more Shane Claiborne

It is a great joy to me to put Shane Claiborne on here for several reasons. One, I don't agree with him on everything, but I have more respect for him than almost anybody. Two, I know scores of people who think I'm a moron for reading him. I think he's friends with Rob Bell. Isn't that evil or something? Three, he always gives food for thought. As I said, there's no Calvinist, charismatic, or Catholic that can read him and not be pricked in their heart. I'm sure there's more reasons, but here we go...

I am going to Iraq because I believe in a God of scandalous grace. If I believed terrorists were beyond redemption, I would need to rip out half of my New Testament Scriptures, for they were written by a converted terrorist. I have pledged Allegiance to a King that loved evildoers so much He died for them [and of course the people of Iraq are no more evil or more holy than the people of the US], teaching us that there is something worth dying for but nothing worth killing for... We are all wretched, and we are all beautiful. No one is beyond redemption. May we see in the hands of the oppressors our own hands, and in the faces of the oppressed our own faces. We are made of the same dust, and we cry the same salty tears.