Charity wins awards and applause, but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for charity. People are crucified for living out a love that disrupts the social order, that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.
Shane ClaiborneChristianity can be built around isolating ourselves from evildoers and sinners, creating a community of religious piety and moral purity. Thatโs the Christianity I grew up with. Christianity can also be built around joining with the broken sinners and evildoers of our world crying out to God, groaning for grace. Thatโs the Christianity I have fallen in love with.
Shane ClaiborneThe more you look at the death penalty, that's where you see that we're actually not killing the worst of the worst. We're killing the poorest of the poor. Where actually one of the biggest determinants of who gets executed is how many resources they have to defend themselves.
Shane ClaiborneWe have a relational problem with those who are suffering or who are different from us. All of us are most comfortable around people who are like us culturally and economically.
Shane ClaiborneChristians pretty much live like everybody else, they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way.
Shane ClaiborneIt's unilaterally true that it costs more to maintain the death penalty than the alternatives to it, and we can leverage more resources to victims families. We can do all sorts of creative ways of healing the pain that people have done by channeling the energy and resources to other more redemptive forms of justice.
Shane Claiborne