Author Archive
Shane Claiborne
Occupy Nonviolence: Not Flesh and Blood
Friday, February 17th, 2012
Amid the recent police violence in Oakland and the sure temptation of some protestors to resort to violence, I wrote this little reflection inviting all Occupiers to a renewed commitment to nonviolence.
There is a verse in the Bible that says, “Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers of this dark world.” It is a reminder that there are people behind oppressive structures — people who laugh and cry and bleed just like everyone else –- and those people are not the enemies, but the systems are.
Is There Such Thing as a Good CEO? (VIDEO)
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
Check out this story about Haruka Nishimatsu, President and CEO of Japan Airlines, one of the biggest airlines in the world.
He takes public transportation, shares an office with co-workers, stands in line to eat at the cafeteria. When things got tough in the recession, Haruka cut all his corporate perks, and cut his own salary — making less than his pilots. He felt he needed to share their own pain, and struggle to figure out things like how to fix a water heater that breaks. In his own words, “Relating to what his employees experience” is key to his own survival. When asked about CEOs that make 400 times their workers, he laughed contagiously, and said, “I can’t imagine… Businesses that pursue money first fail.” He went on to say this is a very basic ethic that much of the corporate world has forgotten – people come before profits.
Exorcise Wall Street
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
There was an occasion in the 60s where a bunch of hippies surrounded the Pentagon and tried to exorcise the demons. It didn’t work. Despite their valiant effort, not much happened that day.
Nevertheless, I am one of those Christians who believes in angels and demons. But I think the traditional Christian understanding of these things needs a major makeover. Seems to me the Tempter comes in many forms, and is just as likely to dote a three-piece-suit and wingtips as he is to have horns and a pitchfork. And perhaps the angels look more like the bums in the alley than the feathered white babies on Hallmark cards.
I Apologize for Inaccurate Statistics on US Gov’t War Spending
Monday, February 13th, 2012
I APOLOGIZE FOR INACCURATELY QUOTING HOW MUCH THE US GOVERNMENT SPENDS ON WAR. For several years, I have been using a statistic that is grossly understated.
I often say that the US spends over 200,000 dollars a minute on war. Sadly, I did some research and had a bunch of my mathematician friends check my numbers, and we were devastated by what we found. The actual numbers are at least 6 times worse than we thought.
Dorothy Day the “Great Reformer”?
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
This morning, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Barack Obama named Dorothy Day as a “great reformer in American history”. Who woulda thunk it?
I think President Hoover called her a threat to national security.
Here’s the exact quote from the President’s speech:
We can’t leave our values at the door. If we leave our values at the door, we abandon much of the moral glue that has held our nation together for centuries, and allowed us to become somewhat more perfect a union. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Abraham Heschel — the majority of great reformers in American history did their work not just because it was sound policy, or they had done good analysis, or understood how to exercise good politics, but because their faith and their values dictated it, and called for bold action — sometimes in the face of indifference, sometimes in the face of resistance.
Collateral Murder and Preemptive Love
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Today I was catching up on emails and came across two messages that deeply affected me, maybe because I read them back to back. The first one is from a friend who helped release the “Collateral Murder” video with Wikileaks, showing US troops shooting some unarmed folks in Baghdad, including two children sitting in a van as their family stopped to pick up the wounded and dead. It is one of the most disturbing and heartbreaking videos I’ve ever seen. Feel free not to watch it.
NOTE: If you do watch the video, please know that it is contains vivid images of war. It was released here:
