Jesus for President

This past week I have had my gut wrenched in tension. I finished Shane Claiborne's new book Jesus for President and then heard him speak on the subject. I also have observed somethings this past week and this evening that have allowed me to see things a little bit newer.
In the book Shane and his boy Chris Haw painted a picture of the political history of Israel. They talked about our relationship with God and the struggle that existed there in the B.C. They also brought out the startling color of Jesus' presence in the world and His teachings. The idea was that Jesus was not passive and He was not violent. Through His teachings he taught Love above everything else. That those who want to hurt or violate us can be disarmed with Love.
Shane and Chris then translated this teaching on Jesus to modern day America or "The Empire" as they called it. After reading through this book I can't say that I completely agree with everything that they are saying (it wouldn't be a good thing if I did) but their position has forced me to think and look at exactly what I believe myself. So as a result I am sitting in tension (my favorite word for the past year).
I had taken students to see Shane and Chris speak and in the discussion afterwards they were constantly throwing out "what if" questions out. I am not a big fan of these questions (because there will always be another what if) but I entertained the "what if" questions asked by the small group of students that fit into my parents Pacifica. I don't know if they were happy with my response because I told them we had to live in Tension, that it is a good thing to live in between places. If we don't get that turning feeling in our stomachs about an issue then we are not living up to the potential that God has created us to.
If you do pick up Jesus for President I'll tell you the same thing I told my students, that you have to remember (and this is displayed very well in the book) that whenever you are confronted with big issue questions you have to take them back to who God is and God has shown us over and over again throughout history that He is Love (compassion) and Holy (justice). Tension is a wonderful thing isn't it.