Jesus for President

Jesus for President

A red rectangle on which appears the yellow lettering "Jesus for President" below a drawing of a crown and above a drawing of a lamp inside a circle

First edition cover
Author Shane Claiborne
Chris Haw
Audio read by Shane Claiborne
Chris Haw
Katie Jo Brotherton
Illustrator Chico Fajardo-Heflin
Cover artist Chico Fajardo-Heflin
Country United States
Language English language
Subject American imperialism
Christian pacifism
New Monasticism
Self-denial
Social justice
Genre Christian devotional literature
Published 2008 (Zondervan)
Pages 304
ISBN 978-0-310-27842-9
OCLC 154798932
261.70973
LC Class BR526 .C567 2008

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals is a book co-written by Evangelical authors Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, two important figures in New Monasticism. The book asserts that the countercultural themes in the ministry of Jesus, such as those of self-denial, are ignored by American Christians because they have become accustomed to exercising Christian privilege and are unwilling to give it up. Jesus for President is divided into four chapters, the first two of which summarize the Bible from a New Monastic perspective. The third chapter proposes implications that this narrative has for citizens of the United States, which the authors describe as an empire similar to the Roman Empire. The fourth chapter consists of stories of Christians living counterculturally in ways that model divine redemption to others.

Claiborne and Haw promoted Jesus for President by going on a tour of the United States, speaking in thirty cities. The tour took place leading up to the 2008 United States presidential election while presidential candidates were campaigning, and the book tour was suggestive of a third party candidate campaign for Jesus. Claiborne, Haw, and their team drove from location to location in a black, vegetable-oil-fueled school bus with the name of the book hand-painted in gold on the side. Claiborne's and Haw's speeches did not attempt to sway their audience's votes towards or away from any particular candidates, but rather called on the candidates to endorse Jesus.

Jesus for President received generally positive reviews from critics. Publishers Weekly called the book "the must-read election-year book for Christian Americans"[1] and one of the best books of 2008. In a Library Journal review, George Westerlund recommends that large libraries purchase Jesus for President, writing that the book provides a good reading experience even for readers who differ from Claiborne and Haw theologically or philosophically. American activist David Swanson wrote a three-part review of Jesus for President in Christianity Today, in which he argues that "Claiborne and Haw make a compelling case that the church in America has become much to cozy with the state".[2] Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy was heavily critical of the book, calling the book's pacifism both utopian and anti-American.

Background

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals is a book co-written by Evangelical authors Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw.[3] It was first published in March 2008[4] and had sold more than 300,000 copies by that December.[5] Both Claiborne and Haw are important figures in New Monasticism,[6] a movement that emphasizes peacemaking, community, and anti-racism.[3] Claiborne and Haw first met a few years prior to 2008 at Willow Creek Community Church, which is a megachurch located near Chicago, Illinois. At the time of writing, both authors were living in Christian intentional communities in the United States. Both Claiborne's community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Haw's in Camden, New Jersey seek to emulate early Christians by being actively involved in their communities and by sharing wealth throughout the community.[7] Claiborne had written The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, his debut book, in 2006, and it was still one of the top twenty most popular "Christian Living" books on Amazon.com at the time of the release of Jesus for President,[3] Claiborne's second book.[4] Haw was a theology graduate student at Villanova University at the time.[8]

As with The Irresistible Revolution, Jesus for President was published by Zondervan,[9] a publisher of Bibles and mainstream Christian books that doesn't often publish politically radical books. Haw said that he and Claiborne intentionally chose Zondervan as their publisher, saying, "We didn't want to communicate what we're trying to communicate to those who are like us... We want to reach precisely the kind of mainstream Christian who would read books from Zondervan".[7] All proceeds from sales of Jesus for President went towards the Jubilee Fund, a nonprofit organization founded by Claiborne and others in support of international community projects. In December 2008, Claiborne estimated that the Jubilee Fund would provide $300,000 in funding to such projects that year.[5]

Jesus for President combines practical theology,[8] Biblical theology, Church history, contemporary stories,[10] political manifesto, Bible stories, photography, and doodles, and employs non-standard typesetting.[3] The book draws on both the Old and New Testaments,[8] and includes frequent quotations from Church Fathers, such as Justin Martyr and Tertullian.[2] Other quotations come from such figures as Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.[7] Chico Fajardo-Heflin designed the layout of the book and produced the artwork for it,[10] including the initial pages of the book that juxtapose images typical of comforting Sunday school lessons with graphic war photos in order to suggest that the painful realities of the world cannot be adequately addressed by Sunday-school-type answers.[11]

