When tragedy struck the Nashville community on Monday, perhaps like many of you, I turned to someone who’s been in the trenches against gun violence (and for gun reform) for a number of years now.
Shane Claiborne is an activist, a speaker, and the bestselling author of a number of books. Unapologetic in his view that each and every human on the face of this earth has value, simply and solely because of a stamp of holiness made present in their humanity, Shane fights for life — which also means that he vehemently fights against injustice, in all its many shapes and forms.
For Shane, “protestifying” (meaning to protest and to imaginatively prophesy) guns means “exposing injustice, amplifying the people impacted, and casting an alternative vision for the future.” For all of us, it means asking, “What are the things that are crushing people’s lives and how might we creatively move people’s hearts to respond?”
That last question is at the heart of Shane’s newest release, Rethinking Life, which invites readers to embrace the sacredness of every person and step into a kind of activism that holds love at its center. To be clear, the book is not centered on gun violence reform or even pacifism, but instead looks at a host of issues, alongside historical and theological insights, and invites readers into a different, more compassionate response.
More than anything, I appreciate that Shane sees beyond the vitriolic discourse of left and right, blue and red, Democrat and Republican, and instead invites all of us into a newer, better kind of conversation. If change is going to come, this is exactly what we need moving forward.1
I could go on, but instead, I’ll let Shane take it from here. Enjoy!
Cara Meredith: How are you coloring outside of the lines, all over again?
Shane Claiborne: Rethinking Life is a special book because it refuses to concede to the culture wars and the unhelpful categories of "Left and Right" or "Conservative and Liberal." It is about advocating for life comprehensively from "womb to tomb." At the heart of this book is the conviction that every person bears the image of God, every human being is a child of God with immeasurable worth — and anything that crushes someone's life or dignity matters to God. So it is not about issues, but about people — the question I am asking throughout the book is "What does love require of us?"
Cara Meredith You wrote a book! Tell us! What upside-down idea were you trying to turn right side up again?
Shane Claiborne: The idea of having a consistent ethic of life is not brand new, but it is resonating in a fresh way with lots of folks. There is no political party that is consistently FOR life. Every President since George Bush has raised the military budget, to the point that we are now spending over 20,000 per second on militarism and war, and we have bombs nearly 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Nearly every day we are reminded that we have a national crisis of gun violence, which is now the #1 cause of death of American children. We are one of only a handful of countries in the world that is actively executing its own citizens (the US is always among the top 10 and usually the top 5 countries with most executions). So we have much work to do to advocate for life. I point to some of the historic heroes and sheroes when it comes to advocating for life — folks like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King... and basically the first 300 years of Christianity was a force for life. They stood against death in every manifestation in their society — they were against war and military combat, against the death penalty, they spoke out against abortion, and against the gladitorial games which they saw as a glorification of violence in their culture. The question we ask in the book is what does it look like to move beyond bumper stickers and t-shirts, slogans and talking points, and actually be a force for life again.
Cara Meredith: Okay. We talk so much about audience when it comes to book-writing, but tell me: what did you learn about yourself while penning these words?
Shane Claiborne: I've always liked the Scripture that says we are "working out our salvation with fear and trembling." We are all works in process. I grew up in the Bible belt, in East Tennessee — that's where I fell in love with Jesus. I also grew up with a very narrow definition of what it means to be pro-life. We had so narrowly defined what "pro-life" means that we would be more accurate — I would have been more accurate — to say that I was pro-birth or anti-abortion... it is a strange thing to live in a culture where you can be pro-guns, pro-war, pro-death-penalty, and still claim to be pro-life... as long as you are against abortion. I have changed my mind on many issues, and this book is about that journey. It is also about the mythology of America — where we often think we are an exceptional force for life and goodness in the world... but if we are honest, history tells a different story. Even Christianity, throughout the darkest parts of history, has had competing narratives one of which defended violence and one that confronted it. I want to see a version of Christianity flourish that is about love and life, and human flourishing.
Cara Meredith: Putting ourselves out there when it comes to storytelling is always a risk. What is the biggest, fleshiest risk you took with this book?
Shane Claiborne: I always try to write with a bit of transparency, about my own doubts and questions... but the people who I think have taken the greatest risk on this book are the women — women leaders and writers, women in my life like my mom and my wife (both of whom helped me write this book). I end the book with the invitation to become midwives of a better world, and to listen to and follow women of faith who I think have so much to offer us when it comes to valuing and advocating for life.
Cara Meredith: Publishing a book is a shiny milestone! What else are you celebrating in your ordinary, everyday life?
Shane Claiborne: My wife and I just opened a new shop in Philadelphia where we are transforming guns into garden tools and other life-giving things. We blacksmith together several hours a week and we love it. It feels so good to get guns off the streets and chop them up and repurpose them. We get our name from flipping "WAR" around — RAW tools — and there is something holy, sacramental about beating guns into garden tools. It harkens back to the ancient vision of the prophets, Micah and Isaiah, who spoke of beating "swords into plows and spears into pruning hooks"... so I loved smelling like smoke from the forge as I was writing this new book about subverting death.2
P.P.S. All of these brilliant questions (and the sub theme as well) stem from interviews that the equally brilliant
originally created. I adapted them for this space, but the origins are all hers!1000%, aka: see Tuesday’s Instagram reel.
RAW Tools (and its sister organization, Guns to Gardens) is dear to my heart and a movement I’m deeply involved in here in Oakland. Get involved today!