Peace Podcast: MLK Sticks with Love

In observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day January 20, 2020, John Dear speaks of King's journey with civil rights during the 1960s. Dear relates many of the incidents in King's life such as the letter from Birmingham Jail, the night King heard God's voice speak to him, and his many speeches and marches. Dear also tells of his own personal involvement as a child the day King was assassinated and later as a new Jesuit speaking with Coretta King.

This January we begin a new year and a new decade, with Martin Luther King Jr. Day coming up on the 20th to bring our collective focus back to nonviolence. This month on John Dear’s Peace Podcast, Fr. John Dear discusses the impact of Dr. King had on the civil rights movement through his commitment to nonviolence. John outlines nine points of Martin Luther King’s nonviolence including nonviolence as agape, nonviolence being visionary, non-compliance with state sanctioned nonviolence, and more. Take this opportunity to consider one of the greatest nonviolent activists the world has ever seen and how his teachings may apply today.

Though the world at large remembers Dr. King’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, this podcast emphasizes what is often forgotten in popular retelling: that Dr. King considered nonviolence to be the only option. In learning more about his perspective and actions, everyone can find inspiration to incorporate active nonviolence in aspects of every day life.

The Peace Podcast is available on our website here. There you can also find the previous episodes where John discusses Gandhi, the beatitudes, and nonviolence as a part of Advent. The podcast is also available on iTunes where you can subscribe and listen as soon as it’s released. If you enjoy this new Peace Podcast, please share it with others to continue to build a mainstream culture of nonviolence.