I was just reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, and there is some pretty neat stuff in there…but…
Sometimes I wonder how much the movements we get into are just weird. Right now this whole environmental thing is sweeping through the church. That’s fine, but I don’t see environmental stuff in Matthew 5-7. Running your volkswagen on vegetable oil is a good idea, but it’s kind of weird.¬†
I just visited a site that Shane refers to in his book, and it looked like a bunch of anti-corporate stuff, like any Calvin Klein, Anti-Tobacco, Anti-Big Pharma, Anti-Whatever etc. So what if I’m NOT passionately against all this big corporate stuff. What if I’m not into boycotting things, do I get excluded? I’m not sure that Jesus really spent his time being cynical and sarcastic against Big Rome or the Big Jews. I also wonder how much of this anti-stuff is living by the flesh to be different or against something, but is baptized in some scriptures to make it Holy.
Here is a good example, I was checking out bikes, and motor scooters, and bus routes, because I said I wanted to find a more economical way to get to work. Then I really prayed about the big question of “WHY?” and I realized that I got a little tickle in my pride, a little boost of my flesh, if I was able to brag about the alternative way I drive to work.¬†
I’m sure this could all make some people mad, and that’s not my goal, but sometimes it’s easy to get all caught up in movements and not move. Like what if the anti-walmart people went to work at walmart, to love the people that work there and be light. What if the people that are anti-corporate shaved and went to work in the corporate world to love people there?
So, if reading the Bible compels you to dress up like a super-hero and sit outside a mall and tell people not to shop there that day, that’s fine I guess, but make sure your weirdness is either really Spirit-led, or keep it separate from Christianity.¬†