The Nonviolent Jesus

This week I speak with my friend Jim Finley, the beloved teacher of contemplation and mysticism.When he was a teenager, Jim entered the Abbey of Gethsemani and was a novice and later a friend of Thomas Merton. Eventually, he left the monastery, became a clinical psychologist, and opened his practice in Los Angeles, where he still lives.He wrote the first serious book about Merton’s spirituality, Merton’s Palace of Nowhere. Jim has taught and lectured on Merton, spirituality and mysticism for over 50 years, and these days is a faculty member of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Living School at the Center for Action and Contemplation.He hosts a free popular podcast, “Turning to the Mystics,” centering on Christian mysticism and contemplative living, which has hundreds of thousands of regular listeners.He is author of several other bestsellers, such as The Awakening Call, The Contemplative Heart, and his recent memoir, The Healing Path.This year, Orbis Books is launching a ten volume series by Jim on the mystics, such as Teresa of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Meister Eckhart. The first volume is on Merton.This year, Orbis Books is launching a massive, ten volume series by Jim on the mystics, such as Teresa of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Meister Eckhart, and the first volume comes out in a few months on Thomas Merton.Jim has done two wonderful zoom presentations for the Beatitudes Center which you can listen to, like tens of thousands of others, on our free YouTube channel.“I saw Merton as a living mystic,” he tells me. “I was so honored to be in his presence. He was my spiritual director, so every other week for six years, I would meet with him and he would always ask the three same questions."He says he learned from Merton that “the only way to ever be at peace is to accept myself as I am, because I'll never be anyone else.”Listen as Jim relates to us how God's presence resides in ourselves and others, and why we have to accept that we are infinitely accepted. Be inspired by him and his words for Holy Week to deepen in the contemplative life of mystical peace!You can also subscribe to my Substack and find more about our work on our website https://beatitudescenter.org

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with writer and scholar of nonviolent resistance, Daniel Hunter. He coaches and trains movements across the globe; is a founder of ChooseDemocracy.us which organizes against authoritarianism; and is currently the director of Freedom Trainers. freedomtrainers.net His books include "What Will You Do If Trump Wins,” "Climate Resistance Handbook" and "Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow." His essays about resistance to growing fascism are widely read on wagingnonviolence.org“How can you help stop authoritarianism?” he asks. “You stop viewing them as legitimate; you non-cooperate and don't comply with their orders.”He speaks on the influence of the No Kings protests on elections, Steven Miller's nationalist goals, the Disney boycott, and how to stop authoritarianism. “We are seeing unprecedented collective action. Authoritarianism does not care about polls or the number of activists protesting. Authoritarian power only cares about what it can make us do.”He also reminds us of the National 'No Kings' protests coming on March 28th and 'May Day Strong' on May 1st which calls for no work, no school, and no shopping. "This is a good moment. We're ready to take on the biggest super villain the world has ever seen. Every action, everything we're doing--it's all adding up right now.”nokings.orgmaydaystrong.orgbeatitudescenter.orgfatherjohndear.substack.com

Today I speak with Jonathan Kuttab on Palestine. He is the executive director of FOSNA, Friends of Sabeel North America, the best Christian solidarity group working with Palestinians for peace. Jonathan is also co-founder of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and co-founder of Nonviolence International. A well-known international human rights attorney, Jonathan practices in the US, Palestine and Israel. He serves on the Board of Bethlehem Bible College and is President of the Board of Holy Land Trust. He was the head of the Legal Committee negotiating the Cairo Agreement of 1994 between Israel and the PLO.“The war on Gaza is continuing even today,” he told me just before the US/Israel declared illegal war on Iran. “They're refusing medicine, food, journalists, aid, and they're using the ceasefire to continue the genocide. The world is allowing this to continue, and it breaks my heart.”Jonathan explains why most Christian Palestinians are nonviolent peacemakers, and have been since the 1st century. His conclusion:"Violence does not work. It does not deliver what it is supposed to deliver."FOSNA promotes the vision of Sabeel Jerusalem, an ecumenical liberation theology movement founded by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land, joining Friends of Sabeel chapters around the world. As a nonprofit organization in the United States, they amplify the voice of Palestinians by advocating with churches, communities, and civic leaders for justice, peace, and liberation in Palestine. See www.fosna.org and www.jonathankuttab.org for more information on Jonathan and FOSNA. I have worked with them for many years and gave a keynote speech at the Sabeel conference in Bethlehem in 2008 with the Cardinal of Jerusalem, you can find it here: www.sabeel.org“It is possible for people to live together!” Jonathan concludes. “We have lived together peacefully in the past, and hopefully we will in the future". Listen in to this Palestinian voice for peace today and be inspired to join the grassroots movement of ordinary Christinas trying to live out the teachings of Christ in the 21st century.www.beatitudescenter.org

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with Rev. Amy Brooks Paradise of Greenfaith.org, a global, multifaith, grassroots network working to protect creation and resist environmental destruction around the world. She previously served as the Education Director for the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network in Charlotte, NC and also as the Pastor for the UU Fellowship of Lake Norman in NC. She lives outside Charlotte with her partner and daughter.“We work with people around the world who are most impacted by climate change,” Amy says. “We encourage people to get involved in local climate issues and make different choices that protect creation.” Check out their website to see some of their grassroots campaigns. “We all see that natural disasters are bigger, more catastrophic and happening more often and everywhere,” she continues. “Scientifically, it is proven our climate is getting warmer, and our use of fossil fuels is the main contributor to global warming. Why is it okay to continue to use fossil fuels?" "The fossil fuel companies created a massive disinformation campaign that became politicized and promoted by politicians. We're now living in a world that is breaking down because the global economy depends on fossil fuel. I'm excited to see so many countries embracing renewable energy, and people of faith involved in these struggles.”She encourages each one of us to get involved: "Find your people, find your community, choose your issue, get training, start showing up in public and doing the work. We are made for times like this, this is exactly what people in faith are for!"Put your faith into action and join Greenfaith today!beatitudescenter.orgjohndear.orggreenfaith.orghttps://fatherjohndear.substack.com/

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I offer part 2 of my reflection on my new book, Universal Love: Surrendering to the God of Peace.If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, it will be helpful to listen to last week's podcast first. There I tell how the book came about, and why I wrote it.I conclude the first episode with the story of my visit with Archbishop Tutu in Cape Town, South Africa, where he confided with me his thoughts on free will as the basis of understanding God and our work for peace, justice and nonviolence,In this 2nd episode, I’ll reflect on the connection between nonviolence and surrendering our will to God, and the political consequences of doing God’s will of peace in a world of war, I also recount many of my experiences with some of the greatest peace activists and peacemakers in the world and how surrender is vital to becoming an extension of Universal Love.In this concluding part, I explore the connection between surrendering our will to the God of universal love and living nonviolence in our daily lives. Then, I try to unpack the shocking political implications of universal love, peace and nonviolence--if we surrender our lives and our wills to God. I’ve long wondered what the teachings of the spiritual classics about of abandonment to God mean in this time of permanent war, extreme poverty, white supremacy, fascism, and the real threat of nuclear war and catastrophic climate change. In light of the nonviolent Jesus, I think if we surrender ourselves to God and do God’s will, we’ll have to step out of ourselves into the world and take nonviolent direct action through selfless service, nonviolent resistance to injustice, and public work for the coming of God’s reign of peace.No matter how much we love God and want to follow Jesus, we’re all still trying to control God to some extent in order to do our own will, and that’s the problem. In my new book, I invite us to let go of control, let God run our lives, surrender to God’s will of universal love, and enjoy the ride with all its glorious social, economic and political implications, come what may. If we are truly surrendered to God, then God will use us to help disarm the world. That’s the journey. You can get Universal Love at 30% discount at OrbisBooks.com or by calling 1-800-258-3858, and giving the discount code “JDT.” Please share this message far and wide. I hope you enjoy this special 2 part podcast and get my new book. www.beatitudescenter.orgwww.johndear.orgFor more excerpts from the books and other writings, go to https://substack.com/@fatherjohndearMay we all surrender to the God of Universal love and peace.🌻, Fr. John

This week I reflect on my new book, Universal Love: Surrendering to the God of Peace. This is Part 1 of 2 episodes.In this first episode, I tell how the book came about. When the pandemic began, I joined the local gym and the young person who taught the class, whom I call Will, asked me to be his guru, so I started teaching him meditation. He called God, “Universal Love” and one day, Universal Love came to him in prayer and called him to be “an extension of Universal Love.”Sections in the first part of the book include "The Difference Meditation Makes", "To Hell With Spiritual Pride", and "Experimenting with Nonviolence".Over the years of spiritual direction and conversation that followed with Will, as we became friends and discussed all this, we also started doing writing practice at the local coffee shop on these themes, writings which one day turned into this book.In this episode, and the first part of the book, I reflect on the importance of daily meditation, letting go of control, living in intimate, trusting relationship to God, learning to surrender everything to God, and trying from now on, to do only God’s will, not our will.I conclude this episode with the story of my visit with Archbishop Tutu in Cape Town, South Africa, where he confided with me his thoughts on free will as the basis of understanding God and our work for peace, justice and nonviolence, a teaching I am only now beginning to understand.Next week I dedicate the podcast to the second half of the book, and will be sharing excerpts and more on Substack as well.Available now from www.orbisbooks.com or call 1-800-258-5838, or ask for it at your local bookstore!More information at beatitudescenter.orgOnward in peace with the nonviolent Jesus,🌻, John