Jesus for President asserts that the countercultural themes in the ministry of Jesus, such as those of self-denial, are ignored by Christian Church because the Church is more interested in conforming its members to the state than to the Kingdom of God.[3] The book warns against the lures of political and financial power.[12] While the book suggests that Christians should live counterculturally in accordance with Jesus' teachings, Claiborne and Haw do not attempt to prescribe how Christians should accomplish this task.[13] Neither do they advocate restructuring the economic or political systems of the United States.[14] The book expounds liberation theology and criticizes the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[15] Jesus for President presents the argument that people who are following Jesus should not be more loyal to their own country than to any other country.[16] The book also argues that Jesus did not preach that his followers should Christianize their governments but rather that they should live by different rules than their governments and distinguish themselves as peculiar[1] by living out a grace-filled, contagious love.[8] Claiborne said that the title of the book is not to be taken literally, and that "Jesus' political manifesto is a terrible plan for running a superpower".[12]

Also in 2008, Claiborne co-write Becoming the Answer to Our Prayer: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals with fellow New Monastic Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, who said that the book is "about how God wants to transform us and our way of life through the prayers Scripture teaches us to pray".[9] After co-writing Jesus for President with Claiborne, Haw went on to write Willow Creek to Sacred Heart: Rekindling my Love for Catholicism, a work of Christian apologetics that documents his transitions from Catholicism to Evangelicalism and back to Catholicism.[6] An audiobook edition of Jesus for President was released in 2009.[17]

Content

Jesus for President is divided into four chapters, the first two of which summarize the Bible from a New Monastic perspective.[3] The third chapter proposes implications that this narrative has for citizens of the United States, which the authors describe as an empire similar to the Roman Empire that instituted anti-Christian policies in early Christian history. This chapter argues that the Book of Revelation is more about living with faithfulness in an evil empire than about eschatology. The chapter also asserts that Constantinianism had generally negative consequences for the Church. Writing that early Christians expected to be persecuted, Claiborne and Haw argue that the persecution of Christians does not occur in the United States because American Christians are satisfied with the Christian outward appearance of the federal government that hides its lack of adherence to Christian principles. Claiborne and Haw write that this situation exists because these Americans have become accustomed to exercising Christian privilege and are unwilling to give it up.[2] The fourth chapter consists of stories of Christians living counterculturally in ways that model divine redemption to others. One of these stories is about a young couple's adoption of a poor, elderly woman who had Alzheimer's disease. Another story is about a peacekeeping mission undertaken in Iraq just before the 2003 invasion. Other stories involve heterodox economics, defending the homeless, Amish forgiveness, dumpster diving, missional robotics,[13] Martin Luther King Jr., anti-war protests, and The Simple Way.[18]

Tour

A photograph of two men with facial hair wearing t-shirts while speaking into black handheld microphones and gripping black music stands indoors
Chris Haw (left) and Shane Claiborne (right) went on a book tour for Jesus for President, speaking in thirty cities in the United States.

Claiborne and Haw promoted Jesus for President by going on a tour of the United States,[19] speaking in thirty cities[5] at community centres, churches,[19] and campuses, especially of Evangelical schools.[20] The tour took place leading up to the 2008 United States presidential election while presidential candidates were campaigning, and the book tour was suggestive of a third party candidate campaign for Jesus. Claiborne, Haw, and their team drove from location to location in a black school bus with the name of the book hand-painted in gold on the side. The bus ran on used vegetable oil fuel, which the team picked up periodically at restaurants along the way. Affirming that the choice of fuel was a political statement, Claiborne said, "It'll be a long time before we fight a war over used veggie oil".[19] The bus was fitted with beds so they could take turns sleeping and driving through nights.[19]

The tour was covered by a variety of media outlets, including local newspapers and CNN.[12] During tour speaking engagements, Claiborne and Haw gave a multimedia presentation that focused on serving the poor and the marginalized. He said that, "with the respectability and the power of the church comes the temptation to prostitute our identity for every political agenda",[19] a concept that he illustrated by arguing that both Adolf Hitler and Harry S. Truman supported their ideologies by making them sound consistent with a Christian worldview. Other themes of these speeches included war and environmentalism. Claiborne's and Haw's speeches did not attempt to sway their audience's votes towards or away from any particular candidates.[19] Instead, Claiborne encouraged audiences to endorse whichever candidates supported Christian values. Claiborne called on the candidates to endorse Jesus.[20] CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider predicted that Claiborne's and Haw's "impact is likely to be that they will dilute the Evangelical support for the Republican Party and the Evangelical vote will be more up for grabs than it has in many years".[21]

