Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw
Zondervan; Book, 2008, 368 pp.; Tour DVD, 2012, $29.99
Many Christians have strong opinions about which presidential candidate to support. Shane Claiborne and collaborator Chris Haw believe Christians should spend more time wrestling with deeper questions, such as: Is your loyalty to God or Caesar?
Claiborne and Haw want believers to place their faith in Jesus, not politics; and their slogan for the series is: “Enough donkeys and elephants. It’s time for the Lamb.” This may sound simplistic, but they actually dig deep into Scripture, church history and theology in their 2008 book, and in a six-session DVD filmed during their 2008 lecture tour, which recently was released and packaged with the book.
Claiborne, who appeared on the cover of Christianity Today’s 2005 issue on “The New Monasticism“, is a founder of Philadelphia’s Simple Way, whose members live and work among the poor of Philadelphia. He’s also a speaker and writer, who is popular with many youth workers.
Young people under voting age may not get much from this series, but those 18 or older who want to think Christianly about their roles as citizens will find much worth considering.
Jesus for President revisits the early centuries of the church (when Christians were powerless often and persecuted by the Roman Empire), contrasting the past with the present, when many believers place too much faith in politics to solve life’ problems.
The authors show that misplaced faith in rulers is a perennial human weakness, dating back at least to the time when Israel clamored for a king (
At a time when discussions of politics generate more heat than light, Jesus for President offers Christians an opportunity to reconsider the words of Jesus: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (
