The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast is a free, weekly thirty-minute podcast, posted on every Monday, featuring Fr. John Dear and his reflections about Jesus, Gospel nonviolence, and peacemaking, and guests who teach, speak out, organize and work for a more just, most peaceful, more nonviolent world. Through these weekly reflections, we hope to inspire everyone to follow the nonviolent Jesus more faithfully and do our part to welcome God’s reign of peace with justice on earth!

Here is the schedule for the first five podcasts. The link we will provided on the day they are posted; the podcast APP will be available in early February. It will also be posted every Monday on the homepage of the National Catholic Reporter, HERE.

Episode #12: John Dear in conversation with Shane Claiborne on resistance, organizing & Gospel living

“Our love doesn’t stop at our own borders.” That’s what popular speaker and author Shane Claiborne tells John Dear in this episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast.” He talks about public organizing, bold resistance, and living out the Gospel where it matters most—on the streets, in communities, and on the frontlines of change; and how we need to respond to the worsening violence, authoritarianism, white supremacy, racism, warmaking, greed, lies, and warmaking overtaking our nation and the world.

We need to go where people are hurting, and serve them, and stop the pain, violence and injustice, he says. “The closer we are to the pain, the more urgently we respond to it.”

Shane knows a lot about living the Gospel and responding to the pain and needs of the poor. He has worked on the streets of Calcutta with Mother Teresa, spent time in Rwanda and Iraq, and journeyed with me to Kabul, Afghanistan during the war. He lives in inner-city Philadelphia with the Simple Way community serving, advocating, and organizing on the streets. His best-selling books include The Irresistible Revolution and Beating Guns: Hope for People Weary of Violence.

He also speaks out all over the world. A dynamic, popular speaker and activist, he is the founder of Red Letter Christians which works with thousands of young evangelicals for justice, disarmament and creation. Shane has put radical love and nonviolence into action and invites us to do the same through the testimony of his life. “Our protest is a form of liturgy,” he says. “We can bring joy in the midst of public lament.” Visit: www.redletterchristians.org Hope you feel energized by Shane’s witness for the nonviolent Jesus!

Upcoming Podcasts

March 31st. #13. John Dear on “Carrying on Jesus’ Grassroots Movement of Peace & Nonviolence–Luke 10.”
April 7th, #14. John Dear in conversation with Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and founder and director of Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.
April 14th, #15. John Dear in conversation with Eric Stoner, founder and editor of www.wagingnonviolence.org
April 21st, #16. John Dear in conversation with Martha Hennessy, longtime peace activist, member of Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City, granddaughter of Dorothy Day
April 31st, #17. John Dear in conversation with Kazu Haga, author of the new book, Fierce Vulnerability, on trauma healing and creative nonviolence

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

Jesus wasn’t just a teacher or a devout rabbi—he was a movement builder, a grassroots organizer, and a radical leader of nonviolent resistance to injustice and empire. That’s what John Dear suggests based on Luke 10, his subject for the next episode of The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast. Jesus sends out 72 disciples in pairs—not to conquer, oppress or kill, but to disarm, heal and dismantle empire through radical peacemaking.

What if following Jesus today means joining a similar real, organized, strategic movement of active nonviolence?

🔥 What does it mean for us to be “lambs among wolves” in a world of rising fascism, white supremacy, and permanent war?
🔥 How do we mobilize like Jesus, Gandhi, and MLK to create real disarmament and social change today?
🔥How do we proclaim the coming of God’s reign of peace, justice and love today?

Luke 10 presents Jesus as “a nonviolent general leading a peaceful revolution. He’s like Gandhi on the Salt March or MLK on the Selma-to-Montgomery march.” Like the Galilee 72, John Dear suggest that Jesus calls each one of us at this moment to get up, get moving, start organizing, and take action. He’s sending us out as “lambs among wolves” to proclaim God’s reign, and in the process, to share in the joy—yes, the joy—of Jesus’ grassroots nonviolence. This Lent, take a good long look at Luke 10 as a framework for your own grassroots work for justice, disarmament, and creation.

📖 For more, check out John Dear’s latest book, The Gospel of Peace.

Upcoming Podcasts

April 7th, #14. John Dear in conversation with Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and founder and director of Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.
April 14th, #15. John Dear in conversation with Eric Stoner, founder and editor of www.wagingnonviolence.org
April 21st, #16. John Dear in conversation with Martha Hennessy, longtime peace activist, member of Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City, granddaughter of Dorothy Day
April 31st, #17. John Dear in conversation with Kazu Haga, author of the new book, Fierce Vulnerability, on trauma healing and creative nonviolence