Shane Claiborne Bio, Family, Books, The Simple Way and Quotes

Shane Claiborne Biography

Shane Claiborne is an American Christian activist and author who is a leading figure in the New Monasticism movement and one of the founding members of The Simple Way, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Shane Claiborne Age

He was born on July 11, 1975, in East Tennessee. He is 43 years old as of 2018.

Shane Claiborne Family

His father, a Vietnam War veteran, died when Shane was 9 years old. No information on his mother or siblings is disclosed to the public.

Shane Claiborne Wife

He is married to Katie Jo Brotherton. They got married in 2011.

Shane Claiborne Children

No information on his children is revealed to the public.

Shane Claiborne Educational Background

Claiborne, a graduate of Eastern University where he studied sociology and youth ministry, did his final academic job at Wheaton College in Illinois for Eastern University. Claiborne was doing an internship at the Willow Creek Community Church while at Wheaton.

Shane Claiborne Books

Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence, with Michael Martin
Executing Grace – How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It’s Killing Us
The Irresistible Revolution – Updated and Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro
“What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?”
Follow Me To Freedom: Leading and Following as an Ordinary Radical, with John Perkins
Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals, with Chris Haw
Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals, with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
Iraq Journal 2003

Shane Claiborne Quotes

“And I think that’s what our world is desperately in need of – lovers, people who are building deep, genuine relationships with fellow strugglers along the way, and who actually know the faces of the people behind the issues they are concerned about.”

“We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy, too. But I guess that’s why God invented highlighers, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.”

“I saw a banner hanging next to city hall in downtown Philadelphia that read, “Kill them all, and let God sort them out.” A bumper sticker read, “God will judge evildoers; we just have to get them to him.” I saw a T-shirt on a soldier that said, “US Air Force… we don’t die; we just go to hell to regroup.” Others were less dramatic- red, white, and blue billboards saying, “God bless our troops.” “God Bless America” became a marketing strategy. One store hung an ad in their window that said, “God bless America–$1 burgers.” Patriotism was everywhere, including in our altars and church buildings. In the aftermath of September 11th, most Christian bookstores had a section with books on the event, calendars, devotionals, buttons, all decorated in the colors of America, draped in stars and stripes, and sprinkled with golden eagles.
This burst of nationalism reveals the deep longing we all have for community, a natural thirst for intimacy… September 11th shattered the self-sufficient, autonomous individual, and we saw a country of broken fragile people who longed for community- for people to cry with, be angry with, to suffer with. People did not want to be alone in their sorrow, rage, and fear.
But what happened after September 11th broke my heart. Conservative Christians rallies around the drums of war. Liberal Christian took to the streets. The cross was smothered by the flag and trampled under the feet of angry protesters. The church community was lost, so the many hungry seekers found community in the civic religion of American patriotism. People were hurting and crying out for healing, for salvation in the best sense of the word, as in the salve with which you dress a wound. A people longing for a savior placed their faith in the fragile hands of human logic and military strength, which have always let us down. They have always fallen short of the glory of God.
…The tragedy of the church’s reaction to September 11th is not that we rallied around the families in New York and D.C. but that our love simply reflected the borders and allegiances of the world. We mourned the deaths of each soldier, as we should, but we did not feel the same anger and pain for each Iraqi death, or for the folks abused in the Abu Ghraib prison incident. We got farther and farther from Jesus’ vision, which extends beyond our rational love and the boundaries we have established. There is no doubt that we must mourn those lives on September 11th. We must mourn the lives of the soldiers. But with the same passion and outrage, we must mourn the lives of every Iraqi who is lost. They are just as precious, no more, no less. In our rebirth, every life lost in Iraq is just as tragic as a life lost in New York or D.C. And the lives of the thirty thousand children who die of starvation each day is like six September 11ths every single day, a silent tsunami that happens every week.”

Shane Claiborne The Simple Way

About The Simple Way

As adapted from thesimpleway.org

We are a small organization supporting neighbors in building a neighborhood we’re all proud of in Kensington, Philadelphia.

We celebrate together. We garden and work to make our neighborhood beautiful. We collaborate locally in practical ways, like working for food security and connecting people with nearby resources. When we run into bigger systems that throw obstacles in our neighbors’ way, we advocate for systemic change together. Ultimately, we envision all of our neighbors coming to a place of security that enables growth and flourishing.

We started when a group of friends moved into Kensington who felt motivated to love and care for people in our neighborhood and around the world. Now, we’re a mix of folks who grew up in Kensington and others who became neighbors more recently. But our work is still rooted in a genuine love for our neighbors and relationships where we enjoy each others’ strengths.