This week my guest is my friend peace activist Ann Wright. She is a retired US Army Colonel who worked in the military for 29 years, 13 on active duty and 16 in the Army Reserves, as well as a retired US state department official. In March 2003, when the US started massively bombing Iraq, she was one of three state department officials to publicly resign in protest of the US war on Iraq. Since then, she has become a full-time activist working to end war, often working with organizations such as Veterans for Peace, CODEPINK, International Peace Bureau, World Beyond War, NO to NATO, Hawaii Peace and Justice, and many other groups. She travels full time to places of conflict around the world, such as Iran, North Korea, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Palestine, Cuba--to see the effects of US warmaking. She also speaks out and writes about the need to resist war and pursue peace. She has been a coordinator with the Gaza Freedom Flotilla for 16 years and was jailed in Israeli prisons twice for being on Gaza flotillas. Visit: www.voicesofconscience.com We discuss her public resignation over the US war on Iraq, and her work for peace in Afghanistan and Palestine and the abolition of nuclear weapons. “I just could not be a part of what I knew was going to be a horrific death of so many people in Iraq,” she tells me about her resignation. “Never underestimate the power of trying to get people together to do something that will galvanize the rest of our community and the country. It's our own conscience we have to watch out for. We have to be able to say: ‘I've done what I could to try to stop the violence in our world.’ Be consistent and keep moving!” Join us with this incredibly brave, resolute and inspiring peace activist! beatitudescenter.org 🌻, John

This week I speak with Ched Myers, one of the world’s greatest scripture scholars, about his new book on the Gospel of Luke, called Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy: Luke’s Jesus and Sabbath Economics.Many of us consider Ched’s great commentary on Mark, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus (Orbis Books, 1988), the greatest book on scripture ever written. An activist and a theologian, Ched and his partner Elaine Enns are ecumenical Mennonites based in southern California where they lead Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries (visit www.bcmonline.org). He begins our conversation by sharing his journey to radical Christianity through the Catholic Worker movement and our mentor Daniel Berrigan, and then we turn to Luke.In his new book, Ched explores Luke from the perspective of “Sabbath economics,” the biblical practice of resisting economic disparity and the idolatry of wealth, greed, and war. We discuss Jesus’ first sermon in the Nazareth synagogue where he proclaims the Jubilee Year (Lk. 4), the parable of Lazarus the rich man and the poor beggar who dies and goes to heaven (Lk. 16), and Luke’s resurrection story on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24)“The biggest single, core, root issue of violence is economic disparity--the cruel gulf between the have-too-muches- and the have-not-enoughs. Concentrated wealth underlies every form of violence and is ruining our planet. If we Christians are going to follow the Way, we need to dive into the scripture about Sabbath economics.” Be inspired to be part of the "Sabbath Economy" ! beatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with writer Emily Yellin, co-author of the new, posthumous memoir by the late Civil Rights leader Rev. James Lawson called Nonviolent: My Life of Resistance, Agitation and Love, which comes out on Feb. 17th from Random House. Emily is a longtime writer for The New York Times. Jim Lawson was my friend for 34 years. I first met him in jail during a protest in 1990 and he later hired me to be director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.Dr. King called Jim Lawson “the greatest theoretician and strategist of nonviolence in the world.” Jim was taught nonviolence by his mother, went to prison for refusing to be drafted into the Korean war, spent years in India learning nonviolence from Gandhi’s friends, then returned to the US, joined Dr. King, and became the main strategist for the Civil Right movement, from the lunch counter sit-ins to the Freedom Rides to Birmingham, Selma, and the Memphis garbage workers’ strike. (Jim did two zoom sessions with the Beatitudes Center before his death which you can watch on the free Beatitudes Center YouTube channel. You can read the transcript of the first one, “Nonviolence Is Power,” at www.beatitudescenter.org/blog/page/2/) “One of the things that stunned me about Rev Lawson,” Emily tells me, “was his consistency with nonviolence that came from a deep conviction to love. Jim Lawson was the best example of how to live a life that leads with love and does no harm. One of his core teachings was, ‘We can't imitate the evil ways of our oppressors.’ "Nonviolence is the way to build a more loving and just world," is what Jim Lawson has taught us. Listen in and be inspired! God bless you!—Fr. John beatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with Mike Farrell, best known as "Captain B.J. Hunnicutt", one of the stars of the hit TV show "M*A*S*H" in the 1970's, and later "Providence". He is also a writer, director and producer of TV films and has also appeared in several movies, and many, many other television roles. For three years he served as first vice president of the Screen Actors Guild, and as a member of the Guild’s national board of directors.During our conversation, I am constantly impressed by his openheartedness and humanity.I met Mike in 1990, protesting US military aid to El Salvador.Mike is President of Death Penalty Focus, Co-Chair Emeritus of Human Rights Watch in California, and serves as spokesperson for Concern America, a refugee relief and development organization. He has traveled the globe for the last 40 years with international peace and human rights delegations.In his work to stop the US wars in Iraq, he co-founded Artists United to Win Without War. A life-long opponent of the death penalty, he has led Death Penalty Focus for 37 years, since 1988, and speaks, debates, writes and campaigns across the country in opposition to state killing.He helped lead the 2021 campaign to abolish the death penalty in California, which can only happen by a statewide vote, and came within 2% of succeeding. Their 2016 proposition just barely lost too.He is the author of a great memoir which I recommend called, “Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist.”We talk about his beginnings at the Manhattan Project, a halfway house, and his work at Operation Bootstrap in LA.He tells us about his TV debates with Anita Bryant about gay rights, and his work in El Salvador when the bishops were assassinated and the camps he visited at the Thai-Cambodian border during the reign of Khmer Rouge.He also recounts many of his life changing experiences from when he first visited Death Row in Tennessee in 1975 to his involvement with Death Penalty Focus.Mike is still hopeful about abolishing the death penalty, and how the youth in this country are becoming more aware and becoming activists.When asked about his personal faith, he shares the three things that all human beings want and need: listen to this incredibly personal and openhearted conversation and learn from this amazing actor, activist and human being!More episodes, zooms and information: beatitudescenter.orgDeath Penalty Focus: https://deathpenalty.orgMore information on the nonviolent Jesus can also be found on https://fatherjohndear.substack.com/

This week I speak with legendary Civil Rights activist, author, pastor, politician, and diplomat Rev. Andrew Young to mark Dr. King's holiday.Born in 1932, Andrew Young was Dr. King’s right-hand man, his number one lieutenant, who was later elected to Congress, named Ambassador to the United Nations by President Carter, and then elected Mayor of Atlanta for 2 terms, when he brought the Olympics to Atlanta. It is hard to describe all that he has done; Rachel Maddow recently made a two-hour documentary about his life work for justice and civil rights. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Carolyn, and is the father of 3 daughters and one son, a grandfather of 9 and a great grandfather of two. We spoke mainly about Dr. King and his experiences organizing the Civil Rights Movement. “What I learned from Martin King is what he learned from his parents and grandparents: it's all about the history of a people. We are constantly reminded of visions for a way out of no way. In moments of despair, I still sing songs.” Rev. Young was also King's advisor in Birmingham, St. Augustine, Selma and Atlanta during the Civil Rights Campaigns in the 60's. The movement gained congressional passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Young was with Dr. King in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was assassinated in 1968. “Here it is two thousand years later,” he said, “and what Jesus taught is still relevant and powerfully important for us as we deal with the day to day crises in our lives.” As he reminisced about the Birmingham Campaign, he recalled the day Fred Shuttlesworth came to him and Dr. King, told them his house had just been bombed, and asked King to come to Birmingham. “We need to make nonviolence more aggressive,” Dr. King said, “so we need to build a nonviolent movement.” Contrary to today, he said, “It wasn’t a time of despair or depression.” He shares with us where he first learned about nonviolence, and what he learned from Dr. King himself. He shares many of his personal experiences with him, recounting the harrowing trip when Dr. King was arrested and taken to Reidsville Prison: "He wanted to be a pastor, he had already been jailed, stabbed, his home had been bombed, Reidsville was an attempt to scare the hell out of him."His books include:An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America. (January 1998);A Way Out of No Way. (June 1996);Andrew Young at the United Nations. (January 1978);Andrew Young, Remembrance & Homage. (January 1978);The History of the Civil Rights Movement. (9 volumes) (September 1990);Trespassing Ghost: A Critical Study of Andrew Young. (January 1978);Walk in My Shoes: Conversations between a Civil Rights Legend and his Godson on the Journey Ahead with Kabir Sehgal. (May 2010)Listen in to this elder as he shares his Dr. King stories and be inspired to go forward on the way of nonviolence, resistance, and creative peacemaking.For more podcasts, zooms and books on nonviolence, go to beatitudescenter.orgFor more writings, notes, announcements and book excerpts, subscribe to my Substack https://fatherjohndear.substack.com/

In this episode I speak with Charlene Howard, the executive director of the national Catholic peace movement Pax Christi USA, and I ask her about Pax Christi’s ongoing work for justice, disarmament and peace:Charlene describes herself as a "5th generation African American Catholic":She is also a catechist, and a longtime teacher in the Archdiocese of Washington Catholic Schools. She holds a master’s degree in Catechesis and Religious Education from Catholic University and is a graduate and former faculty member of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies Imani Catechetical Program at Xavier University of Louisiana.We discuss organizing Pax Christi groups and actions, getting connected with other like-minded peace and justice church activists, taking on a variety of issues, and how we can practice and teach the nonviolence of Jesus.“One light can dispel the darkness,” Charlene says. “That’s what we’re trying to do—be a light in the darkness. There's a lot of hard things happening in this country, but there's a lot of light too. Don't be fooled into thinking that we are not gaining ground for the good and for peace, because we are.”She encourages us to get involved and stay involved, and take to heart Pope Leo’s January 1, 2026, World Day of Peace message, “Peace Be With You All: Toward an Unarmed and Disarming Peace.”Pope Leo writes: “The peace of the risen Jesus is unarmed, because his was an unarmed struggle in the midst of concrete historical, political and social circumstances,” and “Christians must together bear prophetic witness to this novelty.”Charlene says, “and let’s speak truth to power!”Listen in and be inspired to pursue the peace of Christ.God bless you!—Fr. Johnhttps://paxchristiusa.org/2024/07/09/pax-christi-usa-welcomes-new-executive-director-charlene-howard/www.paxchristiusa.orgbeatitudescenter.orgPope Leo’s World Day of Peace message here.https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/peace/documents/20251208-messaggio-pace.html

