Shane Claiborne has been known to sport a T-shirt with "Jesus was homeless" printed on it.

He wears dreadlocks, which clash with his native Tennessee accent, and he suggests people buy clothes from thrift stores, or better yet, make their own.

Claiborne, 33, lives in poverty-ridden, inner-city Philadelphia in a house with about 10 other young people.

He is not the stereotype of an evangelical Christian, but he claims that title.

Not far away in Camden, N.J., Chris Haw, 27, and his wife, who are Catholic, live in a similar situation.

Claiborne and Haw, visiting Atlanta today on a speaking tour, are authors and leaders in a religious movement called new monasticism.

It is an odd stew of Protestant sensibility and Catholic tradition, ancient spiritual disciplines and daily practical toil among the poor. The lifestyle is criticized by some Christians as hippie-dippy but its adherents take the Bible seriously.

"What we have been trying to do is read the words Jesus said and then asking, what if he really meant it?" Claiborne said by phone.

And so they have forsaken the American dream of nice homes and upwardly mobile jobs for something they say is bigger. They live communally, plant vegetable gardens in vacant lots, feed the hungry, take in the homeless and run after-school programs.

Claiborne and Haw are on their Jesus for President tour and co-wrote a book by the same name ("Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals," Zondervan, $16.99). From city to city, they have attracted crowds of up to a thousand mostly young people.

The book and their talks are collections of thoughts and warnings on faith and the temptations of financial or political power that are in contrast to the public face of conservative, politically motivated Christians in the last decade.

Claiborne admitted their book title is tongue in cheek, and they knew the tour would contrast with the presidential candidate entourages traveling the country.

"The funny thing is, Jesus' political manifesto is a terrible plan for running a superpower," he said by phone.

Loving your enemies and giving away what you have will not be on any political platform, he said.

But the philosophy attracts a growing number of teen to 30-something Christians like James Birdwell.

"I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist background," said Birdwell, 20, a student at Atlanta Christian College in East Point.

"And I never heard that gospel preached. I never heard of combining Jesus with social activism and helping the poor and actually reaching out to the broken and hurting rather than just inviting them to church."

Then he read one of Claiborne's books, he said. It is changing how he views and practices his faith, he said. He helps run a campus recycling program for his 500-student college. Instead of giving money to a church to support the institution, he would rather give food to someone who is hungry, Birdwell said.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of "New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today's Church," said young people who want to see someone actually living out their faith and learn to do the same are attracted to appearances by Claiborne and Haw.

The pair has also attracted the interest of media such as CNN and local newspapers.

About 80 communities like Claiborne's and Haw's have popped up, mostly in urban areas, in the last five years, Wilson-Hartgrove said. They are having an effect on churches, causing them to focus more work on social issues. There apparently is no such community in Atlanta.

Claiborne, who spent two summers working with Mother Teresa's group in India, said, "I hope that folks have their imagination sparked to think about how we live and not hope that politicians are going to change the world for us," he said.

"The big question is not how we vote on Nov. 4, but how we live on Nov. 3 and Nov. 5."

IF YOU GO

Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, authors of "Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals". Community Fellowship Church, 1766 Lakewood Ave., Atlanta. 7 tonight.