Giveaway at Jesus Needs New PR!

http://jesusneedsnewpr.blogspot.com/2009/11/chris-tomlin-christmas-stocking.html

Obama 08

I'm Canadian, so I guess in some ways I don't have a right or reason to have an opinion on the recent election. I read two blogs pretty regularly, though, one by Jen Lancaster, who is an unashamed Republican from Chicago, and one by Heather Armstrong, an open Democrat from Utah. Recently they both posted what I considered to be quite fair and honest responses to the election. I was impressed, to say the least, that neither took the opportunity to tear apart the other team's politics, but spoke from the heart... read on if you're interested.

Jennsylvania (R)

Dooce (D) - last two paragraphs

"The Girl in the Window"

I found this article through dooce. I'm still in shock that a mother could do this.

***Warning*** This article will make you cry.

It makes me want to do everything I can to make sure that every child is loved. In the whole world.

People ask me all the time what I want to do when I graduate, and that's it, really - I want to love children the way Christ loves them, and teach them to love others in the same way. That's my career goal, in a nutshell.

Another quote:

"Christianity can be built around isolating ourselves from evildoers and sinners, creating a community of religious piety and moral purity. That's 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. That's the Christianity I have fallen in love with."
- The Irresistible Revolution

As I didn't really grow up in the Church, the first statement is more "That was my understanding of Christianity, growing up," for me. And this paragraph, and a conversation I had earlier tonight about my dislike for the word 'religion,' make me wonder - how do we get people to see the difference? It's one thing for me, on the inside, so to speak, and (hopefully) at least working toward the second definition, to understand the difference. But for people who don't seek to follow God at all, and only see Christianity from the outside... how do we help them to see the difference?

The Irresistible Revolution

"Simplicity is meaningful only inasmuch as it is grounded in love, authentic relationships, and interdependence. Redistribution then springs naturally out of our rebirth, from a vision of family that is larger than biology or nationalism. As we consider what it means to be "born again," as the evangelical jargon goes, we must ask what it means to be born again into a family in which our brothers and sisters are starving to death. Then we begin to see why rebirth and redistribution are inextricably bound up in one another, as a growing number of evangelicals have come to proclaim. It also becomes scandalous for the church to spend money on windows and buildings when some family members don't even have water. Welcome to the dysfunctional family of Yahweh."
The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

Think what you will about Shane Claiborne, his theology, or his books - but this paragraph really struck me today. I don't know exactly how it will apply to my life but I have a feeling I won't be able to go on living the same way with this concept swimming around in my brain...

Thoughts?