The Nonviolent Jesus

This week I speak with Mike Farrell, best known as "Captain B.J. Hunnicutt", one of the stars of the hit TV show "M*A*S*H" in the 1970's, and later "Providence". He is also a writer, director and producer of TV films and has also appeared in several movies, and many, many other television roles. For three years he served as first vice president of the Screen Actors Guild, and as a member of the Guild’s national board of directors.

During our conversation, I am constantly impressed by his openheartedness and humanity.

I met Mike in 1990, protesting US military aid to El Salvador.

Mike is President of Death Penalty Focus, Co-Chair Emeritus of Human Rights Watch in California, and serves as spokesperson for Concern America, a refugee relief and development organization. He has traveled the globe for the last 40 years with international peace and human rights delegations.

In his work to stop the US wars in Iraq, he co-founded Artists United to Win Without War. A life-long opponent of the death penalty, he has led Death Penalty Focus for 37 years, since 1988, and speaks, debates, writes and campaigns across the country in opposition to state killing.

He helped lead the 2021 campaign to abolish the death penalty in California, which can only happen by a statewide vote, and came within 2% of succeeding. Their 2016 proposition just barely lost too.

He is the author of a great memoir which I recommend called, “Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist.”

We talk about his beginnings at the Manhattan Project, a halfway house, and his work at Operation Bootstrap in LA.

He tells us about his TV debates with Anita Bryant about gay rights, and his work in El Salvador when the bishops were assassinated and the camps he visited at the Thai-Cambodian border during the reign of Khmer Rouge.

He also recounts many of his life changing experiences from when he first visited Death Row in Tennessee in 1975 to his involvement with Death Penalty Focus.

Mike is still hopeful about abolishing the death penalty, and how the youth in this country are becoming more aware and becoming activists.

When asked about his personal faith, he shares the three things that all human beings want and need: listen to this incredibly personal and openhearted conversation and learn from this amazing actor, activist and human being!

More episodes, zooms and information: beatitudescenter.org

Death Penalty Focus: https://deathpenalty.org

More information on the nonviolent Jesus can also be found on https://fatherjohndear.substack.com/

This week I speak with legendary Civil Rights activist, author, pastor, politician, and diplomat Rev. Andrew Young to mark Dr. King's holiday.

Born in 1932, Andrew Young was Dr. King’s right-hand man, his number one lieutenant, who was later elected to Congress, named Ambassador to the United Nations by President Carter, and then elected Mayor of Atlanta for 2 terms, when he brought the Olympics to Atlanta. It is hard to describe all that he has done; Rachel Maddow recently made a two-hour documentary about his life work for justice and civil rights. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Carolyn, and is the father of 3 daughters and one son, a grandfather of 9 and a great grandfather of two.

We spoke mainly about Dr. King and his experiences organizing the Civil Rights Movement.

“What I learned from Martin King is what he learned from his parents and grandparents: it's all about the history of a people. We are constantly reminded of visions for a way out of no way. In moments of despair, I still sing songs.”

Rev. Young was also King's advisor in Birmingham, St. Augustine, Selma and Atlanta during the Civil Rights Campaigns in the 60's. The movement gained congressional passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Young was with Dr. King in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was assassinated in 1968.

“Here it is two thousand years later,” he said, “and what Jesus taught is still relevant and powerfully important for us as we deal with the day to day crises in our lives.”

As he reminisced about the Birmingham Campaign, he recalled the day Fred Shuttlesworth came to him and Dr. King, told them his house had just been bombed, and asked King to come to Birmingham. “We need to make nonviolence more aggressive,” Dr. King said, “so we need to build a nonviolent movement.” Contrary to today, he said, “It wasn’t a time of despair or depression.”

He shares with us where he first learned about nonviolence, and what he learned from Dr. King himself. He shares many of his personal experiences with him, recounting the harrowing trip when Dr. King was arrested and taken to Reidsville Prison: "He wanted to be a pastor, he had already been jailed, stabbed, his home had been bombed, Reidsville was an attempt to scare the hell out of him."

His books include:

• An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America. (January 1998);
• A Way Out of No Way. (June 1996);
• Andrew Young at the United Nations. (January 1978);
• Andrew Young, Remembrance & Homage. (January 1978);
• The History of the Civil Rights Movement. (9 volumes) (September 1990);
• Trespassing Ghost: A Critical Study of Andrew Young. (January 1978);
• Walk in My Shoes: Conversations between a Civil Rights Legend and his Godson on the Journey Ahead with Kabir Sehgal. (May 2010)

Listen in to this elder as he shares his Dr. King stories and be inspired to go forward on the way of nonviolence, resistance, and creative peacemaking.

