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.

“The politics of fear and anger are reigning. We need to become hopeful, courageous, faithful truth-tellers! Truth is the antidote to the abuse of power. The truth will set us free.”

That’s what legendary lawyer Bryan Stevenson tells John Dear on this episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast.” Bryan is the founder and executive director of Equal Justice Initiative; professor of law at New York University law school; and author of the best-selling book, JUST MERCY, which was made into a powerful movie of the same name starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.

Bryan graduated from Harvard and moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where he started his non-profit to serve those on death row, the poor, the wrongly condemned, and those trapped in the furthest reaches of our criminal injustice system. “Going to death row completely changed me,” he says. That’s where he met Walter McMillian, an innocent man sentenced to die for a notorious murder he did not commit. After a heroic struggle, he got Walter released. “If I am successful at all, it is because I got close to a condemned man and heard his song,” Bryan says.

Bryan has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued five times before the supreme court, and won many awards, including the MacArthur Foundation Genius grant. A few years ago, he raised millions of dollars and built 2 museums in Montgomery: the National Museum of Peace and Justice, the nation’s first comprehensive memorial dedicated to the legacy of Black Americans who were enslaved and terrorized by lynching; and “the Legacy museum: from Enslavement to Mass Incarceration,” which displays the history of slavery, racial lynchings, and segregation. Archbishop Tutu called Bryan “America’s young Nelson Mandela,” and deservedly so.

“Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done,” Bryan says. “My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I’ve come to believe that the true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.” Don’t miss this inspiring leader and voice for justice!

Upcoming Podcasts

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