 Welcome. We're so happy to have you here at Davis Community Church for this wonderful event to hear John Deere. I'm the interim pastor here at Davis Community Church, Steve Brewer, and I'm here in the official capacity to tell you where the toilets are. It's not too hard in this room, they're back through that back door, and so I'm happy to have you here and I also wanted to acknowledge that this event is is co-sponsored by Cal Aggie House. So do we have some students and folks from from Cal Aggie House? We're really happy to have you here and thank you for co-sponsoring this event, a wonderful opportunity to hear someone that knows a thing or two about peacemaking. Okay, yeah, if there's a seat near you that's available, would you raise your hand? Okay, look quite a few seats up here, so don't be afraid to sit in the front pews. And I'd like to introduce Jewel Payne, who helped bring John here and she's gonna say a few words of introduction for John. Come on up, Jewel. I'm really happy to see you all here on this beautiful rainy day. I first, I was introduced to John by one of his books about 13 years ago, which really transformed the way I look at peace, and it was called Living Peace, and he started off with a whole bunch of chapters on topics like solitude, silence, listening, prayer, letting go, and gee, that's not go out and change the world, that's get peace within myself. But he doesn't stop at that either. So one of his first things he did when he was a very, very young Jesuit priest was, they sent him to El Salvador in the middle of a war, 1985, and he was setting up a refugee camp there with bombing and chaos all around and telling the people with the guns to just go someplace else. And he's been in conflict areas in Northern Ireland and in Pakistan and Iraq. And here in this country he's taken a strong stand for peace in some places where it wasn't very much appreciated, like the Pentagon and the White House and the School of Americas, and he paid the price in prison. And during his time in Washington, D.C., he was working with homeless people there, and in New York he was the director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which is the original peace organization in this country. And he was the director of that and the current director we happened to have sitting here someplace, Kristen Stone King. Back there. John was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and along with all of these things he also is the author of 30 books. And through all of his life of nonviolence his model has been Jesus, along with Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Archbishop Oscar Romero and Dorothy Day. And John, where are you? Are you here? Come and talk to us about the nonviolent life. Well good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much, Jewel, for that warm welcome and on this beautiful rainy day. Jewel said I thought there'd be like 20 people here so I'm just happy to have you all here and I just want to thank you so much for all that you do for peace and justice and you know the God of peace and justice in our poor world. I just want to encourage you all to carry on the struggle for justice and peace. It's just wonderful. I'm going around the country talking about my new book, The Nonviolent Life, doing my little bit for peace and all. But you know seeing all you lovely holy peacemakers here in Sacramento, Davis, I'm nervous in front of you. This reminds me of the true story of the young priest giving his first homily and he's very nervous and he comes to the podium and he taps on the microphone and says something's wrong with this microphone and the congregation goes and also with you. So I'm hoping that's not the situation today. That's actually a true story so as you see I have other bad jokes if you want to hear them. It's gonna be downhill after that I think. Just really happy to be back here in California and so grateful for the rain. I'm just back last week from South Africa. It was so darn exciting. You know I'm 54 now and I've been working like you for peace for a long time for me about 35 years full time and I don't know that I could have gotten into South Africa back in the day because of my work. So it was a real holy pilgrimage to go and so I've been talking with Jewel and I really thank Jewel again for organizing today's event. In fact I don't know where Pastor Steve went but I want to thank him and the Davis Community Church, the Presbyterian community for welcoming me here. Before I go on let's have a round of applause for all their hard work to bring me here. Thank you Jewel. Really grateful Jewel. As I was telling Jewel about my trip you know before and planning today was so incredible. I went to learn from those who gave their lives in the struggle for justice to end apartheid you know and to go to Johannesburg and Soweto. I was surprised it's kind of like Northern California. It's really beautiful. I mean I learned first of all why they fought for their land you know and I had had a church in the 80s in Washington DC that was a sister parish with one of the great churches in Soweto so it was really thrilling to go there and to see Mandela's house and you know my journey's been so amazing. I was walking down the street and I literally met ran into Winnie Mandela. This was about two weeks ago and we had corresponded during the 80s and she remembered that and it was so thrilling to see this poor woman who suffered so much and been totally destroyed you know in the struggle but to see her moving into forgiveness and self forgiveness and grace. Then we went to Peter Martzburg in Durban. Do you know your South Africa history? Remember the movie Gandhi? The opening scene? What changed his whole life? He's a dopey 21 year old kid you know just out of law school the family says you're so incompetent they ship him to South Africa. He gets a case. He buys the first class ticket but you know only white people in the first class. He's remember in the movie he's thrown off the train at midnight in the little town of Peter Martzburg and he's so scared and it's freezing cold he sits on the floor till about nine the next morning. What'll I do? What do we do in the face of systemic injustice? He says when he stood up you can read his autobiography. My non-violence began so you see I'm a little over the top but we went to the train station to make holy pilgrimage. It's the same goofy old Victorian building from 1893 and went to the platform and went to the waiting room to see the place where Gandhi jewel began his active non-violence. It was so touching and then in Durban the the ashram he found it which is still there. It was all burned down in 1985 during the apartheid riots and then we went on to Cape Town and to go to Robin Island and spend a day there you know and and see what he the great man suffered and all those great people. So touching and then to have a day with my friend and teacher and our hero Archbishop Tutu. You know he's 82 years old now and one of the first things he said to me this great great great Mahatma John we have no right to give up the struggle for justice and peace. We're gonna be about this till the day we die. I pass on that message. The next day he was leaving for Iran which is no joke and he's 82 and he's doing and he's still getting death threats and and I said you know you may get a chance to see how goofy I am too and I said oh come on Archbishop I thought that was pretty funny. This poor guy's been getting death threats since he was 13 you know and he's just speaking out for the poor and for justice across the whole planet. He's the greatest person maybe. How do you do it? And he looked me in the eye and whispered and said I cry a lot and I also laugh a lot but that's how we live the nonviolent life and I had written about that in the book because I've learned so much for him which is very different from most of us activists here in the