Hi friends, I invited Robert Ellsberg, one of our best spiritual writers in the country, the publisher and editor of Orbis Books, and a legendary champion of Dorothy Day and many others saints, to speak about his latest book, Volume 2, Blessed Among Us, a massive collection of writings, two for each day of the year about a legendary saint, recently published by Liturgical Press.Robert Ellsberg is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Orbis Books, and the author of several award-winning books, including All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time; Blessed Among All Women; The Saints' Guide to Happiness; and A Living Gospel: Reading God's Story in Holy Lives.He's so inspiring and uplifting!From 1975 to 1980 he was part of the Catholic Worker community in New York City, where he served as managing editor of The Catholic Worker and worked closely with Dorothy Day. He has edited six volumes of her writings, including Dorothy Day: Selected Writings; The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day; All the Way to Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy Day; and Dorothy Day: Spiritual Writings.He has written and edited many other volumes, including (with Sister Wendy Beckett) Dearest Sister Wendy: A Surprising Story of Faith and Friendship.“I wanted to bring a different way of looking at the saints as normal human beings that looked for a new way to follow Christ,” he tells me. I’ve always been inspired by visionaries, artists, writers, poets, and mystics of other times.”“A saint is somebody who reminds you of Jesus,” he tells me, “a model of inspiration. Dorothy Day said the saints were here to change the social order, not just minister to the people. She herself tried to practice the presence of God and the path to holiness through a social dimension, the power of small gestures, as well as small protest.”May this episode with Robert Ellsberg inspire you in the new year to follow the nonviolent Jesus more closely and live out the Beatitudes and the Gospel. God bless everyone!

This week we have created a special one hour year end episode of highlights of just some of our guests that have contributed to The Nonviolent Jesus podcast this year.Our first year of weekly podcasts has been a whirlwind: so many great stories, personal experiences, deep spiritual (and theological) insights and most of all, words of hope and inspiration which we hope you have and will enjoy, many are worth and 2nd and 3rd listening.It is an astonishing collection of visionaries, teachers and peacemakers.You will hear short segments, usually 2-3 minutes each featuring, in order:Martin SheenHelen PrejeanRichard Rohr,Joan ChittisterBrian McLaren,Bryan Stevenson,Cornel West,Charles McCarthy,Stanley HauerwasJohn FugelsangPaul ChappellKathy KellySimone CampbellJamie RaskinJoan BaezWe want to thank you, our listeners, subscribers and donors, for your generous spirit in supporting this weekly podcast and we look forward to a new year with more amazing guests that will lead us to being followers of the nonviolent Jesus.Go to BeatitudesCenter.org for more about The Nonviolent Jesus and other programs we offer. Just last month we have started a Substack account under FatherJohnDear as well, which we will be building on this coming year.We’re starting 2026 with Robert Ellsberg talking about the saints, and don't forget to mark Dr. King’s upcoming birthday holiday with a special conversation with his assistant Rev. Andrew Young on Monday, January 19th.We really appreciate every one of you and hope you are being blessed and encouraged by this podcast.Happy New Year, God bless you and keep following the nonviolent Jesus!Onward in peace, 🌻 John

Dear friends, Next week we will be publishing highlights of our 52 episodes here on the first year of The Nonviolent Jesus podcast. Next year we will continue to explore and expand our dedication to nonviolence with conversations with inspirational thought leaders and icons of peacemakers and nonviolent activists. Thank you to everyone who listens and subscribes and shares the nonviolent Jesus in your world. This week I take a deep dive into Matthew 2, the famous story of the three Magi. I offer this Christmas reflection as four movements: 1) The journey to the nonviolent Jesus; 2) The epiphany of meeting the nonviolent Jesus; 3) What we do after we meet the nonviolent Jesus; and 4) The epilogue, and how the empire, the culture of violence and war, reacts to the coming of the nonviolent Jesus and the threat of active nonviolence.Let's take our inspiration from the Magi, as I propose that their story is our story. Like the three wisdom figures, we too are on a spiritual journey, a holy pilgrimage, one that lasts a lifetime—the journey to the God of peace, to God’s reign of peace and the nonviolent Jesus.During this episode we ask ourselves: When did you have an epiphany of the God of peace? When have you met the nonviolent Jesus among the poor, the homeless and the marginalized? How does nature lead you to the God of peace? What gifts do you bring the nonviolent Jesus? The shocking part of Matthew 2 is what happens after the Epiphany. The Magi were ordered to report back to the warmaking, sociopathic tyrant, King Herod, but instead they commit civil disobedience and head home a different way!Matthew invites us this Christmas to seek the nonviolent Jesus on the margins of the culture of violence, empire and war.Let our encounter with the nonviolent Jesus lead us away from the corrupt culture of violence and war.We too, can live as wisdom pilgrims of nonviolence who obey Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount teachings.Let's do our part to stop the ongoing slaughter of the innocents; and to serve God and God’s reign of peace only from now on. Merry Christmas to everyone and may the God of peace bless you on your Epiphany journey! ---Fr. Johnbeatitudescenter.org

This week I reflect on what I call “Mary’s Advent Journey of Nonviolence,” from the Anunciation to the Visitation to the Magnificat.Luke tells her story as the three movements of the spiritual life--from contemplative nonviolence to active nonviolence to the Magnificat as prophetic nonviolence.How did Jesus learn his spectacular nonviolence? Luke tells us it is from his Holy Jewish mother, Mary and she can be our teacher too. In the Anunciation, contemplates what God has told her in silence and stillness. In the Visitation as active nonviolence, Mary reaches out to “love her neighbor” and “show compassion to someone in need.” These public actions would become the bedrock teachings of Luke’s Jesus. In this second movement of nonviolence, when we reach out in love to serve someone in need, we bring peace, joy, and consolation. That’s what peacemakers do.Mary also proclaims the greatness of the God of peace, announces that God is throwing down the rulers from their thrones and lifting up the lowly, and remembering God’s promise of mercy, of nonviolence!, for generations to come! Like Mary, this Advent, we proclaim a prophetic announcement about the coming of God’s reign of peace and nonviolence here and now.Listen in, take heart, and go forward into the Christmas blessings of contemplative, active and prophetic nonviolence! God bless everyone—Fr. Johnbeatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with my friend Mike Martin, a blacksmith and founder of RAWtools.org, one of the most creative Christian peacemaking projects in the country.To me, this is what the Advent work of "beating guns into garden tools" is all about: getting ready for the coming of peace on earth.Mike Martin is a former Mennonite youth pastor and licensed for this specialized ministry by the Mennonite Conference. He learned to how to blacksmith in order to turn guns into garden tools. He is the co-author of a great book with our friend Shane Claiborne, Beating Guns: Hope for people who are weary of violence. See www.beatingguns.comI first met Mike about 10 years ago at the Wildgoose Christian summer festival in North Carolina. I was giving a talk on peacemaking in a tent, and Mike was outside banging away on handguns and putting them into a fire, and eventually, turning them into plowshares, garden tools, and little crosses to wear around your neck--I kid you not.It was thrilling. I was talking about beating swords into plowshares, but he was actually doing it, and you could take part in it, and hammer on a gun, and maybe buy one of his new creations.Since then, his project has taken off around the country. Check out: www.rawtools.org“I've probably hammered on a gun barrel thousands of times and it feels meaningful every time,” he tells me. “We're using raw tools--not war tools--to transform the world. We offer a safe space for gun violence survivors to heal.”"Gun violence survivors tells us it's the first time they can deal with their anger or pain in a healthy way, you're destroying the thing that brought you harm to transforming something that can cultivate life ." Be inspired by a former Mennonite pastor and blacksmith that has created a unique movement to disarm hearts, promote peace and cultivate justice. Listen in and learn how to do your Advent part of preparing for the coming of peace on earth. God bless everyone!www.rawtools.orgbeatingguns.combeatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with Congressman Jamie Raskin, one of the strongest voices and advocates for democracy and truth, about movements, democracy, and nonviolence. He represents Maryland’s 8th Con. District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Raskin was previously a state senator in Maryland where he helped abolish the death penalty and gain marriage equality. Before that, he was a professor of constitutional law at American University for more than 25 years. He has authored several books, including the Washington Post best-seller Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People, the acclaimed We the Students: Supreme Court Cases for and About America’s Students, and the New York Times #1 best-seller Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy, about the death of his beloved son Tommy, followed two weeks later by the Jan. 6th insurrection led by Trump.Jamie shares with us his harrowing story of hiding under a desk with his daughter and son-in-law sending what they thought were farewell texts while a violent mob was pounding on the door screaming death threats. He was appointed to lead the 2nd impeachment trial of Donald Trump. It ended in the most sweeping bipartisan vote to convict an impeached president in history. He also served on the committee to investigate the Jan. 6th attack. "We're in the fight of our lives and have been since the beginning of this nightmare,” he says at the start. “But people are galvanized and mobilizing all across the country." Listen to this incredible leader of democracy and constitutional expert explain in his own words what democracy means to him and how we have to be a part of saving the country we live in. “The whole Constitution is under attack, and we need the whole people to defend it. Democracy is the system that relies on nonviolent expression.” Hear why he calls to us to "be the hope!” https://raskin.house.govbeatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with my friend, filmmaker and author Gerry Straub about his life making films about extreme poverty around the world, and then his move to Haiti where he founded the Santa Chiara Children’s Center, an orphanage for children in war-torn Port au Prince.Last year, he had to flee Haiti because of the total violence and anarchy that has swept through the country. Since then, he’s been living in Florida and helping the orphanage online and via zoom.He has now written a new book about his mythic journey from Hollywood, where he was once the director of the soap opera “General Hospital,” to Assisi, where he wrote his award- winning book about St. Francis called The Sun and the Moon Over Assisi, to his founding Pax Et Bonum Communications, where for twenty years he traveled into the poorest slums on the planet and made some 20 movies about extreme poverty. All those films can now be watched for free online at www.paxetbonumcomm.org (including the film he made about my work for nonviolence, “The Narrow Path”).“I was just trying to understand St Francis' love of the poor and poverty itself,” he tells me at the start. “I knew could put the power of film to the service of the poor.”Gerry moved to Haiti himself and started the orphanage. His new spiritual memoir, The Cross of Love, The Pain of Poverty, (with a foreword by me) is available online and all proceeds go to the orphanage. To learn about Santa Chiara, or offer a donation, please visit www.santachiaracc.org.“We wanted the children to live a nonviolent life. In this horrible place of screaming kids and gun shots, something beautiful was created.” Listen in and be inspired!www.paxetbonumcomm.orgwww.santachiaracc.org