For more podcasts, zooms and books on nonviolence, go to beatitudescenter.org

For more writings, notes, announcements and book excerpts, subscribe to my Substack https://fatherjohndear.substack.com/

In this episode I speak with Charlene Howard, the executive director of the national Catholic peace movement Pax Christi USA, and I ask her about Pax Christi’s ongoing work for justice, disarmament and peace:

Charlene describes herself as a "5th generation African American Catholic":

She is also a catechist, and a longtime teacher in the Archdiocese of Washington Catholic Schools. She holds a master’s degree in Catechesis and Religious Education from Catholic University and is a graduate and former faculty member of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies Imani Catechetical Program at Xavier University of Louisiana.

We discuss organizing Pax Christi groups and actions, getting connected with other like-minded peace and justice church activists, taking on a variety of issues, and how we can practice and teach the nonviolence of Jesus.

“One light can dispel the darkness,” Charlene says. “That’s what we’re trying to do—be a light in the darkness. There's a lot of hard things happening in this country, but there's a lot of light too. Don't be fooled into thinking that we are not gaining ground for the good and for peace, because we are.”

She encourages us to get involved and stay involved, and take to heart Pope Leo’s January 1, 2026, World Day of Peace message, “Peace Be With You All: Toward an Unarmed and Disarming Peace.”

Pope Leo writes: “The peace of the risen Jesus is unarmed, because his was an unarmed struggle in the midst of concrete historical, political and social circumstances,” and “Christians must together bear prophetic witness to this novelty.”

Charlene says, “and let’s speak truth to power!”

Listen in and be inspired to pursue the peace of Christ.

God bless you!—Fr. John

https://paxchristiusa.org/2024/07/09/pax-christi-usa-welcomes-new-executive-director-charlene-howard/

www.paxchristiusa.org

beatitudescenter.org

Pope Leo’s World Day of Peace message here.

https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/peace/documents/20251208-messaggio-pace.html

Hi friends,

I invited Robert Ellsberg, one of our best spiritual writers in the country, the publisher and editor of Orbis Books, and a legendary champion of Dorothy Day and many others saints, to speak about his latest book, Volume 2, Blessed Among Us, a massive collection of writings, two for each day of the year about a legendary saint, recently published by Liturgical Press.

Robert Ellsberg is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Orbis Books, and the author of several award-winning books, including All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time; Blessed Among All Women; The Saints' Guide to Happiness; and A Living Gospel: Reading God's Story in Holy Lives.

He's so inspiring and uplifting!

From 1975 to 1980 he was part of the Catholic Worker community in New York City, where he served as managing editor of The Catholic Worker and worked closely with Dorothy Day. He has edited six volumes of her writings, including Dorothy Day: Selected Writings; The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day; All the Way to Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy Day; and Dorothy Day: Spiritual Writings.

He has written and edited many other volumes, including (with Sister Wendy Beckett) Dearest Sister Wendy: A Surprising Story of Faith and Friendship.

“I wanted to bring a different way of looking at the saints as normal human beings that looked for a new way to follow Christ,” he tells me. I’ve always been inspired by visionaries, artists, writers, poets, and mystics of other times.”

“A saint is somebody who reminds you of Jesus,” he tells me, “a model of inspiration. Dorothy Day said the saints were here to change the social order, not just minister to the people. She herself tried to practice the presence of God and the path to holiness through a social dimension, the power of small gestures, as well as small protest.”

May this episode with Robert Ellsberg inspire you in the new year to follow the nonviolent Jesus more closely and live out the Beatitudes and the Gospel. God bless everyone!

This week we have created a special one hour year end episode of highlights of just some of our guests that have contributed to The Nonviolent Jesus podcast this year.

Our first year of weekly podcasts has been a whirlwind: so many great stories, personal experiences, deep spiritual (and theological) insights and most of all, words of hope and inspiration which we hope you have and will enjoy, many are worth and 2nd and 3rd listening.

It is an astonishing collection of visionaries, teachers and peacemakers.

