Jesus Is For Losers

I forgot that this was once the title of my blog (awhile ago). I actually think I like it best. At any rate... it is also the title of chapter 9 in Shane Claiborne's book "The Irresistible Revolution."

One good quote from Rich Mullins: “God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and God’s been speaking through them ever since.”

There are many good stories in this chapter, but most are too long to put here. This is one on p. 260...

"There's another person who felt the world killed the good in him, a young man who was a decorated army veteran in the 1991 Gulf War. I remember reading the letters he wrote home from the war, in which he told his family how hard it was to kill. He told them he felt like he was turning into an animal because day after day it became a little easier to kill. His name was Timothy McVeigh. He came home from serving in the Army Special Forces, horified, crazy, dehumanized, and became the worst domestic terrorist we have ever seen. His essays cry out against the bloodshed he saw and created in Iraq: 'Do people think that government workers in Iraq are any less human than those in Oklahoma City? Do they think that Iraqis don't have families who will grieve and mourn the loss of their loved ones? Do people believe that the killing of foreigners is somehow different than the killing of Americans?' No doubt his mind had been tragically deranged by the myth of redemptive violence. He bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City in hopes that complacent Americans could see what 'collateral damage' looks like and cry out against bloodshed everywhere, even in Iraq. Instead, the government that trained him to kill, killed him, to teach the rest of us that it is wrong to kill. Dear God, liberate us from the logic of redemptive violence."

On 260-261 he shares the words of an old hippie friend who says: "Jesus never talked to a prostitute." Shane says he did. "Then he just calmly looked me in the eye and said, 'Listen, Jesus never talked to a prostitute because he didn't see a prostitute. He just saw a child of God he was madly in love with.'"

The last parapraph of the chapter (266): "When we have new eyes, we can look into the eyes of those we don't even like and see the One we love. We can see God's image in everyone we encounter... We are made of the same dust. We cry the same tears. No one is beyond redemption. And we are free to imagine a revolution that sets both the oppressed and the oppressors free."

...Yep.