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with long time social justice activist and church leader, Wes Granberg-Michaelson on his inspiring new book, The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action. Wes Granberg-Michaelson is a writer, speaker, and global ecumenical leader who worked in the 1970s and 1980s as the assistant to progressive US Senator Mark Hatfield, then Sojourners magazine, and then the World Council of Churches. During COVID, he reread the daily journal he kept for over 50 years, and discovered four key movements that transformed him over the course of his lifelong work for justice, which we discuss: self-sufficiency to belonging; rational certainty to spiritual connection; grandiosity to authenticity; and control to trust.“Grandiosity is in the water in our culture, particularly our political culture,” he says. “It's so important to learn to keep asking ourselves, ‘Where am I discovering my true self, and really knowing that I'm beloved, not because of what I do, but because of God's action to love me?’” He concludes by offering eight guideposts for activists. Check it out and be inspired to go deeper within so that your public work for justice and peace will be more rooted and grounded in God and God’s love. www.wesgm.com beatitudescenter.org

Today I welcome Dr. Ivana Hughes, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and one of the leading advocates for nuclear disarmament. She is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Columbia University and serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for the United Nations to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a committee consisting of 15 experts from around the world who advise the states on scientific issues as they pertain to the treaty. Dr. Hughes obtained her PhD from Stanford University, where she was an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow. She has been a faculty member at Columbia University since 2008 and was awarded the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award for 2020. Her work on ascertaining the radiological conditions in the Marshall Islands has been covered widely. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Scientific American, Truthout, Common Dreams, and elsewhere. She tells about the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation' mission to educate and advocate for a just and peaceful world without nuclear weapons. The Foundation also hosts events that centers around nuclear disarmament, the most recent of 2025 that honored Martin Sheen, an acclaimed actor, with the Daniel Ellsberg Lifetime Achievement Award for his lifelong commitment to peace, justice, and human dignity, and Pope Francis (posthumously) as a Distinguished Peace Leader for his moral leadership on nuclear abolition. This event took place on September 26, 2025. Dr Hughes reminds us of how many thousands of nuclear warheads there are in the world, and how the dynamics have changed now that 9 nuclear arms states possess nuclear weapons. She also encourages us to watch the Netflix documentary directed by Kathryn Bigelow, "The House of Dynamite": "When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond." She emphasizes that now is precisely the time for disamament: "If you drop one bomb, it doesn’t stop there; it leads all the way to full blown nuclear war, through the explosion itself, and the aftermath of nuclear winter and environmental destruction, radiation and so on. We are continuing to play the game of nuclear roulette." Learn more about the mission of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation that educates and advocates for a just and peaceful world free of nuclear weapons and how they work to help build the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Dr. Hughes explains this process will continue however long it takes to eliminate nuclear weapons, and that of the three weapons of mass destruction, both chemical and biological weapons have been internationally outlawed. She emphasizes: "We’re working to get nuclear weapons treated the same way".She is emphatic when speaking about how imperative it is that we stop investing in weapons and military warmaking: we can address these challenges: "We're not going to be able to address other challenges we have. Our elected representatives need to know that the general public cares about nuclear disarmament."She also explains why it is important that we all get involved in nuclear disarmament: "They don't have to hear from thousands of people; they need to hear from 10 people. So if you care, let them know. Write them. We need to tell our leaders 'enough is enough!'" Listen in and be inspired! Learn more and get involved: wagingpeace.org

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with my friend of 35 years, legendary folk singer Joan Baez. She’s a lifelong activist for peace, justice, civil and human rights, and an equally passionate believer in nonviolence. She has released over 30 albums, traveled the world singing for peace for over 60 years, published a great autobiography called “And a Voice to Sing With,” and recently published her first collection of poems, “When you see my mother, ask her to dance.”Joan performed Woodstock, opened Live Aid, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. PBS did a spectacular biography of her which I recommend called “How Sweet the Sound,” and she was featured recently in the Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” brilliantly played by actress Monica Barbaro.I’ve always thought she should be awarded the Nobel peace prize for all the great good she’s done in the world. She was a close friend of Dr. King; arrested for protesting the Vietnam war; went to Hanoi, and was bombed by the US. She has been against all our wars and injustices because she has a lifelong commitment to nonviolence.Listen as Joan reveals how her Quaker parents influenced her early childhood and the effect of living in Baghdad for a year and how a meeting with long time peace activist Ira Sandperl, and later hearing Dr. King speak at her high school, changed her life forever.Joan is surprisingly candid when it comes to sharing her own failings and how meditation has become a crucial part of her daily routine. When I asked her about founding “The Institute for the Study of Nonviolence” in the 1960s, she talked about the one hour requirement of sitting in silence each morning. “Many people had their first acquaintance with nonviolence through that experience of silence,” she says. Her honesty is disarming and reflects how many of us feel today.She also shares personal anecdotes about Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Dr. King and her experience with Vaclav Havel and the Czech Republic’s Velvet Revolution. Listen in as she quotes Gandhi and T.S. Elliot when encouraging me and all of us to be activists, and then reads me her new poem, “This Is Not Optimism.”As a fan of Joan Baez since the age of five, I was thrilled when we concluded by reading together her brilliant 1960s essay, “What Would You Do If," a dialogue about the threat of personal assault.Finally, when I ask her for any parting thoughts for our listeners, Joan breaks into song, singing the Civil Rights anthem, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around”, guaranteed to give you chills!At 84, Joan Baez is still carrying her “shining light out into the shit storm,” as she puts it, and I feel blessed and grateful to know her even better from this podcast.Please share it with all your folk music loving, peace activist, and nonviolent Jesus following friends, and take heart once more! www.joanbaez.com

“To be hopeful Is to touch the pain of the world” This week we hear part 2 of my conversation with Sr. Simone Campbell, one of the strongest voices, organizers, and leaders for social and economic justice in the United States. Sister of Social Service, Sr. Simone is a religious leader, attorney, author and recipient of the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom. For 17 years she was executive director of NETWORK, the national Catholic Lobby for Social Justice and the leader of “Nuns on the Bus.” Her healthcare policy work was critical in the passing of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Before that, she spent 18 years working at the Oakland Community Law Center which she founded.I ask her about the section in her newest book, Hunger for Hope, where she writes about the importance of “prophetic imagination.” For Simone, community is the best way to nurture prophetic imagination. She recites Walter Bruggemann’s five characteristics: Long and available memory; Touching the reality of the pain; Living in hope; 4. Effective discourse across generations and cultures; The capacity to sustain long term tension with the dominant culture, and the potential for insight and imagination. She shares with us about the connection between hope and community, and her daily Zen practice which she calls "deep listening": "My practice begins every morning. I have a half hour of Zen sitting, being quiet and opening myself. I call it, ‘Deep listening to the divine.’ There, things can bubble up. I follow this with a half hour of spiritual reading. I have to feel secure in myself to be willing to open myself to other peoples’ points of view. If I'm riled up, I can't do this work, so I need my practice. If we're going to create change, it's required that we understand what’s going on inside us if we want to understand others.” She gives us insights into her religious community that is dedicated to the Holy Spirit and what Pentecost means to her: "I need to be able to listen well enough so that what I might say will touch the other. I love being on fire. It's so exciting.”“Hope,” she concludes, “is critically connected to touching the pain of the world as real. It demands a response.” Listen in and be inspired by this legendary voice of social and economic justice! Visit www.networklobby.orgbeatitudescenter.org

