John Dear

Tonight, Megan and I went to a lecture by John Dear, SJ. He’s a pretty radical Jesuit peace activist who’s written a lot of books, one of which I read for a research paper I wrote my senior year of college. For some reason I thought he was of the older generation – because he’s done so much – like in his 60s at least, and small like Jon Sobrino… So you can imagine my shock when this John Edwards-esque baby-faced 49-year-old walked up to the podium and started talking. er, preaching.

He’s a very dynamic speaker, and funny. and very bold. I really liked what he had to say, but I was a little self-conscious being there with Megan, knowing that a number of the things he said probably made her a little uncomfortable, so it was hard to be totally enthusiastic. He was obviously “preaching to the choir” and so he didn’t temper his tone at all. But it seems to me that people preaching a message like his about radical nonviolence, talking about how we need to practice peace within ourselves and within the world and speak out against violence need to deliver it in a way that will allow skeptics to hear it, rather than feel like they’re being attacked and get defensive.