This week I speak with Art Laffin, long-time peace activist, author, and Catholic Worker.

Art was a member of the Covenant Peace community in Connecticut in the 1970s, then joined the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington, D.C. in the late 1970s, where he still lives with his wife and son. He has been active in the faith-based nonviolent movements for peace, social justice, disarmament, and human rights.

Find out why he has been imprisoned for nonviolent actions with the plowshares movement. He is also the author of a new edition of The Risk of the Cross: Living Gospel Nonviolence in the Nuclear Age, co-editor of Swords into Plowshares, and co-editor of Arise and Witness: Poems by Anne Montgomery, About Faith, Prison, War Zones, and Nonviolent Resistance.

He tshares his experiences with his mentors and friends, Fr. Richard McSorley, Dan and Phil Berrigan and Henri Nouwen, and what they taught him how "everything makes a difference".

He speaks about the Plowshares movement, his actions and time in prison, as well as keeping a peace vigil every Monday morning at the Pentagon—since 1990!

" People ask, 'What difference does it make?'"

We ask, “What happens if we're not there?"

Hear how the words of Jesus have inspired Art to renounce all forms of violence and killing, and how he has responded in his life as an activist and Catholic Worker.

Speaking about the upcoming 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki on August 9th, he also tells us why we need to heed the cry of the Hibakusha:

“Humanity and weapons cannot co-exist. We need to heed Jesus' gospel call to nonviolence. We need to hear Dr. King’s message just before he was killed: “The choice is no longer violence or nonviolence; it’s nonviolence or non-existence.”

What is the solution to standing for life where it is threatened and has activist and founder of the Catholic Worker Dorothy Day influenced him?

How does Jesus open up a new nonviolent history so we don't lose heart?

Listen in to Art Laffin, take heart, and be encouraged to be a doer of the Word, and to carry on the long haul of Gospel nonviolence and universal love!

beatitudescenter.org

catholicworker.org

Author, actor, poet, musician, producer, philosopher, theologist and iconic thought leader Dr. Cornel West joins me on this episode; among the many things we discuss, he tells me:

“We are witnessing the collapse and implosion of the American empire in real time,.

Why does Dr. West think "the country is in deep trouble"?

Like millions of others, I consider Cornel West the leading public intellectual of our time, right up there with Emerson and WEB DuBois. Brother Cornel graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. He is the former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University.

He has written 20 books and has edited 13, and is best known for his groundbreaking bestsellers Race Matters and Democracy Matters (and his cameos in The Matrix series).

“Every empire comes and goes,” Cornel said to me. “They begin to decay and decline because of military overreach and end up reaping what they sow. There is a spiritual and moral vacuum right now. "

What does Dr. West think is the cause of the collapse and implosion of the American empire as we are experiencing it in real time?

He also offers us an astonishing analogy which I never heard anyone else say before, based on the classic tale of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and how we can never lose hope:

“Gold, status, position, spectacle, white power, all forms of idolatry lead toward self-destruction…We can never be surprised by evil or paralyzed by despair.”

Listen in and be inspired by this Christian intellectual about the crises we face and how we can respond with the power of love and nonviolence:

“To be a follower of Jesus means to take up your cross and follow him,” he said to me with his usual passion. “Love means courage, integrity, and honesty. We will always be viewed as foolish, but we lead with love, and love our way through the darkness and cruelty. Love requires tremendous risk and sacrifice. Nonviolence without love is just a strategy and a tactic.

His conviction goes deep and his words ring true: Love is the fundamental criteria. But love is never crushed, joy is never crushed, love is never eliminated. So, we will never forget, cave in, give up, or sell our souls.”

Join us in this empowering conversation as we follow the nonviolent Jesus together!

cornelwest.com

beatitudescenter.com

As we recorded this episode, Kathy is participating in and coordinating a 40 day fast for an end to the US backed Israeli genocide in Israel, which began on May 22nd. When we spoke, she was placed on a 250 calories a day intake to keep her heart rate up.

"We need to stand up against US military funding for Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza.” That’s what Kathy Kelly told me, what she insists upon. Unicef calls the genocide in Gaza "The War Against Children".

"The US backed Israeli genocide in Gaza needs to stop."

Long time peace activist, author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Kathy Kelly has traveled the war zones of the world, and stood with all those targeted for death by the United States more than anyone else I know, from Central America to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.

Find out why I consider her the greatest living peacemaker in the United States, one of the great saints of our time.

She has travelled the world to the places bombed and attacked by our country over the last three decades in an effort to “make peace” and “love our enemies.” With Voices in the Wilderness companions, from 1996 - 2003, she traveled twenty-seven times to Iraq, defying the economic sanctions.

She led my 1999 FOR delegation of Nobel Laureates to Iraq.

Kathy was in Iraq throughout the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing and the initial weeks of the invasion. She joined subsequent delegations to the West Bank's Jenin Camp in 2002 during and after Israeli attacks, to Lebanon during the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hezbollah and to Gaza, in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead and following the 2013 Operation Pillar of Defense.

Kathy Kelly is board president of “World Beyond War.” From 2022 to the present, she has co-coordinated the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, she has co-coordinated an international network to assist young Afghans forced to flee their country. She made over two dozen trips to Afghanistan from 2010 – 2019, living with young Afghan Peace Volunteers in a working-class neighborhood in Kabul.

“Many of the Israeli weapons used in Gaza are of US origin,” she says. “It's crucial to go to weapons manufacturers and protest. It's important to raise the lament, and then to follow up with organizing.

We must keep trying to figure out how to organize and get a ceasefire. Love of our brothers and sisters in other countries makes so much sense right now. It's dependent on the people in the pews to speak out and follow the nonviolent Jesus.” She suggests we ask ourselves, “Is there a greater risk I might be willing to take?”

“Don’t be afraid,” Kathy tells us. “Seek ways to embrace the so-called enemy. Look for the people nearest to you who are practicing the works of mercy rather than the works of war, and align yourself with them.”

I hope you will listen in to Kathy’s plea for peace in Gaza, her living solidarity with the victims of war and hunger, and her ongoing work to promote a more nonviolent world, and be inspired. May the God of peace bless us all!