“Everyone has a piece of the work of justice to do, so what’s yours?” Sr. Simone Campbell asks.This week I speak with Sr. Simone Campbell, one of the strongest voices, organizers, and leaders for social and economic justice in the U.S.A Sister of Social Service, Sr. Simone is a religious leader, attorney, author, and recipient of the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom.For 17 years, she was executive director of NETWORK, the national Catholic Lobby for Social Justice and the leader of “Nuns on the Bus.”Her healthcare policy work was critical in the passing of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” Before that, she spent 18 years working at the Oakland Community Law Center which she founded.She also has served as the leader of her religious community and now serves on their governing Council. Her two award-winning books are A Nun on the Bus (2014) and Hunger for Hope (2020).In part 1 of this 2 part conversation, I ask her about the growing authoritarianism and fascism under Trump, and her journey to the Oakland law center, to NETWORK, and to organizing for the Affordable Care Act.“We have a two party system, and what we’re experiencing is the end of the Republican party,” she says at the beginning. Now, in this crisis, “we have to learn how to talk to each other and find the best practices to be engaged and talk to each other, and listen to one another. We have a lot of work to do!”She was radicalized with her younger sister in 1965 while watching TV when the children in Birmingham were fire-hosed and attacked by dogs for marching for an end to segregation.“I was horrified but motivated by that. From then on, the gospel and Jesus were always connected with justice. After my sister died of cancer, I picked up her spirit and decided to carry on the journey for justice and have her with me along the way.She shares with us how NETWORK has grown in the more than 50 years since it was established in 1972:"It was founded by Catholic sisters in 1972 to be a network of Catholic sisters around the country to do advocacy for economic justice and environmental issues, to bring the voices of real people to inform pending legislation.”She tells how the work of the sisters became the tipping point to pass the Affordable Care Act, which is under assault right now by the Republicans in the current government shutdown.When asked how she has maintained her work for justice over decades, she tells of her contemplative practice which she calls "deep listening"."With curiosity, deep listening, and sharing stories, we can build community and new connections. The gospels are full of Jesus' curiosity,” she says. “It's the invitation that creates the weaving of community.”Listen in to part one of this conversation and be inspired to carry on the work of justice with Sr. Simone! See: www.networklobby.orgwww.beatitudescenter.org

“What if we taught peace as a skill set, as a life-saving literacy, with as much rigor as we teach reading and writing?” asks Paul Chappell This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with Paul Chappell, an international peace educator and founder of Peace Literacy. A former military captain, he realized that we all need to as well-trained in waging peace as soldiers are in waging war, so he created Peace Literacy to help students and adults from all backgrounds work toward their full potential and a more peaceful world. Paul is the author of a six books: Will War Ever End?; The End of War; Peaceful Revolution; The Art of Waging Peace; The Cosmic Ocean; and Soldiers of Peace. He focuses on three questions: What if people were as well trained in waging peace as soldiers are in waging war? What if people were trained to address root causes of problems rather than symptoms? What if we taught peace as a skill set, as a life-saving literacy, with as much rigor as we teach reading and writing? “Peace Literacy teaches that peace is not merely as a goal, but a practical skill-set – a literacy like reading and writing – that needs to be taught and practiced from pre-K through higher education. “Humans have a natural aversion to hurting and killing others,” he says. “Military history shows us that dehumanization is used to keep the mind from feeling guilty or remorseful. Nonviolence refutes all the stereotypes of dehumanization. We try to help rehumanize people with social interaction, storytelling and art, and nonviolence skills. We offer new curriculums about peace for every grade; skills to teach peace by our example; and how to use one’s culture to create a new culture of peace and nonviolence “People don't know the basic skills of nonviolence that will help them in their daily lives--at work, home, school, with addiction, and every other situation. If we don't teach people peace literacy and nonviolence, then we're actively teaching people the opposite. “The idea that peace is inevitable is dangerous,” he adds. “We have to do something to help push humanity in that direction. Teaching peace is necessary for human survival. The education and practice of nonviolence has to involve a deeper knowing, a deep knowing down to our bones, and that process takes a lot of effort. “I think there are explainable causes for why we're doing what we're doing and that there is a path that can lead us out of that. If we can teach the building blocks of peace to young children, we can help people internalize peace and nonviolence and live the ideals of peace.” Listen in to this true peace educator, and be inspired by his campaign to teach peace! Check out www.peaceliteracy.org beatitudescenter.org

I can imagine Jesus lamenting today: "America, America, you who bomb children, execute people, and prepare nuclear warfare, how many times I yearned to gather your children together…but you were unwilling. If this day you only knew the things that make for peace!" This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I reflect on Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem (Luke 19) where he breaks down sobbing saying, “If this day you only learned the things that make for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.” Written shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., Luke describes how everyone had been blinded by violence and hatred, and how it led to their complete destruction by the empire. Had they taken Jesus’ teachings to heart, loved their enemies, turned the other cheek, and joined his grassroots nonviolent revolution, Jerusalem and its inhabitants would have survived. We too have not learned the things that make for peace: Jerusalem has now become the whole world. We cut funding for schools, jobs, housing, healthcare, poverty relief, and environmental cleanup, but spend billions—trillions!—for permanent warfare and nuclear weapons. We support warfare in Gaza, Ukraine and Africa, but with our 13,000 nuclear weapons and catastrophic climate change upon us, we are closer to total destruction than ever.The Sermon on the Mount catalogues a long to-do list for peace, love, nonviolence, and justice.These days, that also means we must unlearn the things that make for war. If the world is to survive, the days of war have to come to an end.You and I want to do what others were not able to do, to learn from the nonviolent Jesus the things that make for peace. If we learn the things that make for peace and unlearn the things that make for war, then we can be a leading force in the global grassroots movement for the abolition of nuclear weapons, war, and the causes of war. We want to be people who learn the things that make for peace and teach them far and wide. That means we have to learn how to weep with Jesus over the world and then go forward and take action. We grieve over our wars, weapons, corporate greed, injustice, and environmental destruction. And with Jesus, we walk into our own modern-day Jerusalems and act and speak for disarmament, justice, and peace. May we all choose to learn from Jesus the things that make for peace and join his never-ending peace movement.Weep. Grieve. Mourn. Then go forward! Take action! Let us follow the nonviolent Jesus as we learn the Things that Make for Peace!beatitudescenter.com

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with John Fugelsang, actor, comedian, talk show host, and author of the new book, Separation of Church & Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds (Simon and Schuster).The son of a former Franciscan brother and a nun, John Fugelsang acted on CSI, has appeared on MSNBC and CNN, and has hosted many TV shows and podcasts, including VH1 shows with Paul McCartney and the final public appearance of George Harrison.He has debated Jerry Falwell and David Duke, been picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church, and hosted the radio series Tell Me Everything on SiriusXM (where he once welcomed John Dear). His PBS road trip film on the American Dream, called Dream On, was named Best Documentary at the New York Independent Film Festival. He currently hosts the John Fugelsang podcast.John explains why he wrote this book and who it is for; "I’ve learned that we don't have to hate or fight Christian nationalists; share the words of God and Jesus with them and let them argue with God and Jesus"."Tele-evangelists didn't tell me to love my enemies; instead, they told me who my enemies are. Christian nationalism is just about power. It’s about their club being on top and imposing their version of Christianity on us all. They use Jesus as camouflage. Why should I listen to Trump and Stephen Miller and reject the words of Jesus?"He exposes prosperity gospel as dangerous, victim blaming junk theology that has nothing to do with Christ's teachings, and explains how we can go forward in the age of Trump. At one point he reflects with great empathy and compassion on Charlie Kirk, the far right Christian nationalist who was recently assassinated in Utah, who had challenged him in the past: "I made so many mistakes, I said so many things i thought were righteous, and powerful, and strong, that were actually cruel and stupid, Charlie Kirk never got to grow old, see how wrong he was, and change his position. I have.”John compares so-called "Jesus fans and followers" without being "Christ followers" with a Rolling Stones cover band, and explains what Jesus' favorite issue was and why it is like Eric Clapton's "Layla" in his setlist. John takes the words of Jesus seriously, and he concludes with a powerful message: Jesus is breaking every cycle of violence. Love is the only religion that works. That’s what we have to do, he says: "practice the teachings of Jesus, love our enemies, make peace and reconcile with one another.""We need people willing to take a punch in the name of love".Listen in to this thought-provoking conversation and learn more at www.johnfugelsang.combeatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with Archbishop John Wester of New Mexico about his pilgrimage of peace last month to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, for the 80th anniversary of the US atomic bombing, and his ground-breaking work of reconciliation with the bishops and church in Japan. Archbishop John Wester became Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2015 after serving as bishop of Salt Lake City, and before that, auxiliary bishop of San Francisco. His January 11th, 2022, pastoral letter called, “Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament” is the first official document in US Church history calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. To read it visit www.archdiosf.org He tells about his first visit to Hiroshima a few years ago, and returning home to Santa Fe and seeing the place where the scientists worked on the actual Hiroshima bomb.“We commemorate this anniversary,” he continues, “so that it will never happen again. We’re not just commemorating the past but trying to preserve the future.” During his meetings with the Japanese bishops and other church leaders, he and others launched a new organization, “A Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons,” www.pwnw.org to promote solidarity and cooperation between the Japanese and American church for nuclear disarmament. This is something that has never happened until now. It’s a real sign of hope.He quotes Omar Bradley: “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.” Wester shares with me who he thinks changed the whole discourse on nuclear weapons in the Catholic Church, and even said that possessing nuclear weapons is immoral. And he says in no uncertain terms how we have "become inured to war, violence and starvation. Over 60,000 have died in Gaza; we read about, sip some coffee and go on with our daily business. We have to join our voices with others to get rid of nuclear weapons and end our wars.” He recalls some statistics that should give us pause regarding what the results of a nuclear war would be and how our nuclear arms race is worse than ever. There is hope as Wester explains who is behind all the peace movements. Listen in and be inspired by this prophetic leader for nuclear disarmament! www.pwnw.orgarchdiosf.orgbeatitudescenter.org