States I think to really engage our humanity and Tutu's such a great teacher there. So I'm very excited to be here with you and maybe what I could do is if you can stand it just tell you some of my stories talk about the world of violence talk about nonviolence and the thesis of my book the nonviolent life and our campaign for nonviolence and then we Jewel will have time for question and answers and then we'll resolve everything and Jewels got my book in the back and I have some of my other books and I'm happy to meet you all afterwards if you'd like. So yeah so for me just to tell you if you don't know about me you know my journey began really just out of college when I decided you know I wanted to give my life to Jesus and be really nice and pious you see that didn't work and I thought and thought and thought and I went to my parents and I I decided before I did that I wanted to get to know the lay of the land so I went mom dad I'm going off to Israel for three months to hitchhike on holy pilgrimage to see where Jesus lived and without missing a beat my mother was like where did we go wrong what he he had so much potential and the week I left Israel invaded Lebanon do you remember the the evil summer war summer war who remembers of 1982 was all orchestrated at the Pentagon it was all called Operation Peace for Galilee run here in the United States we killed 60,000 people all the holy land pilgrimages were canceled I walked along completely oblivious from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to Nazareth trying to be pious and my goal is to go to the Sea of Galilee which you've been there so gorgeous as big blue sea and the green hills and a blue sky and I'm just reading the gospel for the first time and there's a little chapel in the north part of the sea on a hill called the Chapel of the Beatitudes and I walk in there and I'm reading them for the first time and you know it's like graffiti on the wall it said right there blessed are the poor blessed are those who mourn blessed are the meek blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice blessed are the merciful blessed are the pure in heart blessed are the peacemakers blessed are those persecuted for working for justice love your enemies and not being very bright I suddenly said out loud in this little empty church oh my god I think this guy's serious never occurred to me the whole point of Christianity is to live these teachings that's what he wants and they're the most political dangerous spiritual teachings in all of human history according to Gandhi who read the Sermon on the Mount every morning and every evening for the last 45 years of his life by the way all right did I hear some of you are Christians I'm just asking I don't we don't this guy Gandhi is saying this is our textbook on non-violence I want to live a nonviolent life I have to go read my handbook so I walk out in the balcony and I'm going you know when you're on a goofy holy pilgrimage you get even wackier than usual and I'm talking to God I'm going are you trying to tell me I have to live this stuff not somebody else let's hope Pastor Steve you know we have to do it and I thought and thought and thought and I said okay a little over the top I said okay God I hereby promise to give my life to the Sermon on the Mount in peace and justice thank you very much on one condition if you give me a sign that was just perfect because I had found a loophole because we don't get signs anymore this was just friend all of a sudden there were these loud explosions and three huge black Israeli jets fell from the sky swooping down over the Sea of Galilee breaking the sound barrier setting off sonic booms dropping a whole bunch of bombs 15 miles away in Lebanon changed my life but there was a part of me that was going okay I'll work for peace and I'll never ask for a sign again but you know I've been talking about that episode because there's I don't know how you got involved in your work for peace and justice but I thought right well this this is really the most important thing because for a split second I did open my eyes being in a total unconscious days and just in case God showed up and what did I see the reality of the world which is sisters and brothers killing sisters and brothers all over the planet actually in the name of God actually in the name of Jesus actually at the place where he said bless you the peacemakers love your enemies incredible this is the reality of the world what are we gonna do about it we're gonna live these teachings and that's where I that's just I hit the ground running and the first one the first things I did this is 1982 was I went and met my great friends and teachers Daniel and Philip Barragans you remember some of you the Barragans from the 60s and 70s Dan is 92 now and very frail keep them in your prayers well if you go and sit at the feet of the Barragans and you're 21 years old it's like 15 minutes before you have to go get arrested the Pentagon they're like smoking cigarettes I go get arrested kid and report back that's what happened and as you know now I've been arrested about 80 times and I'm an ex-con and I can't vote and I can't travel with certain countries and I'm highly monitored by the government and I have a problem with recidivism so maybe we better not even talk about it no you know trying to do everything we can for peace and justice in this crazy world and at some point Gandhi says you cross the line which legalizes mass murder in our names and you break the law to engage the law you know with with symbolic direct action I went to El Salvador and worked in the refugee camp under the direction of the Jesuits at the University my friends the six of them who were later brutally killed in 1989 that's when I was living in the Bay Area and met some of you for four years and was organizing Pax Christie out here and I remember coming to speak here Jewel around 1989 and nearby and and that led me to my most notorious crime in 1993 with Philip Berrigan when I walked on to the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro North Carolina the home of the F-15E nuclear capable fighter bomber 10,000 soldiers in the middle of the night big sign which said trespassers will be shot on site what do you do walked on came up to one of the big fighter bombers took out a little hammer went up to the side of it and swung wood on the fighter bomber and didn't even chip the paint as I said to the judge later your honor I'm just doing what it says in the Bible I didn't make this stuff up but you know the Holy Prophet Isaiah said some day people are gonna come along and beat their swords in the posh years and study war no more that's the holy teaching and I'm just trying to do what the you know Jesus said in its famous commandment in the Sermon on the Mount love your enemies don't know come that's the actual translation from the original Greek that didn't go over with the judge either I'm trying to make you laugh and it's not working humor is the only way to get through and I haven't quite got it yet but anyway it was incredible experience trying to say to the country that our future is dismantling these weapons of mass destruction they're no good they're not safe anyone can walk on to the base like sister Megan Rice is going to be on sentence next week you know the 82 year old nun in Tennessee who's been who's facing 30 years in prison for going into Oak Ridge and our friends ours was the 50th of about 100 so-called plowshares actions and gosh and we were we faced 20 years in prison for that action and I did about nine months in a little cell and never left the cell with Philip Berry never went outside never saw the outside I was saying in Robin Island that my conditions were worse and the former prisoner who was our guide was saying actually we hear that a lot from visiting activists from the States but I didn't have to work in a lime quarry and I didn't only