On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with Kate Common on the nonviolent origins of the Hebrew community as she describes in her new book, Undoing Conquest: Ancient Israel, the Bible, and the Future of Christianity (Orbis).

Dr. Kate Common is the Assistant Professor of Public and Practical Theology at Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and the Theologian-in-Residence at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Northampton, MA. (katecommon.com)

“In the battle of Jericho, in the book of Joshua, Israel’s army kills everyone-- men, women, children and livestock. Suddenly, human violence—genocide--is condoned by God,” she explains. But decades of archeological evidence from the “highland settlements,” she reports, now prove there was no genocide as Israel entered the promised land.

Instead of conquest and genocide, the Hebrews originated from a peaceful, nonmilitaristic movement of indigenous people who formed egalitarian communities living outside the reach of the Egyptian empire.

“These people never had a conquest story until 500 years later in 722 BCE when Israel was terrorized and conquered by the Assyrian empire. Later, they wrote their origins story as a conquest of the promised land, portraying themselves like the brutal, genocidal Assyrians!”

That false narrative has been used ever since to justify violence and has led us to two of the great heresies of our time.

White European colonists who killed millions of indigenous people and enslaved millions of Africans invoked this image, as did the white racists who created South Africa’s apartheid, and the Israeli warmakers and Christian Zionists who justify the recent genocide in Gaza.

Secretary of War Hegseth recently invoked the genocide described in Joshua to defend the US and Israeli war on Iran.

Jesus, Kate Common concludes, was calling us back to the Hebrew ideals that renounced empire and created egalitarian communities of peace and

Listen in and discover new insights in the biblical origins of Hebrew and Christian peacemaking.

beatitudescenter.org

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This week I speak with my friend Bishop Mariann Budde of the National Cathedral. She received global attention last year during the interfaith prayer service at the National Cathedral when she called upon Trump to show “mercy” to people.

Here is that excerpt of her sermon:

"Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now(...)."

"I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands, to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honour the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. The good of all people in this nation and the world."

Mariann Budde is the first woman elected to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC and the National Cathedral. Before that, she served for 18 years as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. She is the author of three books, most recently, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith.

“I knew for months that I would be preaching at an interfaith service,” she tells me. “We didn't know if Trump would come. I felt two things. I had to speak the truth about the dangers of praying for unity as a country when we were as a people and our elected officials had no intention of working toward that unity. I knew, too, there were many people who were terrified and wondered if there was a place for them with his return, so I took the opportunity to remind the most powerful person in the country that he could afford to be generous and merciful.”

One year later, this past January, she returned to Minneapolis and spoke at rallies denouncing the ICE raids and killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. “There was a sense of resolve, horror, exhaustion, fear and defiance. I've never been part of anything like it.”

She tells me why speaking with dignity is so important, and what it does to expand our options when meeting hatred. She reminds us of what Jesus did when confronted with resistance while moving deliberately into Jerusalem, and what he never did, not even once when confronted with violence.

We are called to live out the grace and love of God revealed in Jesus. Be encouraged. Hold fast. Trust that there is more at work in the world than the evil we are witnessing. It's not all up to us, but we are needed.”

beatitudescenter.org

mariannbudde.com

Listen in to this wise and brave Christian leader and take heart!

🌻, John

In this episode I offer reflections on the life, witness and teachings of my friend and mentor, the legendary peacemaker and war resister Rev. Daniel Berrigan who died ten years ago this week on April 30, 2016, just before his 95th birthday. www.danielberrigan.org

This special episode begins and ends with my friend Dar Williams singing her great song “I Had No Right” about Dan, and features recordings of Dan reading three of his poems.

Dan was born in 1921, was a Jesuit priest, poet, author of 50 books, lecturer, and antiwar activist who was arrested over 200 times in protests.

I share about his two great actions, the Catonsville 9 and the Plowshares 8, and talk about his teachings on resistance, peacemaking, nonviolence, hope, detachment from the results of our action, and Jesus.

Here’s a quintessential Dan Berrigan statement: “The Bible teaches in many places and warns, denounces and illumines this one bitter truth: the violence of humans is, in essence, genocidal, mass suicidal. War is not itself until it is total war, claiming the total person, the human family in its entirety, universal life."

Here’s also a great statement that Dan wrote for the Catonsville 9 action::

"Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, for the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house.

We could not, so help us God, do otherwise...."

Listen to the podcast for the entire statement!