You will hear short segments, usually 2-3 minutes each featuring, in order:

Martin Sheen

Helen Prejean

Richard Rohr,

Joan Chittister

Brian McLaren,

Bryan Stevenson,

Cornel West,

Charles McCarthy,

Stanley Hauerwas

John Fugelsang

Paul Chappell

Kathy Kelly

Simone Campbell

Jamie Raskin

Joan Baez

We want to thank you, our listeners, subscribers and donors, for your generous spirit in supporting this weekly podcast and we look forward to a new year with more amazing guests that will lead us to being followers of the nonviolent Jesus.

Go to BeatitudesCenter.org for more about The Nonviolent Jesus and other programs we offer. Just last month we have started a Substack account under FatherJohnDear as well, which we will be building on this coming year.

We’re starting 2026 with Robert Ellsberg talking about the saints, and don't forget to mark Dr. King’s upcoming birthday holiday with a special conversation with his assistant Rev. Andrew Young on Monday, January 19th.

We really appreciate every one of you and hope you are being blessed and encouraged by this podcast.

Happy New Year, God bless you and keep following the nonviolent Jesus!

Onward in peace,

🌻 John

Dear friends,

Next week we will be publishing highlights of our 52 episodes here on the first year of The Nonviolent Jesus podcast. Next year we will continue to explore and expand our dedication to nonviolence with conversations with inspirational thought leaders and icons of peacemakers and nonviolent activists. Thank you to everyone who listens and subscribes and shares the nonviolent Jesus in your world.

This week I take a deep dive into Matthew 2, the famous story of the three Magi. I offer this Christmas reflection as four movements:

1) The journey to the nonviolent Jesus;

2) The epiphany of meeting the nonviolent Jesus;

3) What we do after we meet the nonviolent Jesus; and

4) The epilogue, and how the empire, the culture of violence and war, reacts to the coming of the nonviolent Jesus and the threat of active nonviolence.

Let's take our inspiration from the Magi, as I propose that their story is our story.

Like the three wisdom figures, we too are on a spiritual journey, a holy pilgrimage, one that lasts a lifetime—the journey to the God of peace, to God’s reign of peace and the nonviolent Jesus.

During this episode we ask ourselves:

When did you have an epiphany of the God of peace?

When have you met the nonviolent Jesus among the poor, the homeless and the marginalized?

How does nature lead you to the God of peace?

What gifts do you bring the nonviolent Jesus?

The shocking part of Matthew 2 is what happens after the Epiphany. The Magi were ordered to report back to the warmaking, sociopathic tyrant, King Herod, but instead they commit civil disobedience and head home a different way!

Matthew invites us this Christmas to seek the nonviolent Jesus on the margins of the culture of violence, empire and war.

Let our encounter with the nonviolent Jesus lead us away from the corrupt culture of violence and war.

We too, can live as wisdom pilgrims of nonviolence who obey Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount teachings.

Let's do our part to stop the ongoing slaughter of the innocents; and to serve God and God’s reign of peace only from now on.

Merry Christmas to everyone and may the God of peace bless you on your Epiphany journey! ---Fr. John

beatitudescenter.org

This week I reflect on what I call “Mary’s Advent Journey of Nonviolence,” from the Anunciation to the Visitation to the Magnificat.

Luke tells her story as the three movements of the spiritual life--from contemplative nonviolence to active nonviolence to the Magnificat as prophetic nonviolence.

How did Jesus learn his spectacular nonviolence? Luke tells us it is from his Holy Jewish mother, Mary and she can be our teacher too.

In the Anunciation, contemplates what God has told her in silence and stillness.

In the Visitation as active nonviolence, Mary reaches out to “love her neighbor” and “show compassion to someone in need.”

These public actions would become the bedrock teachings of Luke’s Jesus. In this second movement of nonviolence, when we reach out in love to serve someone in need, we bring peace, joy, and consolation. That’s what peacemakers do.

Mary also proclaims the greatness of the God of peace, announces that God is throwing down the rulers from their thrones and lifting up the lowly, and remembering God’s promise of mercy, of nonviolence!, for generations to come!

Like Mary, this Advent, we proclaim a prophetic announcement about the coming of God’s reign of peace and nonviolence here and now.

Listen in, take heart, and go forward into the Christmas blessings of contemplative, active and prophetic nonviolence! God bless everyone—Fr. John

beatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with my friend Mike Martin, a blacksmith and founder of RAWtools.org, one of the most creative Christian peacemaking projects in the country.

To me, this is what the Advent work of "beating guns into garden tools" is all about: getting ready for the coming of peace on earth.

