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, John Dear speaks with Maria Stephan, teacher, advocate, and organizer, who has dedicated her life to the proposition that ordinary people, when organized and inspired, can bring about extraordinary change. She is the co-author with Erica Chenoweth of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, one of the most important books in decades, which documents how nonviolent resistance campaigns over the last century have been twice as effective as armed struggles, and been major drivers of democratization and civil peace.

“On the one hand, we have more regimes taking away rights and abusing power;” she says, “but on the other, there’s an explosion of nonviolent campaigns and mass mobilizations of ordinary people around the world.”

Maria works with www.Horizonsproject.us focusing on the role of nonviolent action and peacebuilding in advancing human rights, democracy, and sustainable peace in the US and globally. Before joining Horizons, Maria founded and directed the Program on Nonviolent Action at the U.S. Institute of Peace, overseeing global programming, applied research, and policy engagement. She was the lead foreign affairs officer in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and also worked at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. She has taught at Georgetown University and American University.

“Nonviolent resistance is a skill-based activity; you can learn how to do better and how to build broad-based coalitions… We need to think big, both globally and locally. We need a more interconnected ‘movement of movements.’ We need to change the popular consciousness so that movements and campaigns are seen as a cool form of activity.” Listen in and be inspired by Maria Stephan to do your part keep the movement of Gospel nonviolence moving!

Upcoming Podcasts

May 26 #21. John Dear with Bishop John Stowe
June 2 #22. John Dear on “The Revolution of Nonviolent Resistance in Matthew 5”
June 9 #23. John Dear in conversation with Martin Luther King III and Arndrea King
June 16 #24. John Dear in conversation with Rev. Munther Isaac of Bethlehem, Palestine
June 23 #25. John Dear in conversation with Frida Berrigan

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

This week on the latest episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with legendary environmental activist, organizer, and writer Bill McKibben. He’s one of the world’s leading environmental activists and founder of www.350.org, a global grassroots climate campaign which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas, and coal.

“I started life as a writer, I still am a writer,” Bill says. “But to win the fight, we’re gonna have to take on money and power. That’s why we have to organize and build a movement to change hearts and minds and change power. We keep our humor, our love for each other and our eyes fixed on the future, and on we go!”

Bill’s 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change and was published in 24 languages. He’s gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. A professor at Middlebury College, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities and the Right Livelihood Award from the Swedish Parliament. www.billmckibben.com

“The two great inventions of the 20th century were the solar panel and grassroots movement of nonviolence,” Bill says. Recently, Bill founded www.ThirdAct.org, a global grassroots movement of people over the age of 60, which has taken off. During the podcast, he announced the upcoming global day of action for solar power, “Sun Day,” September 21st, www.sunday.earth.

“The sun is willing to provide us with all the power we could ever use, but that great gift is a threat to powerful interests.” Bill keeps organizing, writing, speaking out and leading us to work for climate justice. Listen and be inspired to carry on as well!

Upcoming Podcasts

May 19 #20. John Dear with Maria Stephan
May 26 #21. John Dear with Bishop John Stowe
June 2 #22. John Dear on “The Revolution of Nonviolent Resistance in Matthew 5”
June 9 #23. John Dear in conversation with Martin Luther King III and Arndrea King
June 16 #24. John Dear in conversation with Rev. Munther Isaac of Bethlehem, Palestine
June 23 #25. John Dear in conversation with Frida Berrigan