That October 1968, they were put on trial in Baltimore, and found guilty, and while awaiting prison, Dan wrote his popular play, “The Trial of the Catonsville 9.” The war worsened, so instead of reporting to prison, in April 1970, he went “underground.”

For months, Dan traveled around the country, evading the FBI, speaking to the media, appearing on the national news, writing articles, and infuriating J. Edgar Hoover and his henchmen.

One Sunday he appeared in a Philadelphia church to give a sermon and said famously. “We have chosen like Jesus to be powerless criminals in a time of criminal power.” That August, he was arrested on Block Island, Rhode Island, and sent to Danbury prison where he barely survived the next few years.

I consider Dan one of God’s greatest prophets of peace. Please listen in to this special episode and be inspired by Dan to stand up, speak out, and take action for justice, disarmament and peace! Thank you Dar Williams:

God bless you all—Fr. John

There are more podcasts and interactive Zoom programs with today's thought leaders, educators and activists that encourage you to follow the nonviolent Jesus :

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danielberrigan.org

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Today I speak with my friend Prof. David Cortright, author and a leading scholar on war, peace and nonviolent resistance.

He is the former executive director of SANE, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy which under his leadership in the 1980s grew from 4,000 to 150,000 members and became the largest disarmament organization in the U.S. He also co-founded Win Without War in 2002. He is a visiting scholar at Cornell University’s Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies and professor emeritus at Notre Dame.

David is the author, co-author or co-editor of 23 books, including Protest and Policy in the Iraq, the Nuclear Freeze and Vietnam Peace Movements; Civil Society, Peace and Power; Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for a New Political Age; and Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas.

He has written widely about nonviolent social change, nuclear disarmament, and sanctions, and provided research services to the foreign ministries of Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. He has served as consultant or advisor to the United Nations, the Carnegie Commission, the International Peace Academy, the MacArthur Foundation and Catholic Relief Services.

He shares his convictions as a man of faith and reflects on the time he was an active duty soldier during Viet Nam.

He speaks of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and our responsibilities as Americans to oppose the war and push to cut off military aid to Israel.

We discuss the elections, sustainment and the "inevitable prohibition of nuclear weapons becoming a global reality".

He also reminds us of the No War and No Nukes campaigns and how they are one with the No Kings movement.

“We were put on this planet to serve God and follow the nonviolent Jesus. Peace making and peace building are obligations of the faith. If we are believers, we are committed and obligated to peace."

Be encouraged, inspired and sustained by David Cortright today and carry on this work of peace making and peace building, it starts with us!

johndear.org

beatitudescenter.org

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On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with my friend Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Center for Human Rights kennedyhumanrights.org.

A lifelong human rights activist and lawyer, she authored Being Catholic Now, as well as Speak Truth to Power, Robert F. Kennedy: Ripples of Hope, and the forthcoming Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy.

The 7th of Ethel and Robert Kennedy’s 11 children, Kerry has devoted more than 40 years to the pursuit of equal justice, and the promotion and protection of basic rights around the world on a range of issues. She has led hundreds of human rights delegations and regularly provides commentary on TV. For 10 years, she served as chair of the Amnesty International USA Leadership Council. A graduate of Boston College Law School, she lives in Massachusetts.

Kerry talks about her life as a child, her parents, and her human rights work at the Kennedy Center. She lays out the three things her organization does around the world with her team of lawyers and how they have never lost a litigation case.

They also work to decrease mass incarceration and abuses committed by ICE, as well as work to stop violence against women, and indigenous and marginalized people around the world.

She tells about her recent trip to the notorious, violent prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has been sending hundreds of people illegally to be tortured.

When asked about her brother Bobby Kennedy, Jr., and what she thinks about him and his performance as Secretary of Health and Human Services, her answer is unexpected and candid.

Her accomplishments cannot be overestimated and she continues to work selflessly all across the world for human rights. She encourages us with her faith and determination to make a difference in our world today while quoting the nonviolent Jesus: "Love one another".

Listen to her words of encouragement and be inspired:"We can all do something to make things better for others.”

Find out more about our work here: beatitudescenter.org

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My newest book "Universal Love, surrendering to the God of Peace" is available now on orbisbooks.com

This week I speak with my friend Jim Finley, the beloved teacher of contemplation and mysticism.

When he was a teenager, Jim entered the Abbey of Gethsemani and was a novice and later a friend of Thomas Merton. Eventually, he left the monastery, became a clinical psychologist, and opened his practice in Los Angeles, where he still lives.