The tour events were well-attended,[10] with some events attracting as many as a thousand people.[12] Audiences consisted primarily of young evangelicals, but there was no uniformity of voting preferences among these audiences, with many voting each for the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and independent politicians.[10] Melissa Burke of the York Daily Record interviewed one audience member who said that Claiborne's and Haw's arguments in support of nonpartisanism convinced her not to vote.[22] CNN's Kate Bolduan and Eric Marrapodi interviewed other audience members who said that they too reject partisan politics, and that their votes in the upcoming election would be based on the issues of social justice and environmentalism rather than on homosexuality and abortion.[19] In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Claiborne said, "The big question is not how we vote on Nov. 4, but how we live on Nov. 3 and Nov. 5".[12] The tour concluded before the end of 2008.[5] A DVD was later produced that documented the tour.[10]

Influence

The staff of Superstition Springs Community Church in Gilbert, Arizona read Jesus for President and were inspired to launch their own campaign for Jesus during the 2008 presidential election, complete with campaign buttons, lawn signs, and a website. Mark Connelly, the church's pastor, declared the main message of the campaign to be that lasting change "emerges from the hearts of the people who have been transformed, rather than just seeking people to legislate for us".[23]

After reading and being impressed by Jesus for President, Ben Cohen of the ice cream company Ben & Jerry's met with Claiborne at Philadelphia's White Dog Cafe. They decided to launch a variety show in September 2011 called Jesus, Bombs, & Ice Cream.[24] Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the show raised awareness about the size of the military budget of the United States, calling for it to be decreased.[25]

Critical response

In a January 2008 Publishers Weekly starred review, an anonymous reviewer calls Jesus for President "the must-read election-year book for Christian Americans" and an "entertaining yet provocative tour of the Bible's social and economic order [that] makes even the most abstruse Levitical laws come alive for our era".[1] This reviewer also praises the book's elaborate layout, singling out such elements as its callouts, fonts, colors, and photos. The review calls Claiborne "an affable, intelligent, humorous prophet of his generation" who is "calling people out of business-as-usual in a corrupt world and back to the radically different social order of the biblical God."[4] Publishers Weekly later selected Jesus for President as one of the best books of the year. In this retrospective, Louisa Ermelino writes that Jesus for President is "a provocative book good for election year and beyond".[26]

Society writers Robin Rogers and Peter Heltzel compare Jesus for President to Jim Wallis' The Great Awakening, which was also published in 2008. Rogers and Heltzel argue that the authors of both of these books are "prophetic evangelicals [who] understand the Gospel as signifying not just the work of Christ on the cross, but also the way that the work of the cross is lived out in the church conceived as a prophetic community".[27] In a Library Journal review, George Westerlund recommends that large libraries purchase Jesus for President, writing that the book provides a good reading experience even for readers who differ from Claiborne and Haw theologically or philosophically.[18] When the Jesus for President book tour came to Hartford, Connecticut, Susan Campbell wrote about the book and the tour in the Hartford Courant, calling the book "bare-knuckle" and "deceptively deep".[7] Lorilee Craker, co-author of Lynne Spears' memoir Through the Storm, read Jesus for President and said that it was excellent.[28]

In Apprentice: Walking the Way of Christ, British Baptist minister Steve Chalke reviews Jesus for President, calling it "a radical manifesto to awaken the Christian political imagination [to] what the Church could look like if it placed its faith in Jesus instead of Caesar."[10] Chalke argues that the book transcends questions of voting and explores more fundamental issues, such as allegiance and faith.[10] In Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide, Brett McCracken writes about Jesus for President, saying, "I think [Claiborne and Haw] come as close as anyone to envisioning an authentic Christian hipster lifestyle."[29] McCracken agrees with Claiborne and Haw that Christians' lives should contrast with those of others, but McCracken urges Christians to be careful to ensure that their distinctiveness results from Jesus' message of grace and not simply from a desire to be countercultural.[29]

