One of Us

Isaiah Thompson had some preconceived notions about his latest cover story.

by Brian Howard

I think about religion a lot.

Not because I'm a religious man. I'm not.

I think about religion, first of all, because disagreements about why we're here and what we're supposed to be doing have been igniting violent conflict for millennia.

And second, because, even though I'm not actively religious, I was raised Catholic and a lot of that practical Jesus wisdom — do unto others, blessed are the meek, don't kill stuff, etc. — is hard-wired in me, even if I don't believe that the guy who taught those lessons was divine.

Which is to say I recognize that there's much good to be gleaned from mankind's collected thinking about God. But centuries of war and, more recently, eight years of dogmatic fundamentalism masquerading as political conservatism have given religion — specifically Christianity — a bad name.

That's why this week's Isaiah Thompson-penned cover story about Kensington religious group The Simple Way is so intriguing. Here's this bunch of lefty radicals working in one of Philly's poorest communities doing things like feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, reclaiming blighted lots, encouraging community gardening — the kind of stuff we're advocating for constantly at City Paper. But they also love them some Jesus. For a lot of people reading this paper, that elicits a reflex response, as Thompson discovered while talking about the story with his friends.

"It wasn't that people's reactions ranged from curiosity to unease," he says. "It was more like contempt to outright hostility ... but it's not like my friends really knew many, if any, of the people I was writing about."

Isaiah admits he had some preconceived notions of his own.

"To be honest, when I first heard there was a house full of young Christians living in Kensington, I kind of assumed myself that they would be these naïve kids, preaching to drug users on the street about Jesus or something," he says. "As soon as I met Shane [Claiborne], I realized how wrong I was. The Simple Way people are incredibly introspective, probably to a fault sometimes. They're also very genuine, and they're also ambitious. That goes for Circle of Hope, as well."

Isaiah, like most of us, has had his issues with religious friends in the past — friends with different beliefs, friends who try to convert their friends.

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"I've been interested in religion since I was a kid," says Isaiah. "I'd say I spent about half my life railing against it as stupid and illogical — like I was some kind of kid Spock — and, fortunately, I've spent the latter half being interested in it. Once you let go of the idea that it's your job to judge a person's entire moral system, it becomes pretty interesting to sit down and hear what they have to say."

Of course, we're always worried about Isaiah when he starts working on a cover story. He's the kind of writer who goes so far down whatever particular rabbit hole he's investigating, we wonder if he'll ever come up. After he wrote a piece about scrap metal, he started collecting scrap. When writing about proposed library closings, he began crunching numbers so obsessively, we began looking for a spreadsheet addict support group.

Would he end up quitting his job and joining The Simple Way?

"Damn, I was hoping you wouldn't ask. Yes, I am now a radical Christian. I'm sewing me a new hemp robe as we speak," he jokes. "Nah, I was born a mostly secular Jew and I'll probably die a mostly secular Jew. ... I've been open-minded to other people's takes on faith for a while, that the idea of suddenly picking any one of them seems ridiculous, because I know there are others that — for me — would be just as good and just as problematic. I think Shane Claiborne has an interesting and compelling interpretation of Jesus, and that's he's done interesting and compelling things out of that — but that's a far cry from believing the Bible is the word of God."

(bhoward@citypaper.net)