Shane Claiborne is pictured speaking at WC in 2018.
Author/activist Shane Claiborne will pose the challenging question, “How can we turn our backs on the homeless and worship one on Sunday?” when he returns to Wilmington College with a program highlighting homelessness on Oct. 4, at 7 p.m., in the McCoy Room of Kelly Center.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is the first program in the 2023-24 Office of Campus Ministry's Quaker Lecture Series.
Claiborne is a champion for grace, which has led him to jail while advocating for the homeless, and to places like Iraq and Afghanistan to stand against war. Indeed, grace fuels his passion to end the death penalty and help stop gun violence.
He is a prominent speaker, activist and best-selling author who worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta and founded The Simple Way community in the poorest area of Philadelphia. He also heads Red Letter Christians, a movement of persons who are committed to living "as if Jesus meant the things he said." Claiborne's books include Jesus for President, Red Letter Revolution, Common Prayer, Follow Me to Freedom, Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers, Jesus, Bombs and Ice Cream, Executing Grace, Beating Guns and his classic, The Irresistible Revolution.
He has been featured in such films as Another World Is Possible and Ordinary Radicals. Claiborne speaks to groups more than 100 times a year, nationally and internationally, and his work has appeared in Esquire, SPIN, Christianity Today, TIME and The Wall Street Journal. He has appeared on broadcast media ranging from Fox News and Al Jazeera to CNN and NPR. Also, Claiborne has given academic lectures at Harvard, Princeton, Liberty, Duke and Notre Dame universities.
He previously visited WC in 2018, 2019 and 2022. While on campus, Claiborne will join classes and attend a gathering with local shelter directors, clergy and community volunteers as they enter into the dialogue of ways to make our communities better for all who live in them.