I got out afterwards and was under house arrest for a year and it was terrible you know and I'm a big student of Dr. King and you know we used to memorize his speeches as kids you transform those dungeons of doom and despair into havens of hope and harmony and I'm looking around the cell going I don't think so Dr. King but we took out our Bible and we started with Mark chapter one verse one we got about three verses into it we would talk for three hours and it was like it was I learned more in that time in jail than my four years of graduate theological studies at the GTU in Berkeley don't tell him I'm saying this but I'm just saying it was like the heavens opened up and it was like this is what I meant here and then you know we were given wonder bread for breakfast and then on Mondays we got a little plastic cup of grape juice which we found if you hid in the top of the toilet it ferments quite nicely and we broke the bread and passed the cup and it was like God was right with us I'm just saying there's really great blessings to do foolish non-violent things for justice and peace and I've tried so many things and it was you know it seemed to me more happened when I was locked up than everything else I've ever tried combined later I worked with the fellowship of reconciliation it's a great group Kristen is now the director and then became the coordinator of chaplains for the Red Cross after September 11th in New York City we had about 550 chaplains ministering to 50,000 direct relatives was working as well at ground zero and and at the same time coordinating the demonstrations against the bombing of Afghanistan and Times Square well the church there's a lot of publicity about me the church officials didn't like it and so I got kicked out of New York and I moved to New Mexico the poorest state in the country number one in military spending number one in nuclear weapons number one in how worst education drunk driving domestic violence suicide and on and on there are some 3,000 nuclear weapons at the Albuquerque Airport meanwhile at Los Alamos this hidden place on the top of a beautiful mountain the birthplace of the atomic bomb head where we built the Hiroshima Nagasaki bombs business is booming Obama is trying to rebuild it to make it a state of the art plutonium bomb factory he's done more for nuclear weapons than anybody since Reagan in 1983 did you know that our Nobel Peace Prize President he's competent you know competent for war and the system and so we've had a little peace vigil there every year in Hiroshima day and that hasn't gone over too well but you do what you can and it's gotten me into a lot of trouble and I'm very happy to be here with you today last year I went to Afghanistan and it was incredible experience I went because so few of us in the movement have been able to go when I was invited and I learned that 2 million people have died in Afghanistan the last 40 years 10 years with the Russians 10 years with the warlords 10 years with the Taliban and now what 12 years with us the war is still going on longest war in our history you could say it's the most bomb destroyed place on the planet some say worst place to be a woman perhaps maybe Congo worst place to be a child the pollution unbelievable you know flying in was so incredible at 4 a.m. the flight left I was by myself in Dubai going into Kabul looking out for an hour over Afghanistan was like the Himalayas as far as you could see these towering white Hindu Kush mountains and I remember that joke you hear John Stewart talking about Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires no one can win a war there and who was it I don't know I think it was Genghis Khan who said he wanted to take over the whole world but nobody can win a war in Afghanistan so I'll leave them alone in that region we're so foolish I thought how can any I mean it's just insanity but it was weird because then I looking out and there's a yellow patch in the white clouds that was Kabul and we flew down into it and as the plane lands we go into this total gross pollution and then the mountains disappeared around us it's so poor these beautiful cities been so utterly destroyed these beautiful people I mean just use your imagination there's no running water or plumbing but it's so crowded now because of the refugees and what we have done so there's just dust and the human waste in the streets which turns to dust which is what everyone is breathing in you can do the math it was poverty upon poverty and upon poverty and to learn and see how the hundreds of billions of dollars which we have poured in that country because we're here to help has not one penny of a gone to the suffering people the women and children most of it is gone fled the country so that the politicians can build you know mansions in Dubai and so forth and so on but I met one of the greatest peace groups in the planet in downtown Kabul these 30 young people decide who would law each one lost a direct relative from our drone attacks and they decide to form a peace group in their village of course the government came in and burned down their community house so they had to flee to Kabul and one day they they wrote to me and Kathy Kelly and Nobel laureates invited us all to come and be with them so a couple of us went and Kathy has been very involved with them they have just they have said look we're all going to be killed Gandhi was right how do we practice Muslim nonviolence let's pursue this with all our energy they've been memorizing Martin Luther King's speeches in Farsi can you imagine these young kids and reading my books and so on their own they formed a school for little children a cooperative for women 200 women which we met they could all have been killed for meeting you know me a white male from the West and their kids are doing it and all they want to talk about is how do we live the nonviolent life what does it mean to be nonviolent in such a world and Maree McGuire the Nobel laureate said to me I've been all around the world that I've never met such an incredible dedicated peace group I bring that to you and invite you to ponder them the Afghan peace volunteers and the energy their lives are on the line and how can we go as a deep into the work in life of peace and nonviolence as these kids there's so many people on the planet are working here's my take on the world and I don't I don't know how to even describe what work so beautiful to be in Davis I think you have such a beautiful town but it's like a world of well Jonathan Shell calls it total violence I some days I think we're living in some kind of a zombie movie you know like everybody's in this plague or we're just all addicted to violence I mean of course we're all for peace but let's not overdo it you know Dan Berrigan used to joke about we're all pacifist you know between wars like being a vegetarian between meals 30 wars happening today 3 billion people in subhuman extreme poverty the UN says over 1 billion people are malnourished moving into active starvation that's such an incredible statistic should be the headline every day a billion people are starving 15,000 at least nuclear weapons still in existence on the planet our hatred of the earth and one another that could lead to catastrophic climate change we're just barreling ahead for all of this violence this global total violence perfectly normal absolutely legitimate meticulously legal actually quite spiritual the will of God you know and it's inside all of us we've all drunk the poison you know we're all in this toxic mess that's it and it need not be that that's the good news that Gandhi and Dr. King and Dorothy Day and our heroes are teaching us what you all know and you've been trying to live out that violence doesn't work war doesn't work violence and response to violence always leads to further violence it's a never-ending downward spiral you reap what you sell the means of the end what