Shane Claiborne is a bit of an idealist, if you ask me. He’s always pulling some stunt to symbolize solidarity with the poor, like living in an abandoned church in community with other people stuck in the grips of poverty. He seems to think that the problems of poverty might one day be solved.
Or when asked to speak at a conference, he might only oblige if the requesting organization can come up with a way to reduce pollution in an amount to exceed the pollution that will be generated by Claiborne’s travel to the conference. Great idea, but let’s not think we can track pollution in some sort of ledger format such that green initiatives can actually offset earmarked amounts of pollution. God’s creation can probably make it all balance out anyway.
In his latest zany action, he wrote a letter to the IRS informing them that he was reducing his tax payment by 30% because he knows that 30% of his tax money will go toward supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He plans to donate that 30% to a Christian organization that will promote peace and reconciliation. Yeah right. Like the U.S. government is going to track his dollars to make sure that it funds only non-military activities. Who does this guy think he is? Just because Jesus talked about peacemaking doesn’t mean we can’t support wars when we are obviously the good guys. Right?
