Book: Jesus for President

Quick summary. I finished this book while at the Columbus MCUSA Convention. It was a book of challenge. One that makes you think about your relationship to government, power structures, institutions, and how you use these things to bring about good for yourself and others. The first half or so of the book is brilliantly structured around a history of the Bible, or as we say at Hesston College in Bib Lit - Heilsgeschichte. It is a German word meaning "salvation history."

I would recommend this book as an excellent read for a couple reasons.

-Great way to get a big picture of what God is doing in the Bible written from an "Anabaptist" perspective.

-Shane Claiborne and the intentional communities that he lives in are doing the work of justice, helping the poor, challenging the status quo when it elevates the elite at the expense of the "lesser".

-Challenges our notion of nationalism, patriotism, and even religious ideals that become idols, which have the potential to distract us from simply "following Jesus."

Get it and read it.