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 :

beatitudescenter.org

johndear.org

danielberrigan.org

Meet me on Substack:

https://fatherjohndear.substack.com/

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

https://fatherjohndear.substack.com/