Walk the Road to Peace

By: Tina Romero

ATHENS, GA—Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a perfect peaceful world where war and destruction did not exist? Unfortunately, our world is engaged in hundreds of active wars, children are dying of starvation on a daily basis, there are thousands of nuclear weapons and we are allowing our planet to rush toward destruction with global warming.

Rev. John Dear, spoke at the University of Georgia’s Catholic Center last night and urged his audience to “walk the road to peace.”  

Rev. John Dear is a Jesuit priest, pastor, peace activist, organizer, lecturer, retreat leader, and the author of 25 books on peace and justice. Along with the fact that he is Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, John Dear has been arrested more than 75 times. He has spent more than a year of his life in jail. He has been mocked by armed U.S. soldiers standing outside the doors to his New Mexico parish. All this because he so fervently believes in peace.

During his speech, John Dear encouraged people to think about their life journey and how to contribute to a peaceful future.  By sharing many of his life stories, it is easy to see why Rev. Dear is such an activist. 

He left his Jesuit high school and attended Duke University where he joined a fraternity, and in turn dropped all belief in God.  He told the audience how he heard a story about a Professor that gave out A’s if the students participated in a community service project. It was then that he had his “life changing” moment.

For the community service, Dear traveled out to the boondocks in N.C. to visit an isolated prison where the men were locked up for life.  After speaking and visiting with the prisoners several times, Dear said he saw their true pain and suffering.  It was then that he started to believe in God again.

With his great enthusiasm and sense of humor, Dear joked that his parents were horrified when he told them he was going to become a Jesuit at the mere age of 21.  But that did not stop him. With his new conversion to Christianity, he decided to live out the Beatitudes of the nonviolent Jesus in every dimension of his life. 

Dear’s beliefs are very similar to those of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.  He urged the audience to use non-violence as a method for social change and to consider every human as his or her own sister or brother.  He said, “Do not live passively, but actively love and persistently reconcile with everyone you meet.” Dear then proceeded to make it known that war does not work and it solves nothing.

Even if you are not a Christian and if you support war, Rev. Dear’s life story is very inspiring and convincing.  He truly follows the teachings of God and is committed to his peaceful lifestyle.  One story that Dear spoke about was his involvement after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11^th.

He began volunteering as a Red Cross Chaplain, and became one of the coordinators of the whole chaplain program. He worked with about 1,500 family members who lost loved ones, as well as hundreds of firefighters and police officers, while at the same time, he spoke out against the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.

After all of his radical peace movements and after finally being off the watch of the government, Dear now lectures to tens of thousands of people each year in churches and schools across the country.  He is currently promoting his autobiography titled A Persistent Peace, which he said his family made fun of him for publishing due to the fact that he is only 49 years old.

Rev. Dear graciously thanked the audience for attending his speech and left them with this quote, “Love your enemies, don’t nuke ‘em.”