On this week’s episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I share the life and lessons of Mahatma Gandhi, India’s great independence leader and the world’s foremost teacher of active nonviolence on a national, global scale.I’ve been a student of Gandhi for 45 years, and studied his collected works for my own anthology, Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings (Orbis, 2002).I consider Gandhi one of the greatest followers of the nonviolent Jesus in the last two centuries, whose teachings are well worth studying and pursuing today.Listen why I propose that Gandhi was not born Gandhi, but had to become Gandhi.That life long journey of transformation takes single-minded, concentrated effort to allow God to disarm us, change us and fashion us into people of universal love and Gospel nonviolence.In this episode, I outline the chronology of his life, and then discuss various basic lessons. I recall at one point his statement during the 1922 trial, when he said, “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.” I share how Rev. Ignacio Ellacuria, president of the Jesuit University in El Salvador who was later assassinated with five other Jesuits in 1989, told me something similar when I first met him in 1985. “If you want to be for the reign of God, we have learned in El Salvador, you have to also be against the anti-reign of evil.”I suggest a new understanding of morality and ethics: In a world of institutionalized, systemic evil, it’s not enough to be a good person or to try to do ‘the good.’ We also have to stand up publicly against evil and resist it. We can’t just be for peace; we also have to be against each and every specific war.“Nonviolence means avoiding injury to anything on earth in thought, word or deed,” Gandhi wrote early on in South Africa. Over the years, as he gained more experience, he concluded that “Devotion to nonviolence is the highest expression of humanity’s conscious state…Nonviolence is the greatest and most active force in the world… One person who can express nonviolence in life exercises a force superior to all the forces of brutality.My optimism rests on my belief in the infinite possibilities of the individual to develop nonviolence. The more you develop it in your own being, the more infectious it becomes till it overwhelms your surroundings and by and by might oversweep the world.”We too have to become our ideal selves before God, change ourselves and strive to become the peacemakers we were created to be, to become the people of nonviolence stuck in a culture of violence.Listen in and see what you think about Gandhi’s steadfast, persistent insistence on truth, nonviolence and peace.www.beatitudescenter.orgNote: Share this podcast with others to celebrate International Peace Day on Sunday, September 21st.

This week I speak with world renown theologian and ethicist Professor Stanley Hauerwas. In 2001, TIME magazine named him “America’s greatest theologian.” He taught for years at the University of Notre Dame, before moving to Duke University where he was the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological ethics at Duke Divinity School. He also served at Duke Law School, and the University of Aberdeen. He has lectured around the world, and has been featured on “Oprah.” Stanley has written too many books to list, but his bestsellers include, “The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics;” “Jesus Changes Everything: A New World Made Possible;” “Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony;” and “Cross-shattered Christ: Meditations on the 7 last words.” Retired at 85 now, he continues to inspire and encourage us with his knowledge of and insights on nonviolence. “When I grew up, I didn’t know what nonviolence was. That’s because I’m from Texas,” he says with a chuckle. “I went to Notre Dame to teach Catholics and ended up being shaped by Mennonites. I discovered that Jesus and the church were mutually interrelated. To worship Jesus is to bring to the world a witness of nonviolence that otherwise could not be seen.”He reveals to us who Jesus is in a word, and that word being more powerful than we realize. In his words: "It raises questions that demands responses.” “To be a worshipper of Christ is to be shaped by a cross that is a manifestation of God's love of our enemy. We must say ‘You can kill us, but you cannot determine the meaning of our death.’ The cross is a challenge to people who say 'Jesus is my Lord and Savior, but you have to kill someone every once in a while.’”We discussed the great book The Politics of Jesus by his colleague John Howard Yoder, as well as the Kingdom of God, God’s will, and living the way Jesus intended. He continues to eradicate false perceptions of what nonviolence is and is not, and how Jesus himself recreated community to bind people together to make God's kingdom real: "The politics of Jesus exposed the false alternatives that claim to be peaceable but are in fact structural in their violence. God's will is to live in a world without violence. God's grace is always there making possible alternatives that would not be there without God's presence.”He concludes, “God is patient with us in terms of our unfaithfulness in a way that gives us hope in a world that seems hopeless. In a world that has no time for patience, patience creates time and makes it possible for us to live our lives and work for nonviolent alternatives that otherwise would not be considered.” Reignite your imagination, be inspired and encouraged by this wise Christian elder. Check out: Stanleyhauerwas.orgbeatitudescenter.org

This week I'm speaking with author, activist, and movement scholar Rivera Sun. Her novels include The Dandelion Insurrection and the award-winning, Ari Ara Series. She is the editor of “Nonviolence News” and program coordinator of “Campaign Nonviolence,” an annual national week of action that with over 5000 events across the US around International Peace Day, Sept. 21st. Her articles are syndicated by Peace Voice and published in hundreds of journals nationwide.She tells me all about 'One Million Rising", an effort to mobilize and train one million people with a nonviolent toolbox for 'noncooperation' and how to resist authoritarianism. Find out about all kinds of actions we can take along with street protests, and the many ways people are standing up to ICE. Find out why we need to do some soul searching if we want to live in a democratic society, and according to Rivera: "decide if is this a normal presidency or a presidency that has stepped outside the rule of law," She appeals to us to "organize, speak out and invoke the articles of impeachment to remove the president from office. If we want to live in a democratic society, we have to demand it. Find what you want to work on and do that, because we need you in the movement!”Rivera offered many examples, such as last month’s massive one day strike led by ten unions in India just a few weeks ago, which 300 million people joined. “There is a rising swell of activity against authoritarianism all around the world.”At the end of the conversation, Rivera suggested six holistic practices of nonviolence that can help sustain us for the long haul and elaborates on the following:1. Don't go alone; make friends in the movement, and join a community.2. Take breaks. It's a relay race, a marathon not a sprint.3. Take a breath, then act.4. Be against the injustice, not the people; go after the policy. Remember that people can and will change; give them space to do that.5. Try not to become what you oppose!6. Reclaim love, integrity, and always strive to embody the deepest principles of nonviolence. For more about Rivera Sun and her books, check out: www.riverasun.com and www.campaignnonviolence.orgListen in and be inspired!

Today I'm speaking with Dr. Ken Butigan, author, organizer, activist, speaker, nonviolence trainer, and leader of Pace e Bene, a Franciscan-based peace organization. Ken is Professor of Practice in the Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies Program at DePaul. He has worked in a series of movements for social change, including campaigns addressing homelessness, nuclear weapons, freedom for East Timor, and the US wars in Iraq. In the 1980s he was a founder and national coordinator of the Pledge of Resistance, which for nearly a decade mobilized nonviolent action for peace in Central America. He has worked for over 30 years with Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, which has trained tens of thousands of people in the power of nonviolent change and which organizes Campaign Nonviolence, a long-term, nationwide effort seeking to foster a more nonviolent culture free from war, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction. In recent years, Ken works with Pax Christi International's Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and the Vatican to promote Gospel nonviolence literally around the world through the Catholic church. He has published seven books, including Pilgrimage through a Burning World: Spiritual Practice and Nonviolent Protest at the Nevada Test Site; Nonviolent Lives; and From Violence to Wholeness. Ken earned his Ph.D. in the Historical and Cultural Studies of Religions at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He lives in Chicago with his wife Cynthia and daughter Leah.He shares with me his spiritual awakening as a young man and how it changed his life path and led him to take part in anti nuclear weapon demonstrations. Dan shares with me: "I wasn't particularly political, but I was distressed by nuclear weapons, so I called Daniel Berrigan and asked to visit him when I was going to be in New York City. He invited me over. I was transformed in those 3 hours." Listen as he tells us how Dan Berrigan clarifies why Ken should in nonviolent organization. When describing his leadership in various campaigns, he keeps returning to the refrain: "We have more power than we think.” “We stopped the official U.S. invasion of Nicaragua because of ordinary people power….Through the Nevada Desert Experience, by 1993, after over 25,000 were arrested at the Test site, we generated enough people power to get a test-ban treaty promulgated and signed by over 187 nations. Through the Declaration of Peace, we helped end the U.S. war in Iraq in the mid-2000s.” Be inspired and motivated by this conversation with this amazing human being who believes: "We need each other, we need to be rooted in prayer, we need to follow the nonviolent Jesus, and create conditions for a global shift.” Check out: www.paceebene.org

Philip Berrigan’s “Ministry of Risk” with Brad WolfBy John DearOn this week’s episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I welcome former prosecutor, professor, community college dean, and now full-time activist Brad Wolf from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.Brad is executive director of Peace Action Network of Lancaster; co-coordinator of “The Merchant of Death War Crimes Tribunal;” and current chair of the U.S. organizing committee for the “People’s Tribunal on the Korean Victims of the 1945 Atomic Bombings.”Brad recently edited the first ever collection of writings on peace and nonviolence by legendary activist Philip Berrigan, called A Ministry of Risk (Fordham University Press).Brad tells me why his writings are so important, and how Philip and his brother Dan Berrigan were the St Peter and St Paul of their day as nonviolent activists: With his brother Daniel, he was a leading voice and organizer against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. By the time of his death in 2002, he spent over 11 years of his life in prison for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against warmaking and nuclear weapons.We discuss Phil’s leadership and daring actions from the Baltimore Four action in 1967, the Catonsville Nine action in 1968, and to the 1980 Plowshares disarmament action and the other plowshares actions Phil did, including one with John in December 1993.Brad tells how during the pandemic, he read through Phil’s archives at Cornel and DePaul, and how on the first day, he found a quote from Phil that became the title of his book: “A ministry of risk goes unerringly to the side of the victims, to those threatened or destroyed by greed, prejudice, and war. From the side of those victims, it teaches two simple, indispensable lessons: first, that we all belong in the ditch, or in the breach, with the victims; and second that until we go to the ditch or into the breach, victimizing will not cease.”“Phil was not fazed by anything,” Brad says. "You have to be faithful enough to suffer and daring enough to serve," Phil wrote. "Obeying God's Word can get you killed."Reflecting on his long friendship with Phil and Dan, John added that they were the most “biblical” Christians he ever knew, who read the Bible day and night, and spent every day trying to obey the Word of God.Brad talks about a question Phil put to a youth retreat in the late 1950s, a question that came to haunt him and motivate him for the rest of his life. “What does Christ ask of me?” Brad concludes that Phil would want us to wrestle with that question, and take new risks for peace and justice, to go into the breach, and follow the journey of the nonviolent Jesus. Listen in and be inspired! And check out:www.philipberrigan.comwww.danielberrigan.orgwww.merchantsofdeath.orgwww.beatitudescenter.org

