#74 Part 2 of 2: John Dear with authors John Dominic Crossan and Michael Okinczyc-Cruz on their new book "Jesus and Justice" and organizing work on the streets of Chicago: "We have a savage culture".

Today is Part 2 of my conversation with scripture scholar John Dominic Crossan along with Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, about their new book, Jesus and Justice: Organizing for God’s Reign on Earth Then and Now.

Co-author Michael Okinczyc-Cruz is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership in Chicago where he is a community organizer. He is also a professor at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University of Chicago.

“One cannot look at our current political moment and not think about Jesus,” Dom Crossan says. “

Jesus’ teaching had to do with the lived realities of the oppressed people of his time. Jesus did faith-based community organizing and his nonviolent movement has ongoing relevance for today,” he says.

Their new book, Jesus and Justice, reflects on Jesus as a grassroots movement organizer of nonviolent resistance, and combines Dom’s scholarship with Michael’s organizing work on the streets of Chicago.

“In Chicago,” he says,“you could encounter Border Patrol and ICE agents roaming the streets, arresting people based on the color of their skin. Conditions were so horrific in detention, one local judge described it as a concentration camp. We organized thousands of people to protest these conditions, and our grassroots movement has made some progress. The distinctive nature of our work is nonviolence in all our actions and our words. This is how we follow Jesus.”

“This path of nonviolence is the only path to an approximation of God's reign,” Dom concludes.

“What's happening in our country is a revelation of who we are. We have a savage culture. We need people of good faith to be engaged, organize nonviolently and take risks and action to pursue and live out God's reign in our hearts and here on earth.”

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#74 Part 2 of 2: John Dear with authors John Dominic Crossan and Michael Okinczyc-Cruz on their new book "Jesus and Justice" and organizing work on the streets of Chicago: "We have a savage culture".

#79. John Dear in conversation with scripture scholar and author Wes Howard-Brook: "We're faced with the choice between the religion of empire or the religion of creation."

#78. John Dear with theologian/author/activist Lisa Sharon Harper: "We were three floors below ground, it was hot and the walls and floor were covered with roaches."

#77 John Dear in conversation with Zoughbi Zoughbi of Bethlehem, Palestine: "The West Bank is a prison, Gaza is a concentration camp."

#76 John Dear with Mel Duncan, co-founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce about his work all over the world, more recently in Palestine and St. Paul, MN: "Organized nonviolence led to ICE leaving Minneapolis."

#75 John Dear in conversation with bestseller writer Joyce Rupp on her award winning book "The Years of Ripening": "The Serenity Prayer is the prayer of elderhood, not just for AA!"

#73 Part 1 of 2: John Dear with scripture scholar John Dominic Crossan:"Has God given us the freedom to destroy ourselves and the world?"

#72 John Dear with Bishop Michael Curry, prophetic leader and best-selling author on the way of God and the way of life: "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!"

#71 John Dear with professor and theologian Kate Common on the two of the Great Heresies, the nonviolent origins of the Hebrew community and her book "Undoing Conquest".

#70 With Bishop Mariann Budde of the National Cathedral on returning to Minneapolis this January: “There was a sense of resolve, horror, exhaustion, fear and defiance. I've never been part of anything like it.”

#69: On the 10th anniversary of the death of my friend and mentor Daniel Berrigan: May 9, 1921-April 30, 2016: "War has become the ultimate antiChrist."