Mike Martin is a former Mennonite youth pastor and licensed for this specialized ministry by the Mennonite Conference. He learned to how to blacksmith in order to turn guns into garden tools. He is the co-author of a great book with our friend Shane Claiborne, Beating Guns: Hope for people who are weary of violence. See www.beatingguns.com

I first met Mike about 10 years ago at the Wildgoose Christian summer festival in North Carolina. I was giving a talk on peacemaking in a tent, and Mike was outside banging away on handguns and putting them into a fire, and eventually, turning them into plowshares, garden tools, and little crosses to wear around your neck--I kid you not.

It was thrilling. I was talking about beating swords into plowshares, but he was actually doing it, and you could take part in it, and hammer on a gun, and maybe buy one of his new creations.

Since then, his project has taken off around the country. Check out: www.rawtools.org

“I've probably hammered on a gun barrel thousands of times and it feels meaningful every time,” he tells me. “We're using raw tools--not war tools--to transform the world. We offer a safe space for gun violence survivors to heal.”

"Gun violence survivors tells us it's the first time they can deal with their anger or pain in a healthy way, you're destroying the thing that brought you harm to transforming something that can cultivate life ."

Be inspired by a former Mennonite pastor and blacksmith that has created a unique movement to disarm hearts, promote peace and cultivate justice.

Listen in and learn how to do your Advent part of preparing for the coming of peace on earth. God bless everyone!

www.rawtools.org

beatingguns.com

beatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with Congressman Jamie Raskin, one of the strongest voices and advocates for democracy and truth, about movements, democracy, and nonviolence. He represents Maryland’s 8th Con. District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Raskin was previously a state senator in Maryland where he helped abolish the death penalty and gain marriage equality. Before that, he was a professor of constitutional law at American University for more than 25 years.

He has authored several books, including the Washington Post best-seller Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People, the acclaimed We the Students: Supreme Court Cases for and About America’s Students, and the New York Times #1 best-seller Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy, about the death of his beloved son Tommy, followed two weeks later by the Jan. 6th insurrection led by Trump.

Jamie shares with us his harrowing story of hiding under a desk with his daughter and son-in-law sending what they thought were farewell texts while a violent mob was pounding on the door screaming death threats.

He was appointed to lead the 2nd impeachment trial of Donald Trump. It ended in the most sweeping bipartisan vote to convict an impeached president in history. He also served on the committee to investigate the Jan. 6th attack.

"We're in the fight of our lives and have been since the beginning of this nightmare,” he says at the start. “But people are galvanized and mobilizing all across the country."

Listen to this incredible leader of democracy and constitutional expert explain in his own words what democracy means to him and how we have to be a part of saving the country we live in.

“The whole Constitution is under attack, and we need the whole people to defend it. Democracy is the system that relies on nonviolent expression.”

Hear why he calls to us to "be the hope!”

https://raskin.house.gov

beatitudescenter.org

This week I speak with my friend, filmmaker and author Gerry Straub about his life making films about extreme poverty around the world, and then his move to Haiti where he founded the Santa Chiara Children’s Center, an orphanage for children in war-torn Port au Prince.

Last year, he had to flee Haiti because of the total violence and anarchy that has swept through the country. Since then, he’s been living in Florida and helping the orphanage online and via zoom.

He has now written a new book about his mythic journey from Hollywood, where he was once the director of the soap opera “General Hospital,” to Assisi, where he wrote his award- winning book about St. Francis called The Sun and the Moon Over Assisi, to his founding Pax Et Bonum Communications, where for twenty years he traveled into the poorest slums on the planet and made some 20 movies about extreme poverty.

All those films can now be watched for free online at www.paxetbonumcomm.org (including the film he made about my work for nonviolence, “The Narrow Path”).

“I was just trying to understand St Francis' love of the poor and poverty itself,” he tells me at the start. “I knew could put the power of film to the service of the poor.”

Gerry moved to Haiti himself and started the orphanage. His new spiritual memoir, The Cross of Love, The Pain of Poverty, (with a foreword by me) is available online and all proceeds go to the orphanage.

To learn about Santa Chiara, or offer a donation, please visit www.santachiaracc.org.

“We wanted the children to live a nonviolent life. In this horrible place of screaming kids and gun shots, something beautiful was created.”

Listen in and be inspired!

www.paxetbonumcomm.org

www.santachiaracc.org