Reading Shane's Book

My buddy Shane came out with a book a few months back that I have been meaning to read for some time. I finally got my hands on a copy (thanks Marcus and Abby!) and have been reading through it. Wonderful stuff. Really.

I have asked in previous posts where are the St. Francises or the Rich Mullins or the Dr. Kings of our day. Shane is one of them...not to raise him to some demigod category, but to acknowledge that some people really are taking the teachings of the Master seriously.

There are a few appendices in the back and one is his letter that he wrote just before he left for Iraq to practice peacemaking. I found it beautiful, so I copied a short portion of it below... For the full letter, click here.

I am going to Iraq because I believe in a God of scandalous grace. If I believed terrorists were beyond redemption, I would need to rip out half of my New Testament Scriptures, for they were written by a converted terrorist. I have pledged allegiance to a King that loved evildoers so much He died for them (and of course the people of Iraq are no more evil or more holy than the people of the US), teaching us that there is something worth dying for...but nothing worth killing for. While the terrorists were nailing Him to the cross, my Jesus pleaded that they be shown mercy for they know what they were doing. We are all wretched, and we are all beautiful. No one is beyond redemption and no one is beyond repute. May we see in the hands of the oppressors our own hands, and in the faces of the oppressed our own faces. We are made of the same dust, and we cry the same salty tears. Keep reading...