I'm a big fan of reading books and I have a hard time being negative towards any book that I take the time to read. I can almost always find redeeming value to reading any book, even the most boring ones. Jesus for President is not one of those books. I very strongly and very enthusiastically support the reading of this book. Shane Claiborne (who stayed with my wife and me when he spoke at Lee last Spring) is ridiculous. From the very outset of his book, he strives to show the dangers of fuzing the kingdoms of the world with the kingdom of God. Beginning in the Old Testament, working into the New, examining the early church, and finally critiquing and challenging the present, Shane does a thorough job of calling the church to be the church. He re-envisions how the world can and should look if Christians were really looking and loving like Jesus.
This book can be very imposing and hard-hitting if the reader is not ready to critically think and question much of what their possible conservative up-bringing has told them. Issues of violence, war, economics, homosexuality, poverty, environment and much more find their way into this book. Shane doesn't pull a single punch and doesn't hide his thoughts and feelings.
There is much more I could and should say about this book, but I promised that this would be short. Maybe I'll add more in the near future...
Read Jesus for President. It could and should make you think and make you see things with new eyes.