goes around comes around war doesn't bring peace war always sows the seeds for future wars always we have to break the cycle of violence non cooperate with violence in the culture of war and try to give birth to something new become sober people of non-violence really if we're addicted to violence and this is just a glorified 12-step meeting of violence anonymous I'm hi I'm John I'm addicted to violence and I'm your speaker and we're gonna make restitution and turn to our higher power and try to become sober though we're sick but to talk about the word love I don't know I find the word is so co-opted or the word peace everybody's for peace that's why I use this clumsy word from Gandhi and Dr. King non-violence and I invite you to use it and that's why I wrote this book about it you know I think it hasn't been quite co-opted yet because it's just says there are no violence but of course it means much more than that it's a very poor word I grant you but how do you define what does it mean and if Gandhi were here he'd say how can we become people of non-violence that's the question I invite you as I'm reflecting with you to think about your life where are you on the journey of peace on the road of non-violence how has your life been a story of violence from your youth through the culture of war I don't know World War two to Vietnam to Iraq or racism and sex all the forms of violence that we're all coping with and trying to survive and how have you turned and tried to non cooperate with violence and become more and more a person of non-violence here's how I define it if you're with me non-violence if you will is a vision of the heart that looks out upon the whole human race so beautiful sees every human being on the planet is your very sister and brother all 7.2 billion of us are one already reconciled already united already living in the gift of peace that was given long ago if you go deep into the spiritual truth of reality of our common unity that we're one even with all creatures and all of creation all of us sons and daughters of the god of peace such a great thing you can never hurt anybody ever again it's your sister and brother much less kill somebody or be silent and passive when the 30 wars 15,000 nuclear weapons a billion people starving catastrophic climate change dare I go on there's nothing passive about this life the work of peace the life of non-violence is active love pursuing the truth of our common unity giving all we have for the human race reconciling every human being resisting every structure and system of violence with all our love allowing the God of peace to disarm our hearts of the roots of violence within us that we can be channels of disarming love from this day forward practicing unconditional non-retaliatory all-encompassing all inclusive universal love isn't that fantastic okay you're thinking this guy's had too much coffee I couldn't but I just get excited about that but there's just one catch with all of this non-violence and this is where you're going to disagree with me there is no cause however noble no matter what they tell us again for the rest of our lives for which you and I will ever support the taking of a single human life ever again the days of killing are over the days of violence have to be over too so Gandhi says non-violence is the power of God the way of love and truth that's more powerful than all the weapons of the world combined and we just begin to tap into it like Edison experimenting with electricity we missed all of Jesus teachings but actually this is a very exciting time to be alive because the world is waking up it has to about the potential of non-violence you remember what poor Martin Luther King said the night before the government killed him April 3rd 1968 Memphis the choice is no longer violence or non-violence Martin said that's not what we're talking about well then what non-violence or non-existence unless the whole human race becomes non-violent now the holy prophet told us we are doomed to our self-destructive violence that's what we're seeing play out in the newspapers every day we have a responsibility but it's a to do is saying to me last week John we have to keep working because our sisters and brothers around the planet are suffering and dying that's active non-violence well I've been trying to figure this out and talk about it my whole life and I can't quite get grasp it and how do you make it simple so I've come up with a thesis and at this book the nonviolent life is really the culmination of my what life's work and it has a simple little thesis which I want to propose to you and see what you think about that non-violence requires three simultaneous attitudes at the same time first you have to be nonviolent to yourself while you're doing that you have to second practice meticulous interpersonal non-violence non-violence toward every human being on the planet and all creatures and all of creation while you're doing that third you also have to be part of the grassroots global movements of nonviolence well I can see that didn't go over too well that's that's what I'm trying to say because my experience is that we a lot of us make it to one or two of those but very few reach Archbishop Tutu's level of all three that's what Gandhi and King and Dorothy Day are calling us to like we might be really nice people pretty peaceful pretty peaceful in our families but we're not involved as our sisters and brothers are dying around the world that's not non-violence that's not peacemaking that's passivity dare I say Merton would have said complicity with the structures of killing around the world on the other hand there's a lot of us who are really involved and we're mean angry determined activists for peace it's not gonna work either you know this is a holistic thing it's a whole the whole ball of wax we need to embrace it's the easiest thing in the world and it's the hardest thing there is and that's why nobody's talking about it this is the spiritual life this is the purpose of the church Jesus was the embodiment and epitome of nonviolence Gandhi said everything he taught and lived was about nonviolence and the churches have pretty totally rejected that you know these last 1700 years even come up with the just war theory but you and I now are saying no we're gonna go back to that life so if you can stand it I just want to say a word about each one of these three things and then about the campaign and then we can have some comments and questions so and there were these are reflections for you as people on the journey to peace first of all how are you doing with being nonviolent to yourself and how can you be more nonviolent to yourself in other words how do you make a peace with yourself what's going on inside of you it's very powerful and I'm talking about ending war this is the political implications of our interior lives this is very interesting stuff Gandhi was doing postdoctoral research and in nonviolence read Thomas Merton oh my god his sentence about Gandhi still knocks me out I don't think I even understand it Gandhi's nonviolence was the fruit of an inner unity already realized what how did he think that through Merton knowing Merton goes you activists you are trying to reach an outer unity and later you'll work on your own Gandhi followed Jesus if you see what I mean and disarmed his heart that he was doing it so I love what tichnot Han says the great teacher just look deeply within the so gentle now the way I see it is we're all wounded we're all victims of this culture of violence and if you're going to be working for peace and justice you've got to be really conscious of what's going on inside so what happened to you you know it's really important for this work to go how were you a victim of violence from your parents your siblings other school kids your youth or the culture the Vietnam War well whatever how what happened to you and how can you be