such a thing exists), fighting for better health care instead of a better military, fighting for the reconstruction of a continent the West has raped through slavery and corruption for centuries and fighting for many other just causes.

Now that you know a little bit about some of the issues causing us OrRads to pop up you might be asking me what the good news is behind it. The good news for the OrRads is they are no longer alone, they are hopefully beginning to realize that. The good news for everyone else is that as this movement grows changes will come that are good. For one example maybe the Richest Nation in the world will begin providing all of its citizens with adequate Health Care as a result of a movement for such justices. For another it may mean that a team of rich Westerners might come and dig a well in their remote village providing them with clean accessible water. The funny thing is that team of "Rich Westerners" is probably working minimum wage or worse. This movement as it continues to grow will bring about positive changes to our culture and world. Get excited and join in.

Now before I close I must include this:

This isn't a power driven movement. You Bears and Bulls propelling Wall Street's greed shouldn't be afraid of us. One friend of this movement once described Shane and his friends as little people or roaches and pointed out that the current powers could stomp us out with their feet. Here is Shane's response:

"But there are many of us, and enough roaches can run an owner out of a house... We are a modest revolution of roaches that can run money changers out of temples and politicians out of office. Then we can invite them to join us in creating another world."

So there it is. The introduction to an Irresistible Revolution. Excited? I hope so!! A little scared and overwhelmed? Me too!! Confused?? Ask me to clarify, and if I am not good enough ask God.


Hope you enjoyed the response.
Chris