The Whitworthian

Issue date: 2/27/07 Last Updated: 8/9/07

Thomas Robinson/Whitworthian Speaker Shane Claiborne presents to students in the HUB multipurpose room last week.

Nearly 300 students packed the Café last Thursday night to hear Shane Claiborne talk about living "The Simple Way" in urban Philadelphia.

Speaking in a soft Tennessee accent and in clothes he made himself, dreadlocked Claiborne told the audience of his journey from a childhood where he was "suffocated with Christianity" to his current peacekeeping, people-oriented ministry where he now says, "I'm radically in love with Jesus."

"It makes me feel like I want to do something. I feel like I have been sitting here my whole life, and this guy has been out saving the world," freshman Craig Harris said.

In 2006, Claiborne released a book called "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical." The book chronicles Claiborne's travels to Calcutta and Iraq and his work in Philadelphia. Claiborne appeals to the "suburban Christian" in America to "think about the mess we've made in this world," he said.

Claiborne and a group of friends began to realize the impact they could have while they were attending Eastern University, a Christian institution in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Over 100 homeless people living in a local, abandoned cathedral were being threatened with eviction by the Catholic diocese. The group decided to move in and resist the expulsion.

After succeeding, Claiborne and his friend Brooke wanted to do more, so they contacted Mother Theresa herself to find out how to actually run an urban ministry. After going and working in India at the Home for the Dying, they learned the meaning of "little acts of love," Claiborne said.

"The Home for the Dying was a place where the sting of death got lost," Claiborne said.

Since then, Claiborne and his friends have created a Christian community in inner-city Philadelphia where they live simply and use their gifts to care for people and the earth. In addition to art and addiction recovery programs, they are developing several business enterprises including gardens, a bakery and T-shirt screening. They also run a bio-diesel pump for converted cars. Claiborne said their goal isn't just to be a bunch of radicals; they are radicals with a purpose.

"The question is not if we will be extremists, but what you will be extreme about," he said.

The group has also gone on a peacekeeping trip to Iraq, and they are planning to go again. Claiborne said that the group wants the Iraqis to know they are loved. Claiborne witnessed the Baghdad bombings during the "Shock and awe" campaign and the desperate situations of Iraqis. Through his experience in Iraq along with his interactions with American soldiers trying to reconcile their faith and their actions, Claiborne became even more resolved in a quest to bring the peace and love of Christ to the people.

"This world that we have made is not what God wanted it to be," Claiborne said.

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