consciously working on your healing and and you know cuz what happens in this culture of violence is you you leave the peace conference and you're driving down the street and they cut you off and you want to kill them but that's because somebody said something to you or you're still struggling with what your father did to you when you were three I'm just saying but you and I want to be really centered and mindful because after that happens then you want to beat yourself up I should have done that I'm such a you know we have low self-esteem and self-hatred I've thought a lot about this because the Dalai Lama is now talking about it he's saying the people of the United States are full of self-hatred and he didn't even know what that was until the last few years because that most a lot of people in the world don't have that we're sick with violence you and I want to be people of peace we have to be doing our inner work so my question is how can you let go of your inner non-violence inner violence and cultivate if you will interior non violence to be really gentle to yourself really non-violent to yourself not beat yourself up just go why did I do that why do I have these feelings and to be really conscious Gandhi I have this quote at the beginning it's a shocking quote the life of non-violence is the highest level of conscious living wow this is what Tick not Han is talking about in mindfulness we want to be so centered in peace that we really begin to cultivate the mystical depths of peace within us to dig out the roots of war within each one of us and the only way to do that is through meditation and prayer and taking time with the God of peace this is so nice because God is just so wacky in love with us and we think God is violent but the scandal is God is non-violent God is peace God is love God is non-violence and the thing to do when you're quiet time every day which is the beginning of peacemaking have to do it you let go of your violence give all your anger your hurts your wounds your bitterness your vengeance to the God of peace and the Holy Spirit of peace and let the God of peace give you that gift of peace that you and I can radiate personally the peace we seek politically and when you do that you discover just how loving and non-violent God is and then you come to a new definition of non-violence if you're still with me non-violence is remembering who we already are the beloved sons the beloved daughters of the God of peace how wonderful life is the minute you forget that I don't know who I am I'm crazy you're into mindless violence well you're not my brother I can be mean to you and who the hell cares about the children of Afghanistan or Iraq or billions starving people because we forget violence is forgetting it's like we're in a culture of Alzheimer's now or amnesia the life of non-violence the practice of contemplative non-violence is remembering where we are in the universe story and it's so beautiful okay while you're going deep into interior non-violence secondly you're practicing perfect meticulous interpersonal non-violence I can't even say it with a straight face you know the minute I'm not an expert at non-violence I'm an expert in violence because I'm you know and I'm American I don't need to mention I'm a white male church person let's not even talk about that you know because the minute I think I really got this down thank you very much you know then you go and do something totally goofy and horrible it's like one step forward ten steps back I invite you to reflect how are you doing in your life of non-violence with the people around you beginning with your family your relatives your co-workers the people at church who's the person who pushes your buttons most the most difficult person in your life the one that you feel you know it's really nice but I sure wish you know you could get that guy that's your teacher of non-violence you're so lucky you know really because those people expose your violence you need them isn't that strange and they are the ones we really get to reach out with a little extra unconditional love and experiment what's going on with me why is that why do I not want to love that person and it's not talking about liking people Martin Luther King talked about that it's very interesting but unconditional nonviolent love is the requirement of humanity and so you know and and then when someone threatens us how are you going to respond non-violently have you done your homework and learned the methodology of nonviolent conflict resolution that you don't need to live in fear and you don't have to respond with violence you can respond non-violently because non violence is infinitely creative and Gandhi says it always works are there any questions I believe that and I've been trying to experiment with it full-time that's largely why I've worked so much in soup kitchens and shelters and prisons and war zones put myself in those positions and find God is right there with you if you do what the Sermon on the Mount teaches offer no violent resistance to one who does evil love your even your enemies while you're doing that practice even even non-violence to all the animals and beautiful creatures God has given us to the beautiful creation instead of being part of the destruction of the earth saving the earth at the third we have to also be part of the global grassroots movement of non-violence the world is moving friends the world is waking up to non-violence it has to and it's happening and you won't read about it in any papers in the United States Walter Wink said two-thirds of the human race in the last 30 years are personally involved in grassroots movement of non-violence this is exciting there have been 85 nonviolent revolutions in the last 30 years I wrote about this book that came out from Columbia University two years ago called why civil resistance works and these big-time social scientists scholars I didn't understand much of it it was all charts and graphs set out to prove why Gandhi was wrong that this couldn't work so they studied like 386 revolutions from 1900 to 2006 and found by and large everything that was nonviolent work and go read the book why civil resistance work it's incredible Gandhi was right and dare I mention Jesus you just don't hear about this you know from the fall of communism the Berlin Wall to the end of apartheid to say the singing revolution in Estonia and to me though the greatest living peacemaker is Lima Gaboi this incredible woman from Liberia that she won the Nobel Peace Prize three years ago I hope you all know about her if you don't you need to do your homework there's a home movie about her called pray the devil back to hell you know Charles Taylor killed 200,000 people Liberia I mean really brutally and she had a dream and Lima wakes up in the morning says well I just can't take this anymore I'm gonna call upon all the women of Liberia to just sit down and say we've had enough and she did and they did and he left they just took to the streets put on white clothes sat down and said no we've had enough and she's like well they're gonna kill us anyway we might as well die saying no to it and it's this this works but it's scary you just have to try it which means we have to keep moving keep organizing keep taking risks keep building the global grassroots movement and that's what I urge you to do for all of you who've been involved in the movements over the years thank you thank you thank you and carry on as Archbishop Tutu said with all the love and good cheer you can if you're not get involved I love what Romero said the day he was killed nobody can do everything but everybody can do something pick an issue don't have to do everything what stirs your heart the environment stopping the war in Afghanistan and nuclear weapons that's what's turning me immigration ending this death penalty in California gangs all these types of violence pick one struggle learn go