John Dear SJ's blog

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, November 18, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 11

Last Tuesday, the U.S. bishops' conference gathered at the Marriott in Baltimore. There they were invited to a dinner hosted by U.S. military chaplains. This piqued my curiosity, so I called the U.S. bishops' conference in D.C. "Yes," I was told, "that was the annual dinner for the bishops; the military puts it on. If you want more information, call the Pentagon."

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, November 11, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 10

This weekend, Barack Obama just freshly elected, I joined 2,500 Catholics at the annual Call to Action conference in Milwaukee. A spirit of hope hovered in the air. And in the air, too, was a general agreement that, the election notwithstanding, our work must continue. We need to keep pushing for an end to the U.S. wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. We still need to work to eradicate poverty, hunger, disease, corporate greed and environmental destruction. We still need to work for a more just society. Shortly put, we too have to be hopemakers, and carry on the hard work of making our hope -- a world of peace -- come true.

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, November 4, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 9

What a boost it was to spend All Saints' Day in Boston, just before the election, with hundreds of Pax Christi friends, all of us reflecting on the Sermon on the Mount. And what a privilege to speak about A Persistent Peace, my recent autobiography, at St Paul's on Harvard Square, to be introduced by one of Harvard's brightest stars, my old friend Dr. Paul Farmer, a doctor who reinvented international healthcare as a call to abolish poverty. Dr. Paul, a living saint.

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, October 28, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 8

As the election approaches, economies worsen, wars go on relentlessly, nukes are poised on alert, and hundreds of millions starve and die in poverty, it's clear what's at stake -- the material world is tottering. But there's far more at stake than that, I submit. Peril is rippling through the waters of our spiritual depths. We have long been beset by our own greed and violence. And now our world, our beautiful creation, our very souls are at stake.

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, October 21, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 7

A few months ago, I received a surprising and moving e-mail from Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, a military lawyer who has been prosecuting detainees at Guantánamo for over a year. He had, he said, "grave misgivings" about what was happening at Guantánamo, the trials, and U.S. policy. What advice did I have to offer? I dashed off a reply to this effect: "Quit."

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, October 14, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 6

This week I spoke about A Persistent Peace, my just published autobiography, in Portland, Berkeley, Burlingame, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles and Phoenix. And at each gathering folks lamented the economic crisis, the ongoing U.S. war in Iraq, and global warming. Fear and confusion hung on the air, but I discerned beneath the surface a great longing for God, and more than that -- a restless search, a search common to all of us: Who is this God who calls us to love and serve? Where is God in such times as these? Is this a God of peace? And this: how dare we hope for a peaceable God when the Hebrew Bible holds aloft a warrior god, a god who unsheathes swords, who releases divine fury and unleashes the Israelites headlong toward vengeance?

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, October 7, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 5

This week, I've been speaking in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Montana and Oregon about the life of peace and my autobiography, A Persistent Peace. Everywhere I go, someone asks, "Are you saying we cannot use violence any more?" Yes, I answer. "How then do we defend ourselves from someone who intends to do us harm? How do we defend ourselves from terrorists who want to hurt us? How do we defend ourselves from other nations?" "Nonviolently!" I answer.

It sounds foolish, of course, but I point folks back to the nonviolent Jesus and suggest that he teaches a whole new way of life.

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, September 30, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 4

This week I embarked on a ten-week national book tour to discuss my autobiography, A Persistent Peace, and to promote Gospel nonviolence. In the months ahead, I'll report here what I'm learning and hearing. So far, I've spoken in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, and Boise. Along the way, I hear discouragement and despair mingled with fragile hope and a hazy sense of possibility.

People are talking, of course, about the proposed Bush bailout of Wall Street's billionaires -- the sardonic phrase for it, "socialism for the rich." We have not bailed out New Orleans, Haiti or Darfur, but they're doing everything they can to save corrupt Wall Street.

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, September 23, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 3

"Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows,” Martin Luther King, Jr. once said. In the days after September 11, 2001, some of the relatives of those who died in the attacks took King’s words to heart. They formed “September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows,” an organization to promote peace and nonviolence instead of revenge and retaliation. Since then, they’ve traveled the world to stand with victims of U.S. terrorism.

One of them, Terry Rockefeller, just returned from Iraq where she attended the first national meeting of a new network of creative nonviolence. Her report offers good news of peace and hope in a dark time.