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June 29, 2026

Episode #789, John Dear in conversation with Lisa Sharon Harper

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with Lisa Sharon Harper. Lisa is a theologian, speaker, author, activist and trainer who has worked in Ferguson and Charlottesville, as well as South Africa, Brazil, Australia, Ireland and across the U.S.  
 
Her 2022 book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World–And How To Repair It All, was named “Book of the Year” by Word and Way. Her 2016 book, The Very Good Gospel, was named “Book of the Year” by the Englewood Review of Books. After her leadership at Sojourners magazine, she founded Freedom Road, where she is the host of its podcast and column on Substack. The Huffington Post named her one of 50 Women Religious Leaders to Celebrate on International Women’s Day. (See: www.freedomroad.us)
 
Asked about these days of social injustice, white supremacy and permanent warmaking under Trump, she said she cries every day. “I actually have hope but I’m grieving like the rest of the country,” she said. “I cry because of the Church’s silence during the Obama era and back to the 70s/80s during the rise of the religious right. People didn’t know what was right, just and Jesus’s way…Evil goes all the way back to the Constitution, in the 3/4 compromise. I grieve for our inaction in the past. It didn’t have to be this way, but in every generation, there is a remnant. There has always been a witness of the actual Jesus way of being in the world. Right now, that witness is alive and well.”
 
She told three stories: of her time in Ferguson in August, 2014 after Michael Brown was killed by a white policeman; her time in Charlottesville, VA, when she was present in the protest against Trump’s neo-Nazis who killed Heather Heyer; and our experience in the D.C. Central Cell block jail after protesting at the Supreme Court on the 40th anniversary of the U.S. death penalty. She shared about her organization, Freedom Road, which trains people of faith to take public action for justice, as well as her recent best-selling books.
 
“Nonviolence is the only way for people who are not on the upside of empire to fight back,” she concluded. “Nonviolence is the only way to not be at war with God.” Listen in and be inspired by this peacemaker to carry on! God bless you! 

Next week…

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Wes Howard-Brook! For more information, visit here.

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and the National Catholic Reporter

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Fountain FM
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June 22, 2026

Episode #77, John Dear in conversation with Zoughbi Zoughbi of Bethlehem, Palestine

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with one of the great peacemakers of our time, his friend Zoughbi Zoughbi of Bethlehem, Palestine.
 
Zoughbi is a lifelong Catholic Palestinian activist, organizer and teacher of Gospel nonviolence. Long ago he founded the Wi’am Center, the Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center in the center of Bethlehem. Wi’am is widely recognized as a place of nonviolent conflict resolution that helps Palestinians in the day to day struggle for justice and peace (www.alaslah.org) For the last few years, he has also served as the president of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, which is the oldest peace group in the world (www.ifor.org). Whenever you think you are working too hard for justice and peace, remember Zoughbi!
 
“This is the first time in history that Bethlehem and Jerusalem are separated, that you cannot travel between them,” he says. “We are living in reservations, separated from each other. Bethlehem is becoming a smaller reservation surrounded by 23 settlements and many outposts. The West Bank is a prison; Gaza is a concentration camp. Every day, we see more prisoners, houses being demolished, state violence, settler violence, environmental violence. The situation is moving from worse to the worst.”
 
“I want my people to live their life and know their rights, to work for a culture of acceptance, to resolve conflict nonviolently. We are exposing the atrocities of the Occupation, and ask people to be in solidarity for us. We are all global citizens of a global world. I want all Christian brothers and sisters to walk in our shoes. Come and visit. Stop aiding and supporting Israel, its weapons, wars and occupation. I don’t want the Holy Land to become a museum without people.” 
 
When asked about the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, he says, “Our dream is to educate all children in the world in peace and nonviolence, to get all religious leaders to preach the refusal of war, terrorism and violence, to get everyone to work for a world without war and nuclear weapons.” 
 
“Jesus was soft on people, but hard on the system,” he concludes. “He asks us to love each other and to struggle against injustice…. Be the salt, the yeast and the light… Hope for me is a form of nonviolent struggle. We are going to become the Beloved Community one day!” Listen in and be inspired! God bless you!

Next week…

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Lisa Sharon Harper! For more information, visit here.

Upcoming Zoom Programs:

John Dominic Crossan and Michael Okinczyc-Cruz on “Jesus and Justice”

Saturday July 11, 2026

11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern



Joyce Rupp in conversation with John Dear on “Compassion and Prayer”

Saturday July 25, 2026

11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern



Todd Walatka on Saint Oscar Romero’s Prophetic Voice for Peace

Saturday August 22, 2026

11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern



Robert Jonas, “Teachings and Stories of Henri Nouwen on the 30th anniv. of his death”

Saturday September 19, 2026

11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern



The Gospel of Mark and the Nonviolent Jesus: A 4 Week Monday Series with John Dear, October, 2026

Mondays October 5, 12, 19, 26, 2026

4 PM Pacific, 5 PM Mountain, 6 PM Central, 7PM Eastern



John Dear’s new book

Universal Love:
Surrendering to the God of Peace
By John Dear

For more information, click here
 
Available from www.orbisbooks.com or call 1-800-258-5838, or Amazon.com
 
 
“One of the people I respect most on this earth and whose winsome company I enjoy most is Fr. John Dear. In this short, valuable, and practical book, John shares his conversations with a young spiritual seeker named Will who came to him seeking spiritual guidance. As I read each chapter, I felt like I was meeting with John for coffee, sharing my struggles, and receiving his wisdom and encouragement. This book is a treasure.”
— Brian McLaren, author of Faith After Doubt and The Last Voyage

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LATEST NEWS FROM THE BEATITUDES CENTER

Quote for the Day: 

“The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the
adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the God of peace as the waters cover the sea.”

(Isaiah 11:6–9)

Quote for the Day: 

“I am called in the Word of God — as is everyone else — to the vocation of being human, nothing more and nothing less … To be a Christian
means to be called to be an exemplary human being. And to be a Christian categorically does not mean being religious. Indeed, all religious versions of the gospel are profanities. In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst Babel, speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, nurture the Word, preach the Word, define the Word, incarnate the Word, do the Word, live the Word. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death’s works and wiles, rebuke lies,
cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed,
raise those who are dead in mind and conscience.”
–William Stringfellow

June 30th, 2026

Dear Friends, Blessings of Christ’s peace!

     Next week at the Beatitudes Center, on Saturday July 11th, I’ll be hosting my friend John Dominic Crossan, perhaps the world’s most widely read scripture scholar, along with Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, about their new book, Jesus and Justice: Organizing for God’s Reign on Earth Then and Now.

     John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-born biblical scholar with post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He was co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar and President of the Society of Biblical Literature, and is professor emeritus of religious studies at DePaul university in Chicago. His many books include: God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome; How to read the Bible and Still Be a Christian; Resurrecting Easter; Excavating Jesus; The Birth of Christianity; Who Killed Jesus?; The Historical Jesus; The Essential Jesus; Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography; and his memoir, A Long Way from Tipperary.

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