and meet people get involved join the peace and justice groups here in Davis start one your own and and be part of the movement so my friends and I have launched campaign nonviolence we've written and contacted every major peace group in the country to try to reignite the movement and we're calling everybody in Ken Budigan's words to mainstream nonviolence like Gandhi and King did let's talk about it again lift it up in our family lives our churches our schools how can we create Davis as a really nonviolent community how can we help California become more and more nonviolent you live in one of the most important places in the world you have a lot of power and responsibility and you can do even greater things how can we help the country in the world become more and more nonviolent so we're calling for trainings with engage and study in my book and in the fall at beginning on peace day September 21st through the congressional elections we're looking for 300 demonstrations around the country coordinated under this umbrella and we're asking people just to pick one of three themes that is moving to you for a war whether like the drones a lot of people working in ending drones and or poverty such as homelessness or global hunger and or the environment as we're working with 350.org and Bill McKibbin and all about this tar sands pipeline and to we're calling for people to take to the streets to march here in Davis and Sacramento in a spirit of nonviolence and to say no and to be heralds of a new world of peace I'll just end with a story from my great friend Howard Zinn he was the author of this great book maybe you all read it people's history in the United States incredible story you know he died a couple years ago and he said to me just before he died we were having lunch you know I've been working my whole life on the history of these movements and I finally realized after 40 years they all have one thing in common think of it the abolitionists crazy people good like they're gonna end slavery the suffragists those uppity women the labor movement the civil rights movement the anti-Vietnam Warman beginning the environmental movement Howard Zinn said they all were from beginning middle right to the very end hopeless hopeless hopeless I said thanks a lot Howard that's really encouraging and then he said and I realized then there was a breakthrough and I asked why and I realized they had one more thing in common in every case historically we know now change happens from the grassroots bottom-up movement building from Jesus to Gandhi and King when good ordinary people keep at it every day doing what they can for justice and peace doing their one or two or three things a day knowing even they may not live to see the outcome they seek and they keep at it anyway for the future that's when non-violence kicks in and becomes contagious and the powers know it and the movement has already won dear friends thank you for all you do and keep on doing it god bless you thanks for listening so we have some time for question answers and a friend has a microphone but maybe we've resolved everything I'm thinking maybe you could give us a few hints or something some things that you do to work on your personal inner peace was there another question out there somewhere so thank you that's really great you know it's a struggle for me you know but that's life that's the spiritual life is the struggle in my life in my training you know I was taught early on to take quiet time every day and so that's what I do first and foremost and you know it's always shocking to me you know I mother Teresa said you had to spend three hours a day in prayer Gandhi spent two hours a day and he was these are very busy people dare I say they might even be busier than us I'm just I'm thinking maybe Gandhi gets up at four in the morning for an hour and five o'clock in the evening for an hour and sitting in silence I went with Arun Gandhi to where Gandhi lived in India to see it for myself I was trained to do 30 minutes of meditation every day and I do it at the beginning of every day and usually in the morning but and you know the reason as I said we don't want to do it is because our junk comes up you know there's always something always something going on and you know my as you see my level of peacemaking in prayer is about a fifth grade at best it might be first grade so and I'm a Christian so I sit down with the nine violent Jesus now I'm just telling you now I I think Jesus is completely opposite of everything the culture has made him to be he's more gentle and nonviolent and ticked not on I'm just saying or Gandhi you know he's just really but we think of him as angry and going in and turn over the tables and when you do civil disobedience you're really centered you're less angry than ever that's my otherwise it's not nonviolent I've done a lot of big actions and you have to walk really peacefully so I pretend I'm with Jesus and I tell him my problems you won't believe what's going on these people are mad at me these people are mad at me I'm having a terrible time I don't feel so when he goes oh you're doing just fine I really love you and I go oh you say that to everybody and I always feel better you know I read this theologian once I'm trying I mean we're just inventing this I mean it's really I mean we're only into 50 60 years of talking about nonviolence we talked about love and peace but Gandhi's got somewhere and then Dr. King so we're the world is there's a lot of hope but one so we I mean talking about the spirituality of nonviolence and the theology of nonviolence that's where I wrote a book called a god of peace toward a theology of nonviolence because I couldn't find any I'm trying to figure this out myself that Jesus has no violence in him now that's an extraordinary statement to make it's like you know I don't know how to describe it a glass with some dirt in it we all have sludge you know in us but his is clean water that's why you just touch him you feel better because there's no violence in him and and he heals us of the violence so I feel disarmed in meditation but the if when I don't do that I'm still living in my mindless violence so this contemplative nonviolence it actually as Gandhi said becomes a matter of life and death it's the only way but that's the beginning then you need friends we all need friends but like minded friends who care about peace and justice and you have to have a community a peace group of some kind of course it should be the church every church should be talking nonviolence morning noon and night and trying to end all war and poverty and nuclear weapons that's what the point is to welcome the kingdom of god which is perfect nonviolence no more death but you the minute if you're on your own you end up watching cnn and watching the bombs fall and go and isn't that that's just too bad there's nothing that can be done and that's not good you need a group of people friends a little peace group peace group within your church group I have communities within communities with communities you don't want to know it's not pretty to support to help me and I'm doing you know things all the time I would say thirdly I'm a big believer in public action for peace and justice as Dan once told me the only way to be hopeful is to do hopeful things you know it gives your life infinite meaning if you're organizing we organize these simple vigils in Los Alamos like yeah I mean taking on the nuclear weapons industry and there's only a handful of us usually but gosh they put it on the front page of the paper the whole state is talking about it and I get death threats and it's so small I mean you just don't know this is what my friend and our friend Pete Seeger talked about he just died and maybe you heard that interview on democracy now he there he was telling for him the most important parable the parable of the sower and that was his image of his life