American activist David Swanson wrote a three-part review of Jesus for President in Christianity Today,[13] in which he writes that the popularity of the book is due to its "prophetic zeal and prankster's wit".[3] He calls the format of the book creative and writes that the format, content, and authors are all provocative, and are likely to evoke different responses from different audiences.[3] Swanson argues that "Claiborne and Haw make a compelling case that the church in America has become much to cozy with the state", a case that Swanson finds to align with his own personal observations.[2] He argues that some of the stories in the fourth chapter of the book are surprisingly creative. He suggests that sharing such stories might be a way to "preserve Kingdom distinctiveness while demonstrating God's redemption to our neighbors", and he therefore encourages readers of Jesus for President to respond by sharing their own stories of "caring for each other, sacrificing for each other, taking risks for the Kingdom".[13]

Jordan Hylden, another Christianity Today columnist, calls Jesus for President "thought-provoking".[30] While agreeing that the gospel should take precedence over secular affairs, Hylden writes that Claiborne and Haw advocate too much of a withdrawal from secular politics. Hylden favors the arguments of Paul the Apostle, Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who all reason that Christians should engage with government because God works through such institutions providentially. Hylden recognizes that Claiborne does not advocate withdrawing from engagement with the secular world in general, and Hylden commends Claiborne on "provid[ing] a valuable witness, showing that it is genuinely possible to live now in light of the gospel".[30]

Joan Braune of Jesuit magazine America writes that Jesus for President, which she calls "a brightly illustrated, smart hermeneutic", implicitly supports Christian anarchism.[6] In the Christian social justice magazine Sojourners, Cara Boekeloo recommends Jesus for Presidents to readers regardless of their age or denominational affiliation. Boekeloo is particularly approving of Fajardo-Heflin's artwork, writing that it "portrays brokenness, beauty, and love in a way that causes scripture to come alive".[11]

In December 2008, Mark Tooley, director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) United Methodist committee, wrote an opinion piece about Jesus for President in the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard. Tooley is heavily critical of the book and of Claiborne, writing, "On so many different levels, Claiborne lacks moral and spiritual perspective".[31] Tooley argues that Romans 13 affirms that punishing evildoers on behalf of God is one of the state's responsibilities, and Tooley criticizes as inadequate Claiborne's arguments that the reference in Romans 13 is to police work rather than military work. Tooley argues that Jesus for President is selective in its quotations from Church Fathers and instead relies heavily on the teachings of heterodox theologians, naming specifically Walter Brueggemann, John Dominic Crossan, and Walter Wink, people that Tooley writes would not "inspire confidence in orthodox Christians".[31] While praising as impressive Claiborne's story of nonviolence in response to personally being trapped with a friend in an alley by criminals who hit them with sticks, Tooley criticizes Claiborne for not explaining what he would have done in the case of encountering a pregnant woman who was being similarly treated. In reference to Claiborne's discussion of Martin Luther King Jr.'s pacifism and opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Tooley writes that King would have regretted his opposition if he had lived long enough to learn of the criminal nature of North Vietnam.[31]

Christopher Hitchens, an Anglo-American critic of religion, wrote an article in British tabloid newspaper the Sunday Express in response to Tooley's review. Hitchens calls Jesus for President "a terrible-sounding book" and Claiborne "a terrible-sounding person".[15] Hitchens argues that Claiborne and Tooley are attempting to justify their own views by ascribing them to Jesus, with Claiborne arguing that a Jesus would have supported liberation theology and Tooley arguing that Jesus would have supported neoconservatism. Hitchens argues that the debate is ridiculous because we cannot "hope to know" Jesus' opinion "or even to guess at it", and because "it takes a totalitarian mind-set to claim that only one Bronze Age Palestinian revelation or prophecy or text can be our guide".[15]

In 2015, Tooley, now president of the IRD, returned to the subject of Jesus for President, criticizing it during a speech he gave at Perimeter Church in Georgia. Tooley called Claiborne's pacifism both utopian and anti-American. Tooley argued that Jesus for President emulates the New Left in endorsing the fantasy "that nearly all evils in the world were born in America, ignoring the wars, barbarities and genocides of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, and countless others, whose tens of millions of victims apparently don't register."[32] Tooley said that the pacifism endorsed in Jesus for President contradicts both the teachings in the New Testament as well as the beliefs of nearly all Christians throughout history.[32]