*Note: Terry can sometimes be difficult to understand due to a medical condition: a written transcript of this episode is available for reading. This week I welcome teacher, organizer and author, Terry Rynne, author of two important books, Jesus Christ Peacemaker, and Gandhi and Jesus” (Orbis Books).Terry is a former priest from Chicago, who became a hospital administrator. Then from 1983-2003, he was President of Rynne Marketing Consulting Services which advised over 400 hospitals, in 48 states, over the 20 years. In 2006, he received his PhD in Theology from Marquette University, and then in 2008, he co-founded, with his wife Sally, the Center for Peacemaking at Marquette University, which has gone on to make a huge difference in Milwaukee teach nonviolent conflict resolution skills in schools. For years, he has taught the Introduction to Peace Studies course at Marquette University. He is also chair of the Board of Beatitudes Center. Terry speaks about the power of Gandhi’s salt march to mobilize the people of India to demand justice and independence, and in particular, the famous silent march to the Dharasana Salt Works, and how the world was shocked by the British response to the peaceful, unarmed, nonviolent movement. “Jesus devoted his life to confronting the structures of oppression and violence and changing them,” he says. In the earliest Gospel, in one of his first public actions, Mark’s Jesus heals the man with the withered hand in the synagogue, and in the next sentence, we read that that the religious authorities met with the political leaders to plot the assassination of Jesus. What did Jesus do? Terry asks. Why do they want to kill him? How are we to model his approach in our unjust world?“Why did Jesus die?” Terry asks. "We, too, need to stand up, speak out and resist the structures of violence and oppression, even to the point of offending the powers that be". Jesus also removed suffering from people; changed the culture's attitude towards violence; and turned enemies into friends. That’s his challenge for us.“Nonviolence is at the heart of the gospel,” he concludes. “Nonviolence adds love even in the midst of conflict. These days, I have hope in the Catholic Church becoming a peaceful church that embraces nonviolence. We can get there.” Listen in to this great teacher of nonviolence and be inspired!For more information on the nonviolent Jesus: https://www.beatitudescenter.org

This week I share with you a Bible text that contains what I believe are the most profound spiritual teachings ever taught in human history.They are the most radical, political, revolutionary words in the entire Bible, and we know historically that no one ever wrote these words. For the last 1,700 years, we Christians have done our best to pretend Jesus never said them.If we want to follow the nonviolent Jesus, and these words are his bottom line, His fundamental teaching, then we need to spend time listening to them, taking them to heart, and figuring out how to apply them concretely to our own day to day lives in this terrible moment of permanent war and global destruction.I explain how these words pertain to us as a nation, not just as individuals, and how the so-called Just War Theory is never mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount, the four Gospels or the New Testament. It is heresy and blasphemy.Dive deep with me in these powerful, often ignored verses and how these words describe the nature of God in the simplest, clearest terms.The image of a God of nonviolence is a breakthrough in human history. It is the heart of Jesus’ message and continues to be rejected. It challenges us to question our image of God.Is our God violent or nonviolent?Do we want the God of universal nonviolent love that Jesus tells us about?If we want to be sons and daughters of the living God, are we willing to practice the same universal nonviolent love as God and to accept the social, economic, and political consequences for our public stand?Any idea what this life-changing, all powerful verse is? This is my call to universal love and for you to be inspired as we follow the nonviolent Jesus together.More can be found in my book The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence.https://www.beatitudescenter.org

Episode #30 with Michele Dunne, on Monday, July 28thThis week I speak with Michele Dunne, director of the Franciscan Action Network. Michele is a professed Secular Franciscan (there are over 200,000 in the world) who has had a long career as a diplomat in the Middle East and then a scholarly researcher focused on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy.From 2006 until 2021, she headed programs focused on peace, human rights, and democracy in the Middle East at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Atlantic Council.Over the years, she’s been a regular commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Before that, she served for nearly 20 years in the U.S. State Department, including assignments in Jerusalem and Cairo. She holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University and lives in Washington DC with her husband.Michele shares with us what the Franciscan Action Network is, and does with its 17,000 members in the U.S., and why she is part of it.“Today, we've got this broken relationship between humanity and creation." Michele tells how Franciscans have been celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of the Sun, St. Francis’ poem/prayer to ‘Brother Sun, Sister Moon' and how it inspires her today:"St. Francis had an incredible kinship with all humanity, with all humans as brothers and sisters, and with all creation. We all need to find that kinship today."She asks the questions that make a difference to followers of the nonviolent Jesus: "‘What is God's will for me? What is mine to do?’ We all need to show up and find what's ours to do and do it.”Visit www.franciscanaction.org and www.beatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with Rev. Charles McCarthy, one of the world’s great teachers of Christian nonviolence.Rev. McCarthy is a priest of one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, Byzantine-Melkite, in communion with the Bishop of Rome, ordained in Damascus, Syria. He is a co-founder of Pax Christi-USA, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and author of "The Nonviolent Eucharist", "Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit" and "The Stations of the Cross of Nonviolent Love". He has been a Catholic priest for forty years with a Master's Degrees in English and Theology from Notre Dame, and a Doctorate in Jurisprudence from Boston College Law School. He was married for 53 years to Mary Margaret McCarthy, and they have 13 children and 23 grandchildren. (The cure of their daughter, Teresia Benedicta, was the official miracle for the canonization of Sr. Terese Benedicta, St. Edith Stein). Charles McCarthy taught at the University of Notre Dame where he founded and was the original Director of The Program for the Study and Practice of Nonviolent Conflict Resolution. He served for many years at St. Gregory, the Theologian Byzantine-Melkite Catholic Seminary. For over fifty years he directed retreats and spoke at conferences throughout the world on the Nonviolent Jesus.He describes how he defines nonviolence, and how that is modeled by Jesus in the Gospels and what our action taking looks like in the face of violence.When asked how he defines “nonviolence,” he begins by saying, “Nonviolence is the nonviolent love of friends and enemies modeled by Jesus in the Gospels. Nonviolence asks, ‘Is this action that you are doing imbued with Christlike, nonviolent love?’ "Any action without love is nothing at all. If our actions are not motivated by and imbued with Christlike love, they are not going to be effective in countering evil and death."“I've never been able to get beyond the fact that when the will of God is known, what follows immediately is an imperative to live it, embrace it, and follow it. When I thought of God, I thought of power, but God is something entirely different. Find out more as we listen to Rev. Charles McCarthy and the revelation of God's love throught the most horrendous conditions, as modeled by the nonviolent Jesus. Check it out, and read more at: www.emmanuelcharlesmccarthy.org www.beatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with Art Laffin, long-time peace activist, author, and Catholic Worker.Art was a member of the Covenant Peace community in Connecticut in the 1970s, then joined the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington, D.C. in the late 1970s, where he still lives with his wife and son. He has been active in the faith-based nonviolent movements for peace, social justice, disarmament, and human rights.Find out why he has been imprisoned for nonviolent actions with the plowshares movement. He is also the author of a new edition of The Risk of the Cross: Living Gospel Nonviolence in the Nuclear Age, co-editor of Swords into Plowshares, and co-editor of Arise and Witness: Poems by Anne Montgomery, About Faith, Prison, War Zones, and Nonviolent Resistance.He tshares his experiences with his mentors and friends, Fr. Richard McSorley, Dan and Phil Berrigan and Henri Nouwen, and what they taught him how "everything makes a difference".He speaks about the Plowshares movement, his actions and time in prison, as well as keeping a peace vigil every Monday morning at the Pentagon—since 1990!" People ask, 'What difference does it make?'"We ask, “What happens if we're not there?"Hear how the words of Jesus have inspired Art to renounce all forms of violence and killing, and how he has responded in his life as an activist and Catholic Worker.Speaking about the upcoming 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki on August 9th, he also tells us why we need to heed the cry of the Hibakusha:“Humanity and weapons cannot co-exist. We need to heed Jesus' gospel call to nonviolence. We need to hear Dr. King’s message just before he was killed: “The choice is no longer violence or nonviolence; it’s nonviolence or non-existence.”What is the solution to standing for life where it is threatened and has activist and founder of the Catholic Worker Dorothy Day influenced him? How does Jesus open up a new nonviolent history so we don't lose heart? Listen in to Art Laffin, take heart, and be encouraged to be a doer of the Word, and to carry on the long haul of Gospel nonviolence and universal love!beatitudescenter.orgcatholicworker.org

