| A Humbled Resistance | A Response to The Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President |
Theology (cont.)
Legalism Rears Its Head
Claiborne describes the proper motive for operating in the communal life.
When we talk of materialism and simplicity, we must always begin with love for God and neighbor, otherwise we’re operating out of little more than legalistic, guilt-ridden self-righteousness. (TIR 162)
And he describes some of the difficulties with taking advantage of certain “privileges” like healthcare.
In our community, one question we continually revisit is health insurance. Many of us feel uneasy living without it, especially as we have kids entering our communal life. And yet it is difficult to use that privilege when many of our neighbors go without health care. (TIR 178)
But some privileges are OK, I guess.
After I got back from Iraq, I participated in a gathering in the Bahamas called La Mesa, where a bunch of theologians and pastors and old friends get together to talk trash and get a tan. (TIR 237)
A Question of Credibility
My final exhortation to fans of TIR in the area of economics is to look closely at Claiborne’s methods for living out his beliefs. As an adult, it is difficult to take seriously a person who decides to “start living” and acts upon it in this way:
So about thirty of us from Eastern College continued dreaming together about another way of doing life. We stayed up night after night laughing and arguing, … so we decided to go ahead and give our vision a shot. Besides, most of us were getting tired of talking and were ready to live. And I was living in a van (yes, down by the river), so we started looking for houses.
One of the first things we did was mail out letters to share stories and needs with a large cloud of supporters surrounding us… (TIR 120)
To start living, they: 1) needed to find a house; and 2) needed to find some people to pay for it. If we all decided to become ordinary radicals, to whom should we send our support letters?
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