Matthew Henry John Bartlett

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Sunday 17 May, 02009

Scattery notes from Shane Claiborne’s Thursday night talk

by Matthew Bartlett @ 10:24 am

Reckless love of neighbour. We (church) have forgotten who we are. Contrast society. cf Amish & the shooting. Embezzlement – the sin of the contemporary church. Alternative to insurance: communities of redistribution. Bear each others burdens. Not ‘how can we accumulate more?’ but ‘how can we live off less?’. Reconciliation must start in our homes. Whole-heartedness. Creation care. Personalism. Living on US$150/month. All having just part-time jobs so that there’s time for non-economic work.

4 responses to “Scattery notes from Shane Claiborne’s Thursday night talk”

  1. holtslag says:

    I wonder – living on US$150 per month. I presume that is after things like rent/power/groceries is already purchased and paid for communally. So incomes are pooled and communal expenses paid, and then $150 is your personal discretionary income. But then maybe I’m just confused because looking at the simple way website I could not find any info on this detail, apart from a similar detail which was – suggested donation of US$150 per month to live in the intentional community. Maybe that’s what he was talking about?

  2. Matthew Bartlett says:

    I thought he was saying the US$150/month paid for everything. That is an extraordinarily small amount of money. My house lives on about USD$600/month/person after tax, including everything (savings, donations, drum kits, trips to Perth).

    I couldn’t find an email address on his website to ask him, but you could write to him I suppose: The Simple Way, PO Box 14751, Philadelphia, PA 19134, USA.

  3. richie_f says:

    I’m going to put it out there that it’s impossible to live off US$150/month under ordinary circumstances.

  4. Simon says:

    US$150 is like a half a good night out. Assuming that I only went out one night every five years, I think $150.00 per month is easily doable.

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