Shane announces the National Peacemaker Association (NPA), a global movement uniting activists against war, gun violence, and state-sanctioned violence. From building out nonviolence certifications and political accountability to the Peacemaker Pledge, discover how NPA is organizing for peace.

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Shane reflects on 50 years of the modern U.S. death penalty, tracing his journey from defender to opponent on moral and Christian grounds. Exposing its roots in poverty, racial bias, and historical lynching, he highlights abolitionist activism—from prayer vigils to powerful stories of exonerees and former wardens haunted by botched executions.

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This week, we talk to Scotty Utz from RAWtools South and discuss transforming firearms into garden tools and designing faith-informed, survivor-centered rituals around gun destruction. We cover RAWTools' efforts to promote nonviolence through certification programs and their Gun Violence Awareness Month events, including the Blacksmith-a-Marathon, which honors all victims of gun violence.

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We speak with longtime Red Letter Christian supporter and author Terry Webb about her 94 years of life, how she's grown her faith, and her new book, "Christian Citizenship Endangered in America.” A response to Trumpism and the rise of Christian nationalism shaping U.S. policy.

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Originally recorded and published on the RLC Blog on July 3, 2021.

One-hundred and seventy-four years ago, abolitionist, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass gave a speech to the 600 members of the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society entitled “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” On July 3, 2021, Christian leaders from around the country gathered virtually with Red Letter Christians to read this powerful piece together.

Read along here: 

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In this solo show, Shane Claiborne marks Gun Violence Awareness Month by highlighting Raw Tools' unique mission to transform surrendered weapons into art and garden tools. Specifically, he focuses on their June blacksmith marathon—a powerful initiative memorializing the 40,000 American lives lost annually to gun violence while calling for urgent, commonsense gun reform.

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This week, we chat with Brad Jersak, from Saint Stephen's University, about living a nonviolent, justice-seeking Christianity that resists the “takeover mentality.” Instead, it acts as the church’s prophetic conscience, echoing Dr. King’s view of laws and heart-change as parallel tracks.

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This week, we revisit the archive with Doug Pagitt of Vote Common Good. We discuss the major deployment of masked federal ICE agents to Minneapolis, amid the city’s post–George Floyd organizing. We hear about the continual need for citizen action, growing clergy solidarity, and sustaining “joy” through music and art as a humanizing response.

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We talk with Dr. James Bigham about moral courage and practical responses to U.S. gun violence, now described as the leading cause of death for ages 1–19, with over 100 deaths daily. He describes collaborations with gun shops and training healthcare professionals, ​pastors, and other caregivers to address the epidemic.

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This week, we talk with political scientist and civil resistance scholar, Dr. Maria J. Stephan, co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works. We discuss how she was shaped by early community and faith organizing in Vermont, and later by the documentary A Force More Powerful and global nonviolent struggles. Stephan explains research on preventing democratic backsliding and the need for sustained engagement beyond mass protests, through tactics such as boycotts, strikes, walkouts, and noncooperation.

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