In 2010, Brent Laytham wrote a review in The Christian Century, calling Jesus for President an "amazing book, which looks like a graphic novel but tastes like strong communion wine... challeng[ing] all of us who live comfortable Christian lives" to be more committed to the urban poor.[33] In 2012, David P. Gushee, director of Mercer University's Center for Theology and Public Life, named Jesus for President one of the five best books about patriotism, the others being Bonhoeffer's Ethics; Bruce Lincoln's Religion, Empire and Torture; Reinhold Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society; and A Testament of Hope, a collection of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches and writings. Gushee writes that he prefers "the critical patriotism of a Bonhoeffer or King, but such patriotism has no prayer without the witness of books like" Jesus for President.[16]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Jesus for President". Publishers Weekly 255 (4). January 28, 2008. p. 59.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Swanson, David (April 2, 2008). "Book Review: Jesus for President (Part 2)". Christianity Today. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Swanson, David (March 28, 2008). "Book Review: Jesus for President (Part 1)". Christianity Today. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Jesus for President". Publishers Weekly 255 (5). January 28, 2008. p. 60.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Brooks, Scott (December 6, 2008). "Maryville Man Aims for Faith Renewal". Knoxville News Sentinel. p. 29.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Braune, Joan (March 23, 2015). "The New Young Catholics". America 212 (10). p. 36.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Campell, Susan (June 22, 2008). "The Case for Jesus as President". Hartford Courant. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Westerlund, George (April 15, 2008). "Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals". Library Journal 133 (7): 89.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Riess, Jana (September 1, 2008). "Two "New Monastics" Tackle Prayer". Publishers Weekly 255 (3). p. 11.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Chalke (2009), n.p.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Boekeloo, Cara (April 1, 2008). "Pledging Allegiance". Sojourners 37 (4). p. 45.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Quinn, Christopher (July 19, 2008). "New Monastics Shed Wealth, Live Their Faith: Finding Meaning in Spirit, Family and Community". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. p. 1E.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Swanson, David (April 15, 2008). "Book Review: Jesus for President (Part 3)". Christianity Today. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  14. ↑ Reed, Randall W. (2014). "Emerging Treason?: Politics and Identity in the Emerging Church Movement". Critical Research on Religion 2 (1): 73.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Hitchens, Christopher (December 21, 2008). "God Save Us from the Goodwill Propaganda". Sunday Express. p. 35.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Gushee, David P. (June 2012). "My Top 5 Books on Patriotism". Christianity Today 56 (6). p. 68.
  17. ↑ Maughan, Shannon (February 2, 2009). "Spring 2009 Audio". Publishers Weekly 256 (5). p. 20.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Westerlund, George (April 15, 2008). "Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals". Library Journal 133 (7): 90.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 Marrapodi, Eric; Kate Bolduan (June 29, 2008). "Evangelical Movement Touts 'Jesus for President'". CNN. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chamberlain, Pam (2009). "Younger Evangelicals: Where Will They Take the Christian Right?". Christian Higher Education 8 (4): 336.
  21. ↑ Bolduan, Kate (July 13, 2008). "90 Banks on Government's Failure Watch List: McCain, Obama Present Economic Plans". CNN. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  22. ↑ Burke, Melissa Nann (October 23, 2008). "Some Christians Will Elect Not to Vote: They Have Moral Reasons for Conscientious Abstention". York Daily Record. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  23. ↑ Griffiths, Lawn (July 19, 2008). "Jesus for President, the Ultimate Third-Party Bid: Sermon on the Mount is at Core of Gilbert Church's Campaign". East Valley Tribune. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  24. ↑ Timpane, John (September 8, 2011). "Variety Show with a Point: Secular, Religious, Antiviolence & Delicious". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. D1.
  25. ↑ "Jesus, Bombs and Ice Cream: Duo Promotes a Peaceful World". CNN. September 11, 2011. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  26. ↑ Ermelino, Louisa (November 3, 2008). "PW's Best Books of the Year". Publishers Weekly 255 (44). p. 24.
  27. ↑ Rogers, Robin; Peter Goodwin Heltzel (2008). "The New Evangelical Politics". Society (45): 414.
  28. ↑ Craker, Lorilee (September 21, 2008). "On the Night Table". Winnipeg Free Press. p. D0.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 McCracken (2010), p. 213.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Hylden, Jordan (November 2008). "Aliens and Citizens: In the Body of Christ, We Learn How to Be Both". Christianity Today 52 (11). p. 37.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Tooley, Mark (December 22, 2008). "Surreal Faith". The Weekly Standard 14 (14). Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Tooley, Mark (February 23, 2015). "Evangelicals Must Resist Mainline Protestant Trajectory". The Christian Post. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  33. ↑ Laytham, Brent (May 4, 2010). "Ethics". The Christian Century 127 (9). p. 25.

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