In this episode we bring together London based sociologist, pastor and community theologian Sally Mann and Philadelphia based social activist and author Shane Claiborne. Shane had crossed the pond to join Sally and others in launching Red Letter Christians UK. So we took the opportunity to quiz them about the state of evangelicalism in both the UK and US, what lies at the heart of their faith, their concerns about post-evangelicalism, and why they see signs of hope in the Red Letter Christians movement.
After the interview Nomad hosts David Blower, Jemimah McAlpine, Tim Nash and Nick Thorley reflect on their own experiences of evangelicalism, their subsequent deconstructions, and where they are seeing hope.
Interview starts at 12m 30s
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“People hear the word ‘evangelical’ they think anti-gay, anti-women, racist, pro-guns, pro-military, anti-environment – so many of the things I think would nauseate Jesus…I found that the deeper I fell in love with Jesus, the more I found myself at odds with evangelicalism.”
“The real place that I think Christianity is best defined is as a ‘minority report’ within a community – not people that hold coercive power. I think we need to let go of that idea that we can dictate moral programs to the nation. I think we need to embrace the idea that we are living a counter-cultural movement – which will probably always be on the edge – and to embrace the idea of small can be very effective. Small authentic community can be mustard seed, can be wheat, can be yeast. I think giving up the idea of having a kind of institutional power – a right to institutional power – it’s healthy that we’re being shaken free of that.”
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