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.

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks

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.[www.paceebene.org]

“We are seeing an unprecedented wave of organizing, protests and noncooperation,” Rivera says at the start. “This fall, ‘One Million Rising’ is an effort to mobilize and train one million people with a nonviolent toolbox for ‘noncooperation’ and how to resist authoritarianism. There are all kinds are actions we can take along with street protests, she says, such as the recent “Tesla Takedown” and “Target Fast,” and the many ways people are standing up to ICE.

“We need to do some soul searching and decide if is this a normal presidency or a presidency that has stepped outside the rule of law,” she reflects. “If it’s the second, we need 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 offers 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 suggests six holistic practices of nonviolence that can help sustain us for the long haul:

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.

Listen in and be inspired! Check out: www.riverasun.com and

www.campaignnonviolence.org

Upcoming Podcasts

September 8th. #36. John Dear in conversation with Stanley Hauerwas

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast” John Dear welcomes Dr. Ken Butigan, , author, organizer, activist, and nonviolence trainer. 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 [www.paceebene.org], which has trained tens of thousands of people in the power of nonviolent change and which organizes Campaign Nonviolence.

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.

“One morning when I was young,” Ken tells John, “I was walking along and suddenly I was walking in the loving arms of God. It changed my life. I decided that I wanted to put God at the center of my life and it eventually brought me to the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. Later, I took part in a demonstration against nuclear weapons which had an impact on 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. At the end of it, I said to him, “let me know if I can do anything for you.” He responded immediately, “Don’t do anything for me. Go find some people you can pray with and march with.” So that’s what I have done throughout my life.”

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.”

“We have been preparing for this moment. We have more power than we think!

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.” Listen in and be inspired by Ken Butigan! May the God of peace bless us all!