that's the way I think we are as peace and justice activists sowing seeds of peace and nonviolence knowing that some will land on good soil and bearing good fruit so letting go of the outcome trying not to be obsessed with results and making a difference just being on this journey of peace and nonviolence walking with Jesus or your image of the god of peace with a lot of friends and moving as great forward toward love so I'm trying to move then away from anger and away from fear and away from crazy behavior and away from being mean and violent and I say those words very decidedly I think in the churches there's a lot of mean people you know and I see that just we're just mirroring the religious authorities of the gospel what happened when you when you want to get in with God and you get some power especially among men but I don't think it's limited to men you can really go crazy and you know I don't want that so I those are some thoughts I study and write a lot and trying to stay attentive that and I'm doing different things a couple years ago I finally gave up television you know I'm trying to go deeper I've been a vegetarian for 35 years I always try to be in trouble with the government thank you very very helpful with the government that's planning the destruction of the planet to be in resistance to them and so that means I'm always just coming out of court jail under probation in some kind of legal trouble since 1982 it's a life in risk of nonviolent resistance which often people don't know about you know it's very strange to be at home I've been living in a very remote place in the desert off the grid no drinking water tin roof really really remote but spectacularly beautiful and to have you know government police find you raid raid the house that happens to me things like that I feel like you know I'm doing my job so I'm on the journey like you thank you thanks for the talk John it was very helpful and you know I want to hear your reflections on the fact that a lot of the power in the current world is actually held by multinational corporations and a lot of the tactics that we use in the peace movement are aimed at the government as you were just talking about what your thoughts about how can we provide that same resistance to what the multinational oil companies are doing to the climate so that we can change this palmel race to destruction that we're all involved in thank you so much for that I'm you've already answered the question you know in that we have to do that and some people especially young people are doing that I like to think of the occupy movement is doing that the 350.org movement is doing that I'm having a senior moment but the movement in Seattle 15 years ago at the world trade what the WTO movement was a step in that the right direction we're just beginning I think you know there's so much to do and you know I maybe could say different things in this corporation in that corporation gosh I was in India a couple years ago with Vendiva Shiva event Vendiva Shiva the great maybe the greatest environmentalist on the planet and she'd spent a day talking about what Monsanto is doing you know stealing and all the seeds of the planet eventually and changing all seeds and she's illegally storing them in India so that we can continue as civil disobedience when that day comes and she was saying well why would the world needs to work on Monsanto but we could go down the list of corporations you know that are bringing such evil I I just keep saying what I hope I've been saying that in the end life on the journey of peace is a matter of discernment there's all goods to be done it's all good the matter of resistance but what is the one that you and I should be doing and that means really reflecting on our lives how can we non cooperate with such corporations and with the culture of violence and the systems of war so for me that has meant moving off the grid and to solar panels and the you know where I live the water can't be drunk because it's full of hexavalent chromium and it's radioactive you know it's New Mexico should be just closed same with Nevada and but it's changed my life wow to be living so close to the earth I've got coyotes I'd like know by name now and it was so much more fun to getting together with your group here in Davis and examining that question what's the job to be done here you know how can we which you know is there a corporation that we should be protesting here we're following the leads in the national movements but you know that that I think in the last few years people were spending so much time resisting bush they just completely were collapsed and got burned out and then a lot of people mistakenly put all their energies into Obama and I certainly didn't it's very it's a great benefit not to be able to vote it clarifies your relationship with the government trying to make you laugh still make you laugh still is and then people burned out as we saw what the Obama administration is doing so that's why we we were talking very generically about campaign nonviolent saying you know pick some area around the country but let's all take to the streets this fall and engage in some public action I'm sorry to be so vague you know I have a very close friend who spent a lot of time resisting Walmart for example to friends who work on Wall Street resistance you could kind of go down the list I'm just holding up this bigger vision of nonviolence and I I always hesitate to tell people what to do except to say pick something and do it and I'll just say one other thing I say that because you know it's a lifelong struggle bigger than all of us and we're trying to build up a grassroots movement and shortly before I died I was with Cesar Chavez and I said to him if I'm ever with people and they ever say to me what should we do what should I say and without missing a beat Cesar Chavez said to me tell everybody for the rest of your life he went like this public action public action public action this is very exciting it sort of doesn't matter cause all the issues are connected they're all one just take to the streets and take some public action spirit of nonviolence have we resolved everything finally maybe one last one here I know it's really warm in here someone's been talking way too much you've all been very nonviolent I just want to say that for the record thank you thank you for everything John I attended a Seville conference in Sacramento a year ago March and became conscious of the boycott divest movement against Israel's apartheid I totally admire the Methodist and Presbyterian churches for moving towards divesting of course the Catholic Church as usual has avoided the issue and I mean we as a result of the conference did we do have money we found a broker who does socially conscious investing where she really examines the ecological issues in her investments that's a small step she assured us that nobody's 100% clean if they're investing and we understand that but you cannot own the soda stream you can talk about the make-ups that are built on Palestinian land you can divest from corporations like Samsung and Caterpillar which are and Raytheon which are doing the checks in Israel and some of the destruction of Palestinian lands and so on so there's most of us have some money to invest and and that's we can try to educate ourselves our work is really very imperfect but it is at least we're trying to move in the direction of being more aware I just wanted to bring your response to something more specific oh well thank you that's wonderful I just want to ask you to hand the mic back to her the name of the the website about the boycott divestment movement it's bds.org is that it which is the support group fosna so I hope everybody heard her she's talking about the boycott and divestment movement for Israel in terms of one way to breaking the occupation of the Palestinians and so you know I thank you for raising