About two weeks ago, I went with the cool kids to see Shane Claiborne (among them was Thomas from Everyday Liturgy. Check out his post here) on the Jesus for President Tour with Chris Haw at the Fifth Presbyterian Church on 5th Avenue. (Got excellent street parking too – it was such a good night).
It was very well done. You needed to remember that it was a book tour thing and Shane and Chris gave a solid visual and oral summary of Jesus for President. There were several excellent qualities about it. One was its intention. For me, I didn’t want to go to a political or an anti-political rally. I appreciated how it was not a sermon, or even a spontaneous lecture. It wasn’t about Shane or the Simple Way, it really was about the point of their book. Second, Shane and Chris read from excellently worded scripts and had a keynote presentation on the screen above. Intertwined was music. But not Chris Tomlin music (although there’s nothing wrong with that), but instead an incredible folk band called the Psalters (who “sold” their cds for donations) that combined traditional, contemplative, and various other styles into a neo-folk style.
Among the things that I took from it was that this wasn’t a “Gen-X thing”. It really wasn’t. Certainly majority of the crowd were young Xers and older Millenntials but nothing was too edgy, or too “postmodern”, or whatever label you would slap on. Nor was it anti-war rally exalting the virtues of pacifism and the evils of anything in particular. Instead, it was a great reminder that politics will not save us. Most of us who showed up probably walked in with that assumption. Let’s keep that in check so instead worship, serve, and love Jesus. We ought to do our diligent part in working for the Kingdom here.
Go see it if you can,
Among many places, you can buy the book here.
I’m one of the “cool kids” you went with!! I definitely agree with your thoughts on the evening. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from Shane, and I was very impressed. I appreciated how they didn’t push their agenda on anyone, didn’t tell anyone who to vote for, because at the end of the day, that’s really not what it’s purpose was. In the words of Tony Campolo “Jesus transcends bi-partisan politics.”