“We’re living through a dark night of our species, our society, and our souls,” my friend Matthew Fox tells me. A world-renowned theologian, Episcopal priest, and long-time activist, Matthew has written over 37 books, including Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, and The Hidden Spirituality of Men.

This episode is for all seekers of peace, spiritual warriors, contemplative artists, and activists of the heart. If you're longing to root your nonviolence in deeper spirituality, and your spirituality in bold action — this conversation will speak directly to your soul.

In our conversation, Matthew pulls no punches.

“We’re in the middle of a coup,” he says. “American democracy is being hijacked by billionaires in the name of authoritarianism. The movement culminating in Trump began over 40 years ago—gathering racism, revenge, and resentment. Project 2025 is deeply anti-Christ. But we don’t talk about evil—we reduce it to sin.”

Find out what "spiritual forces" really are—and what he names as the evil spirits that return every generation and how we resist and transform our society.

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The Nonviolent Jesus is a production of the Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus.

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This is a conversation for anyone seeking to link deep spirituality with bold, prophetic action. I hope you’ll join us, take Matthew’s words to heart, and let them strengthen your own path of nonviolence.

“Offer no violent resistance to one who does evil” (Mt. 5:39)--the most revolutionary—and most disobeyed—teaching in the Gospels, says John Dear

This week, I take a deep dive into Jesus’ specific commandment on nonviolent resistance in the Sermon on the Mount, Mt. 5:39-43. I tell how Leo Tolstoy learned the power of this verse from the Abolitionists, and then wrote his classic text, “The Kingdom of God Is Within You, or Christianity not as a mystical teaching but as a new concept of life.”

There, on the first page, Tolstoy declares that Christianity has totally failed Christ because it ignores and disobeys Matthew 5:39. He asks: Did Christ want us to put this teaching into practice or not? Tolstoy hoped to disarm the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, he inspired Gandhi to launch national movements of nonviolent resistance, and bring the power of organized nonviolence to the world.

This one verse of scripture opens a new way to understand Jesus’ life and teachings. These words launch a permanent nonviolent revolution, because they forbid all violence. This new commandment holds the key to a new way of life and the disarmament of the world. As Dr. King explained and Gandhi demonstrated, this teaching was intended not just for individuals, but for nations and the whole world. We are commanded to figure out creative nonviolent alternatives to violence.

Jesus throws out the old teaching, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and calls for an immediate end to the downward cycle of violence, John Dear says. But he does not advocate meek submission to violence, or using the same means of violence as one’s opponent and then becoming as violent as everyone else.

Instead, Jesus commands “a Third Way”--active, courageous, fearless, nonviolent resistance to evil and he insists that this is God’s will for humanity.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus leads a nonviolence training session just Dr. King did, Jesus says, ‘I want you to be bold, daring and creative in your nonviolence, to claim your power, confront all systemic violence and injustice, and disarm your oppressor--not kill them.’

The good news is that today millions of people around the world are taking Jesus at his word and engaging in grassroots campaigns of nonviolent resistance to oppression, war, and empire.

Listen in and be inspired to experiment in Sermon on the Mount nonviolence in your own life!

For further reading, get John Dear’s latest book, The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence (Orbis)

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Episode #21. "The nonviolent Jesus hasn't been preached enough in our churches:"

This week I speak with Bishop John Stowe,Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky and head of Pax Christi, on how we can transform a world shaken by violence, terrorism, deepening inequalities, and global insecurity.

“We have to sustain each other in hope!”.

“It's so essential to root out the violent tendencies within ourselves, or to think violently about others. Violence doesn't provide the lasting solution that Jesus does. But the nonviolent Jesus hasn't been preached enough in our churches…

It's a lack of faith to think it's impossible to live in a nonviolent way.”

Bishop John joined the Conventual Friars Minor, as a Franciscan in 1984, was ordained in 1995, served in El Paso, Texas; then served as its vicar general and chancellor, then vicar provincial of his Franciscan province. In 2015, Pope Francis named him the Bishop of Lexington, Kentucky.

“What we believe about Jesus has consequences in our personal lives and in our politics. We need to know who Jesus was. It's exciting to see how Jesus took on the establishment of his day. How do we build up a spirituality of nonviolence when it's missing in our catechism?”

Bishop Stowe shares why he thinks addiction to guns and violence is so prevalent in Kentucky, and how young people are connecting to make a change in the world.

"We can’t just paper over our differences, our division. We have to confront it all. It has to be healed. Inner work has to begin with the Word of God and prayer for the grace to be able to live in the way of nonviolence--to absorb violence instead of contributing to violence. We have to find ways to move beyond war and get along together and be at peace with nature.”

Listen as we talk about the nonviolent Jesus and peacemaking, be inspired and encouraged to go forward in hope!

CONNECT AND CHANGE THE WORLD

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(Note: This episode was recorded days before the passing of Pope Francis on April 21).