that I you know trying to do my little part been going regularly to Israel and Palestine to meet and be with nonviolent Israeli peacemakers and nonviolent Palestinian peacemakers to encourage them that's what I've been trying to do over the years once we were a group of jews christians and muslims this is very dangerous and committed to nonviolence we had a couple of rabbis a couple of imams and even a catholic priest two out of three a pad no so everywhere we went everybody was mad at us or somebody was mad at us and someone could respond to each sector it was so beautiful we learned so much but a friend I was over in at the sabil conference I think it was two years ago I was invited to speak to the Palestinian peace movement if you will me and all these wonderful people the cardinal of Jerusalem the archbishop from South Africa and I tried to get out of it because I I don't like to go around the world and tell people what they should be doing the last thing was these more Americans doing that or god forbid white male church people but I go and listen which is what I was trying to do in Afghanistan and Iraq and Central America but they really went after me and we said no we really want to hear about what's happening in the U.S. and what do you think about nonviolence as a requirement for resistance and it was so powerful and moving so I hope you all know this group uh sabil and they have a great website fosna.org fosna.org friends of sabil north america if you're wondering what to do if you're in the church is an all that's a good group to get with jim wallis and I and archbishop tutu are very involved and I really really love them there's many many good people but you know I keep coming back with you after many trips over there and my friends who go there regularly my relatives go there trying to help and saying the problem is here the problem is here it's around the world but it's especially here in the united states um you know we're not anti-semitic we're pursuing the jewish vision of shalom we're pursuing human rights for palestinians and children we want to end the occupation and and return it to what could be a beautiful nonviolent land of peace but involves everything syria iran iraq egypt all of these and the u.s is involved everywhere trying to destroy I think a lot of people in a lot of places very very consciously deliberately burning places down to take over the world and continue to hold our grasp on the world I say that because dick cheney actually said that he really did and I I mean I could go on and on about that because I studied that was so shocked he said everything is about the great war to come with china yeah and so these these things are very conscious decisions about oil and controlling territories for they are totally well aware of climate change and planning for 50 years from now uh and so the boycott divestment movement is critical of cutting the funding that makes the occupation possible I can say that because tutu and jimmy carter said I mean it's hard to hear tutu saying that the situations of palestinians is worse than apartheid in south africa but and forgive me for being such a mean dropper I was with harry bell faunty recently and he said that mandela told him secretly that they could have tried everything under the sun but it was the nonviolent movement from around the world especially the boycott that ended apartheid that is what has to happen here a lot of friends especially codepink and medea are working on demonstrations at apex you know that's really going to have to be a key thing too well you all know all this so i'm just trying to encourage you talking about a real spirit of nonviolence and solidarity with all these different peoples and struggles um maybe that's a note um so friends i'm going to be happy to meet you all and sign books and i'm sorry but you're gonna have to get two copies of each you know i it's been such a pleasure to be with you all and keep me in your prayers and carry on the journey you're doing great god bless you thank you thank you very much john well we don't want this to just be the end of our study of nonviolence and go back to life as usual so um we have several possibilities for follow-up um and if you're all going to read john's book we wanted we have some sheets where if you're interested in signing up and reading it with a group talking about it with a group um you can sign up on that there also is a sheet to sign up if you want to be in the engage nonviolence training this is a a 12 session per se study that was done by poche beine so those are two possibilities for follow-up study and i want to mention some events where did uh oh christin can you take the microphone to christin there's an event coming up that christin will tell you about that is the plan by fellowship of reconciliation thanks jewel fellowship of reconciliation is sponsoring with the east point peace academy a two-day nonviolent intensive training on april fifth and sixth and it's done on a gift economy which means that whatever you can afford that's what you're encouraged to pay it's going to be amazing and um i really want to encourage everyone to think about it there is limited space but if it looks like we have um you know more than we can handle we'll we'll co-sponsor again with the east point peace academy so um it was really such a blessing to hear john talk and um you know he talked about gondi and he talked about south africa and one of one of the things gondi did in south africa was to set up two two multi-faith communities tollstoy farm and phoenix settlement so i really uh want to especially encourage students at the multi-faith living community to come to this non-violence training because gondi knew that um multi-faith community and the wisdom that's found in multi-faith living and multi-faith tradition and the reconciliation that's needed for those communities to flourish are the the roots of of a nonviolent life so students living at the multi-faith living community here in davis we need you we need you to come to this intensive training because we need your experience we need your voice and your presence and in fact everybody we need you um i i still live in davis a lot of people think i i moved to new york but we we decided to continue to stay in davis here all my community and i'm so proud that we had it looks like 200 people come out on this rainy saturday to to invest in living a nonviolent lifestyle it's a capacity and we we grow it we sustain it through each other and by doing intensive trainings um by by showing up regularly to groups and actions so uh there are there are sign-up sheets on the back table i'm happy to talk with anyone about the intensive training coming up or any other aspect thanks jewel thank you christin this is the flyer about it and there's one on both there's several on the front and the back tables if you're interested in that a couple of other things that are coming up the meta center for nonviolence uh which i think is affiliated with fellowship of reconciliation now and michael nagler is the director of that they're having a discussion on their conversation that's what they're calling it on february 27th in berkeley and uh to they're trying to tie together different peace movements and just bring people together to work together so if anyone's interested in that i have information on that and um the ecumenical advocacy days in washington dc are a very large gathering that happens every year uh it's march 21st to the 24th this year where they train people in advocacy techniques they have workshops on all different aspects of peace and nonviolence they look at environmental things social justice food justice they have workshops on numerous different parts of the world um so those are some things that are coming up and so i hope we can keep working together yes i can't but i will ask someone else to thank you that's a good idea okay