I’ve been reading the book Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. It’s a great book by a couple of radical Christian activists outlining their version of a political theology: how Christians can and should relate to presidents and kings, empire and government.  According to Publisher’s Weekly, "Their entertaining yet provocative tour of the Bible’s social and economic order makes even the most abstruse Levitical laws come alive for our era. They also provide a valuable political context for Christ’s life, reminding readers that Jesus did not preach the need to put God back into government—he urged his followers to live by a different set of rules altogether, to hold themselves apart as peculiar people.*"  Regardless of your agreement or disagreement with this perspective, their insights and ideas are well worth mulling over during this important year in our country’s political history.

Teaming up with their friends Jim Loney, a Christian Peacemaker Teams reservist, and Brian Walsh, an activist theologian, Shane and Chris have created a beautiful and moving "Litany of Resistance" that they include as an appendix to the book.  We’ve decided to republish it here as a nonviolence resource.  It’s also available from their website as an MS Word document.  You can use it in the context of a larger worship service, in a church small group, or in your living room with a group of friends.  I hope it moves you as much as it does me.

 

Litany of Resistance

by Shane Claiborne, Chris Haw, Jim Loney and Brian Walsh

 

One:  Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.

All:  Have mercy on us. 

One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.

All: Free us from the bondage of sin and death. 

One:  Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.

All: Hear our prayer.  Grant us peace. 

One:  For the victims of war.

All:  Have mercy. 

One: Women, men and children.

All:  Have mercy. 

One:  The maimed and the crippled.

All:  Have mercy. 

One:  The abandoned and the homeless.

All:  Have mercy. 

One:  The widowed and the orphaned.

All:  Have mercy. 

One:  The bleeding and the dying.

All:  Have mercy. 

One:  The weary and the desparate.

All:  Have mercy. 

One:  The lost and the forsaken.

All:  Have mercy. 

One:  O God, have mercy on us sinners.

All:  Forgive us for we know not what we do. 

One:  For our scorched and blackened earth.

All:  Forgive us. 

One:  For the scandal of billions wasted in war.

All:  Forgive us. 

One:  For our arms makers and arms dealers.

All:  Forgive us. 

One:  For our Caesars and our Herods.

All:  Forgive us. 

One:  For the violence that is rooted in our hearts.

All:  Forgive us. 

One:  For the times we turn others into enemies.

All:  Forgive us. 

One:  Deliver us, O God.

All:  Guide our feet into the way of peace. 

One:  Hear our prayer.

All:  Grant us peace. 

One:  From the arrogance of power.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the myth of redemptive violence.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the tyranny of greed.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the ugliness of racism.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the cancer of hatred.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the seduction of wealth.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the addiction of control.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the idolatry of nationalism.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the paralysis of cynicism.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the violence of apathy.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the ghettos of poverty.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From the ghettos of wealth.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  From a lack of imagination.

All:  Deliver us. 

One:  Deliver us, O God.

All:  Guide our feet into the way of peace. 

One:  We will not conform to the patterns of this world.

All:  Let us be transformed by the renewing of our minds. 

One:  With the help of God’s grace.

All:  Let us resist evil wherever we find it. 

One:  With the waging of war.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With the legalization of murder.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With the slaughter of innocents.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With laws that betray human life.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With the destruction of community.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With the pointing finger and malicious talk.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With the idea that happiness must be purchased.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With the ravaging of the earth.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With principalities and powers that oppress.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With the destruction of peoples.

All:  We will not comply. 

One:  With the raping of women. 

All:  We will not comply.

One:  With governments that kill. 

All:  We will not comply.

One:  With the theology of empire. 

All:  We will not comply.

One:  With the business of militarism. 

All:  We will not comply.

One:  With the hoarding of riches. 

All:  We will not comply.

One:  With the dissemination of fear. 

All:  We will not comply.

One:  Today we pledge our ultimate allegiance to the kingdom of God. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To a peace that is not like Rome’s. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the gospel of enemy-love. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the kingdom of the poor and broken. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To a king who loves his enemies so much he died for them. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the least of these, with whom Christ dwells. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the transnational church that transcends the artificial borders of nations. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the refugee of Nazareth. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the homeless rabbi who had no place to lay his head. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the cross rather than the sword. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the banner of love above any flag. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the one who rules with a towel rather than an iron fist. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the one who rides a donkey rather than a war horse. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the revolution that sets both oppressed and oppressors free. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the way that leads to life. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  To the slaughtered lamb. 

All:  We pledge allegiance.

One:  And together we proclaim his praises, from the margins of the empire to the centers of wealth and power. 

All:  Long live the slaughtered lamb.

One:  Long live the slaughtered lamb. 

All:  Long live the slaughtered lamb.