Red Letter Reconciliation

We have been reading a book that we like so much, we’re making it the Book of the Week. It’s called Red Letter Revolution: What if Jesus really meant what He said? by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo.

The term “red letter” is a reference to the editions of the New Testament that have the words of Jesus written in red. Campolo writes in the introduction that he and a group of evangelical Christians adopted a name for themselves, Red Letter Christians, “who take the radical teachings of Jesus seriously and who are committed to living them out in our everyday lives.”

Campolo, who is in his eighties, is a well-known evangelical preacher, speaker and professor. Claiborne is in his early forties, and is also a writer, speaker and activist. As Campolo writes, “We are aware that while we agree for the most part on theology and social ethics, living out what we believe has taken different forms for each of us.”

The book Red Letter Revolution is presented as a series of 26 dialogues between the two theologians. We found this book, published in 2012, in the PCBC library catalog when we searched on the term “racism,” which is one of the 26 topics. The topics are divided into sections: Red Letter Theology, Red Letter Living, and Red Letter World. So far, we have read the discussions on racism, homosexuality, being pro-life, Islam, and women. We are looking forward to reading about civil disobedience, national debts, reconciliation, saints, hell, politics. Okay, we are looking forward to reading all of them. It’s good to expand our minds.

Dialogue. Two viewpoints exchanged in a respectful fashion with the goal of mutual understanding. It’s possible, friends. May we suggest that dialogue is critical to reconciliation and harmonious living? And may we deplore our current social atmosphere that trades dialogue for snarky yelling past anyone with a differing point of view?

We urge you to come check out Red Letter Revolution and read it. We also encourage you to engage in dialogue with other people to come to a mutual understanding about areas where you differ in opinion. You may never come to agreement, but you will very likely come to respect one another and maybe forge an alliance or friendship.

The principles of dialogue and mutual understanding are the basis for our Library’s pet project, Faithfully Yours, our PCBC alliance with the sisters and brothers of Concord Baptist Church. We have another Ladies Book Brunch coming up on April 2, at Concord. Yes, we’ll be talking about some wonderful books. But we will be talking, having dialogue, getting to know one another, developing friendships—building bridges. If you can, please come to the Ladies Book Brunch. It doesn’t really matter if you read one of the books or not: All that matters is that you come with an open heart and a yearning toward red letter living.