He wrote the first serious book about Merton’s spirituality, Merton’s Palace of Nowhere. Jim has taught and lectured on Merton, spirituality and mysticism for over 50 years, and these days is a faculty member of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Living School at the Center for Action and Contemplation.

He hosts a free popular podcast, “Turning to the Mystics,” centering on Christian mysticism and contemplative living, which has hundreds of thousands of regular listeners.

He is author of several other bestsellers, such as The Awakening Call, The Contemplative Heart, and his recent memoir, The Healing Path.

This year, Orbis Books is launching a ten volume series by Jim on the mystics, such as Teresa of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Meister Eckhart. The first volume is on Merton.

This year, Orbis Books is launching a massive, ten volume series by Jim on the mystics, such as Teresa of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Meister Eckhart, and the first volume comes out in a few months on Thomas Merton.

Jim has done two wonderful zoom presentations for the Beatitudes Center which you can listen to, like tens of thousands of others, on our free YouTube channel.

“I saw Merton as a living mystic,” he tells me. “I was so honored to be in his presence. He was my spiritual director, so every other week for six years, I would meet with him and he would always ask the three same questions."

He says he learned from Merton that “the only way to ever be at peace is to accept myself as I am, because I'll never be anyone else.”

Listen as Jim relates to us how God's presence resides in ourselves and others, and why we have to accept that we are infinitely accepted. Be inspired by him and his words for Holy Week to deepen in the contemplative life of mystical peace!

You can also subscribe to my Substack and find more about our work on our website https://beatitudescenter.org

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with writer and scholar of nonviolent resistance, Daniel Hunter. He coaches and trains movements across the globe; is a founder of ChooseDemocracy.us which organizes against authoritarianism; and is currently the director of Freedom Trainers. freedomtrainers.net

His books include "What Will You Do If Trump Wins,” "Climate Resistance Handbook" and "Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow." His essays about resistance to growing fascism are widely read on wagingnonviolence.org

“How can you help stop authoritarianism?” he asks. “You stop viewing them as legitimate; you non-cooperate and don't comply with their orders.”

He speaks on the influence of the No Kings protests on elections, Steven Miller's nationalist goals, the Disney boycott, and how to stop authoritarianism.

“We are seeing unprecedented collective action. Authoritarianism does not care about polls or the number of activists protesting. Authoritarian power only cares about what it can make us do.”

He also reminds us of the National 'No Kings' protests coming on March 28th and 'May Day Strong' on May 1st which calls for no work, no school, and no shopping.

"This is a good moment. We're ready to take on the biggest super villain the world has ever seen. Every action, everything we're doing--it's all adding up right now.”

nokings.org

maydaystrong.org

beatitudescenter.org

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Today I speak with Jonathan Kuttab on Palestine. He is the executive director of FOSNA, Friends of Sabeel North America, the best Christian solidarity group working with Palestinians for peace.

Jonathan is also co-founder of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and co-founder of Nonviolence International. A well-known international human rights attorney, Jonathan practices in the US, Palestine and Israel. He serves on the Board of Bethlehem Bible College and is President of the Board of Holy Land Trust. He was the head of the Legal Committee negotiating the Cairo Agreement of 1994 between Israel and the PLO.

“The war on Gaza is continuing even today,” he told me just before the US/Israel declared illegal war on Iran.

“They're refusing medicine, food, journalists, aid, and they're using the ceasefire to continue the genocide. The world is allowing this to continue, and it breaks my heart.”

Jonathan explains why most Christian Palestinians are nonviolent peacemakers, and have been since the 1st century. His conclusion:

"Violence does not work. It does not deliver what it is supposed to deliver."

FOSNA promotes the vision of Sabeel Jerusalem, an ecumenical liberation theology movement founded by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land, joining Friends of Sabeel chapters around the world.

As a nonprofit organization in the United States, they amplify the voice of Palestinians by advocating with churches, communities, and civic leaders for justice, peace, and liberation in Palestine. See www.fosna.org and www.jonathankuttab.org for more information on Jonathan and FOSNA. I have worked with them for many years and gave a keynote speech at the Sabeel conference in Bethlehem in 2008 with the Cardinal of Jerusalem, you can find it here: www.sabeel.org

“It is possible for people to live together!” Jonathan concludes. “We have lived together peacefully in the past, and hopefully we will in the future".

Listen in to this Palestinian voice for peace today and be inspired to join the grassroots movement of ordinary Christinas trying to live out the teachings of Christ in the 21st century.

www.beatitudescenter.org