Author, actor, poet, musician, producer, philosopher, theologist and iconic thought leader Dr. Cornel West joins me on this episode; among the many things we discuss, he tells me:“We are witnessing the collapse and implosion of the American empire in real time,.Why does Dr. West think "the country is in deep trouble"?Like millions of others, I consider Cornel West the leading public intellectual of our time, right up there with Emerson and WEB DuBois. Brother Cornel graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. He is the former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University.He has written 20 books and has edited 13, and is best known for his groundbreaking bestsellers Race Matters and Democracy Matters (and his cameos in The Matrix series).“Every empire comes and goes,” Cornel said to me. “They begin to decay and decline because of military overreach and end up reaping what they sow. There is a spiritual and moral vacuum right now. "What does Dr. West think is the cause of the collapse and implosion of the American empire as we are experiencing it in real time?He also offers us an astonishing analogy which I never heard anyone else say before, based on the classic tale of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and how we can never lose hope:“Gold, status, position, spectacle, white power, all forms of idolatry lead toward self-destruction…We can never be surprised by evil or paralyzed by despair.”Listen in and be inspired by this Christian intellectual about the crises we face and how we can respond with the power of love and nonviolence:“To be a follower of Jesus means to take up your cross and follow him,” he said to me with his usual passion. “Love means courage, integrity, and honesty. We will always be viewed as foolish, but we lead with love, and love our way through the darkness and cruelty. Love requires tremendous risk and sacrifice. Nonviolence without love is just a strategy and a tactic.His conviction goes deep and his words ring true: Love is the fundamental criteria. But love is never crushed, joy is never crushed, love is never eliminated. So, we will never forget, cave in, give up, or sell our souls.”Join us in this empowering conversation as we follow the nonviolent Jesus together!cornelwest.combeatitudescenter.com

As we recorded this episode, Kathy is participating in and coordinating a 40 day fast for an end to the US backed Israeli genocide in Israel, which began on May 22nd. When we spoke, she was placed on a 250 calories a day intake to keep her heart rate up."We need to stand up against US military funding for Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza.” That’s what Kathy Kelly told me, what she insists upon. Unicef calls the genocide in Gaza "The War Against Children". "The US backed Israeli genocide in Gaza needs to stop."Long time peace activist, author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Kathy Kelly has traveled the war zones of the world, and stood with all those targeted for death by the United States more than anyone else I know, from Central America to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.Find out why I consider her the greatest living peacemaker in the United States, one of the great saints of our time.She has travelled the world to the places bombed and attacked by our country over the last three decades in an effort to “make peace” and “love our enemies.” With Voices in the Wilderness companions, from 1996 - 2003, she traveled twenty-seven times to Iraq, defying the economic sanctions.She led my 1999 FOR delegation of Nobel Laureates to Iraq.Kathy was in Iraq throughout the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing and the initial weeks of the invasion. She joined subsequent delegations to the West Bank's Jenin Camp in 2002 during and after Israeli attacks, to Lebanon during the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hezbollah and to Gaza, in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead and following the 2013 Operation Pillar of Defense.Kathy Kelly is board president of “World Beyond War.” From 2022 to the present, she has co-coordinated the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, she has co-coordinated an international network to assist young Afghans forced to flee their country. She made over two dozen trips to Afghanistan from 2010 – 2019, living with young Afghan Peace Volunteers in a working-class neighborhood in Kabul.“Many of the Israeli weapons used in Gaza are of US origin,” she says. “It's crucial to go to weapons manufacturers and protest. It's important to raise the lament, and then to follow up with organizing. We must keep trying to figure out how to organize and get a ceasefire. Love of our brothers and sisters in other countries makes so much sense right now. It's dependent on the people in the pews to speak out and follow the nonviolent Jesus.” She suggests we ask ourselves, “Is there a greater risk I might be willing to take?”“Don’t be afraid,” Kathy tells us. “Seek ways to embrace the so-called enemy. Look for the people nearest to you who are practicing the works of mercy rather than the works of war, and align yourself with them.”I hope you will listen in to Kathy’s plea for peace in Gaza, her living solidarity with the victims of war and hunger, and her ongoing work to promote a more nonviolent world, and be inspired. May the God of peace bless us all!

“Nonviolence is both the deepest core of our being and also the destiny of the human race,” Michael Nagler says on this week’s episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast.” “All human progress has been a progress toward nonviolence.”Is he right?Michael Nagler is Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley, and co-founder of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program and UC Berkeley and the Metta Center for Nonviolence. He has dedicated his life to teaching nonviolence, spirituality, and meditation.He is co-host of Nonviolence Radio and his books include The Search for a Nonviolent Future: A Promise of Peace for Ourselves, Our Families, and Our World; The Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide for Practical Action; Looking for Light; and The Third Harmony: Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature. (See www.mettacenter.org)“Violence is a terribly destructive frame of mind and practice,” Michael teaches. He also teaches us in this episode the practice of nonviolence through meditation, and what it means to discover our nonviolent capacity and how to implement that in the world.He tells of the outcome of the only mass public demonstration by non-Jewish Germans in 1943, now known as the Rosenstrasse protest. "There is little nonviolence education happening," he laments. Teachers of nonviolence like Michael Nagler help us to renounce our violence, learn the wisdom of nonviolence, plumb the spiritual depths of God’s nonviolence, and energize us to stand up and do what we can for disarmament and justice.Listen as he explains how meditation can deepen our spiritual awareness, of ourselves and other human beings, and gives us concrete instruction to slow our minds down.Let him inspire you with his wisdom and thoughtfulness:"Whatever is positive, true, and good in human nature is real and available to every one of us.”beatitudescenter.orgmettacenter.org

24: My guest today is Frida Berrigan, the daughter of legendary activists Philip Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister, and niece of Daniel Berrigan. She offers us an intimate look into her childhood as a daughter of full time protesters at Jonah House, a community in Baltimore, and her life today.The community at Jonah House protested full-time for decades. Her housemates were regularly arrested and jailed, including her parents: "We were just driving down to the Pentagon all the time, my parents never sugar coated anything for us,” she says. “"They let it be known to us that any change we wanted to see in the world, we had to make ourselves. And if we didn't see the change, it was still worth doing what we could. We always knew that it was our responsibility to bear witness and resist as much as possible."I also ask her about the upcoming 80th anniversary of U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th. She shares with me why this anniversary is so important, who the Hibakusha are, and what we need to do today to make sure they are never forgotten.In 2015, Frida published her book, It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood, about growing up in the Berrigan family. She has worked for years at the World Policy Institute studying U.S. military policy and nuclear weapons.She also cofounded Witness against Torture, a campaign calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay detention center and the end of U.S. backed use of torture and continues to write, organize and speak out for justice and disarmament.And this year she tells how she got blessed and arrested on Ash Wednesday this year and why she was protesting outside the UN building in New York:“Nuclear weapons are not on people's hearts. We are reminding people that nuclear weapons are still here and threatening the planet. They're not going to disarm themselves. We need to do that!”This episode is a unique look into the ordinary life of a committed full time activist and demonstrator, hear her call to resistance and be inspired to go forward working for disarmament, justice and peace!beatitudescenter.org

“We’re living through a dark night of our species, our society, and our souls,” my friend Matthew Fox tells me. A world-renowned theologian, Episcopal priest, and long-time activist, Matthew has written over 37 books, including Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, and The Hidden Spirituality of Men.This episode is for all seekers of peace, spiritual warriors, contemplative artists, and activists of the heart. If you're longing to root your nonviolence in deeper spirituality, and your spirituality in bold action — this conversation will speak directly to your soul.In our conversation, Matthew pulls no punches.“We’re in the middle of a coup,” he says. “American democracy is being hijacked by billionaires in the name of authoritarianism. The movement culminating in Trump began over 40 years ago—gathering racism, revenge, and resentment. Project 2025 is deeply anti-Christ. But we don’t talk about evil—we reduce it to sin.”Find out what "spiritual forces" really are—and what he names as the evil spirits that return every generation and how we resist and transform our society. 🔔 Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help spread the message of gospel nonviolence and sacred resistance.📢 Invite your friends, spiritual communities, protest circles, and music collaborators to tune in. The time to gather and rise is now.🎧 Listen and 👉Follow Fr. John Dear and The Nonviolent Jesus on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and beyond.The Nonviolent Jesus is a production of the Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus.beatitudescenter.orgThis is a conversation for anyone seeking to link deep spirituality with bold, prophetic action. I hope you’ll join us, take Matthew’s words to heart, and let them strengthen your own path of nonviolence.

“Offer no violent resistance to one who does evil” (Mt. 5:39)--the most revolutionary—and most disobeyed—teaching in the Gospels, says John DearThis week, I take a deep dive into Jesus’ specific commandment on nonviolent resistance in the Sermon on the Mount, Mt. 5:39-43. I tell how Leo Tolstoy learned the power of this verse from the Abolitionists, and then wrote his classic text, “The Kingdom of God Is Within You, or Christianity not as a mystical teaching but as a new concept of life.” There, on the first page, Tolstoy declares that Christianity has totally failed Christ because it ignores and disobeys Matthew 5:39. He asks: Did Christ want us to put this teaching into practice or not? Tolstoy hoped to disarm the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, he inspired Gandhi to launch national movements of nonviolent resistance, and bring the power of organized nonviolence to the world.This one verse of scripture opens a new way to understand Jesus’ life and teachings. These words launch a permanent nonviolent revolution, because they forbid all violence. This new commandment holds the key to a new way of life and the disarmament of the world. As Dr. King explained and Gandhi demonstrated, this teaching was intended not just for individuals, but for nations and the whole world. We are commanded to figure out creative nonviolent alternatives to violence.Jesus throws out the old teaching, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and calls for an immediate end to the downward cycle of violence, John Dear says. But he does not advocate meek submission to violence, or using the same means of violence as one’s opponent and then becoming as violent as everyone else. Instead, Jesus commands “a Third Way”--active, courageous, fearless, nonviolent resistance to evil and he insists that this is God’s will for humanity. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus leads a nonviolence training session just Dr. King did, Jesus says, ‘I want you to be bold, daring and creative in your nonviolence, to claim your power, confront all systemic violence and injustice, and disarm your oppressor--not kill them.’ The good news is that today millions of people around the world are taking Jesus at his word and engaging in grassroots campaigns of nonviolent resistance to oppression, war, and empire.Listen in and be inspired to experiment in Sermon on the Mount nonviolence in your own life! For further reading, get John Dear’s latest book, The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence (Orbis)beatitudescenter.org