1. Tell us about the title; why did you choose this phrase?

I was pondering the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus is about to be arrested. Peter takes up a sword to start killing to violently defend Jesus and himself. Peter was thinking his violence was perfectly justifiable. For the Christian, we could argue that this was the clearest case of the so-called Just War Theory in salvation history. Peter was right to try to kill to defend Jesus.

But just at that moment, Jesus issues this commandment, “Put down your sword.” Peter is shocked at Jesus’ nonviolence, and abandons him. They all do. I think these words, “Put down your sword,” are the last words of Jesus to the church—to his community—before he was executed by the empire. We need to hear them today because we still want to kill, to justify warfare, to take up the sword….. So this is a powerful message for the church in these times of war and empire. We are all called to obey Jesus, put down our swords, abolish war and nuclear weapons, and become people of Gospel nonviolence.

2. What does a book about creative nonviolence say to our violent world today?

“Put Down Your Sword,” through essays, journals, and reflections, testifies that violence doesn’t work, that war doesn’t work, that those who live by the sword will die by the sword, that the means are the ends, that war is not the will of God. It calls us to reject war and become people of nonviolence—individually, interpersonally, communally, nationally, and globally. It calls us all to work for the abolition of war, poverty, nuclear weapons and the coming of God’s reign of nonviolence. It says, in the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. King, that creative nonviolence is our only hope.

3. What does a book about creative nonviolence say to us as individuals?

“Put Down Your Sword” calls us to repent personally of our violence, to renounce the violence within us, to look at it, examine it, and let it go. We are called to allow the God of peace to disarm our hearts, become contemplatives of peace, and free the inner springs of peace and nonviolence to flow from within us, that we can offer a real gift of peace to all we meet, and be part of God’s disarmament movement in the world. It invites us to receive Jesus' resurrection gift of peace, to non-cooperate with violence and war, and really try to live in his peace.

4. The Beatitudes have been referred to as “the grandest manifesto of nonviolence ever written.” Why do you agree with this statement?

I think the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7, beginning with the Beatitudes, is the basic catechism of nonviolence. It’s our handbook, our “how to” book. It teaches us how to practice nonviolence, how to move from violence to nonviolence, how to resist empire, how to live, how to seek the God of peace, and how to follow Jesus on the path of nonviolence.

Gandhi said it was the greatest teaching of nonviolence in the history of the world. He read from it every day for nearly forty years—and he wasn’t even a Christian! So we all need to study these texts and base our lives on these teachings of nonviolence, if we want to follow Jesus and welcome a new culture of peace and nonviolence.

5. In this book you recount many of your protest experiences. Could you share more about your first or most memorable protest?

For me, living in the United States, at this time of permanent war, poverty, nuclear weapons and global warming, life has become a permanent journey of nonviolence, peace, and resistance to systemic evil. So I’ve been protesting war, injustice and nuclear weapons since 1982. Every public act of nonviolent resistance is memorable, especially if it is done as a prayer, in a community of love!

Last month, two hundred and fifty of us went to Los Alamos, New Mexico, birthplace of the bomb, and sat in sackcloth and ashes, according to the book of Jonah, to protest the ongoing development of nuclear weapons there. It was a very powerful experience of love, resistance, nonviolence, prayer and hope, and we will continue to go back until Los Alamos is disarmed. I described other Los Alamos protests in the book, and hope others will join their local peace group to speak out nonviolently in vigils and protests against U.S. war-making.

6. How many times have you been arrested for nonviolent protests?

Not enough! But so far, about 75 times.

7. Tell us more about your statement that “generosity beats domination.”

My friend, Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of Tikkun magazine, has organized the “Global Marshall Plan,” calling upon the United States to embark on a massive Global Marshall plan, similar to the U.S. effort to save Europe after World War II, only this time, intended to use five percent of the U.S. budget to end poverty in the U.S., eliminate starvation and relievable disease globally, and embark on a new world without poverty. This is very doable; all we need is the political willpower. He uses this phrase, calling us to the best of our spiritual traditions: to be generous, and to do so politically as a nation, so that we can relieve the suffering of the 900 million people who are currently starving to death around the planet. For more information, see the Network for Spiritual Progressives, a group I work with, at www.spiritualprogressives.org

8. Los Alamos is known as the birthplace of the atomic bomb – possibly the worst medium of destruction. Do you think that this city can ever recover from its reputation and become a place of peace?

It has to disarm and recover its sanity, or we’re all doomed. And there is always hope. When we protest at Los Alamos, we try not to point fingers, but to claim our common responsibility for the existence of these demonic nuclear weapons. We call upon the good people there to stop that evil work, to use their smart brains not to build weapons of mass destruction, but to dismantle our nuclear arsenal and use their talents to reverse global warming and establish alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind power for everyone in the world. This is the work that the God of peace has called us to do—whether we like it or not.

We are new abolitionists—working for the abolition of war and nuclear weapons, and the coming of a new world of peace, as I write in my book. That is the work of Christian discipleship for these times.

9. Tell us about your heroes.

I don’t get too depressed or despairing when I look at the world, because I know we are surrounded by ordinary people doing extraordinary things for peace and justice everywhere. I meet thousands of heroes each year as I travel the country and speak to peace people. Each day I call to mind the great heroes of creative nonviolence---Mahatma Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton, and others. I have known personally so many other great heroes, like Daniel Berrigan, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joan Baez, Mother Teresa, Mairead Maguire and Dom Helder Camara, and have received great wisdom and encouragement from them all. I urge everyone to reclaim the heroes of nonviolence, peace and justice, and let these great beacons of hope guide us on the path of nonviolence. These modern saints are worthy of our time and attention, not the president or the vice president or the media reporters. Listen to the voices of our saints and prophets and you will find wisdom, hope, guidance and peace. That is my experience.

10. Who do you consider to be the greatest peacemaker of all time?

Jesus of Nazareth. For me, he is the embodiment of nonviolence, the incarnation of the God of peace. He taught perfect nonviolence (“Love your neighbor, put down your sword, love your enemies”), healed everyone, blessed peacemakers and resisted empire. Even as he was betrayed, abandoned, tried, tortured and executed, he practiced perfect nonviolence, forgiving his murderers. When he rose from the dead, he did not call for vengeance or retaliation, as I write in my book. He gave us his resurrection gift of peace and called us to follow him on the path of nonviolence. He practiced perfect nonviolence, and calls us to become people of nonviolence. His life is the best example of what it means to be a human being, and I’m going to try to keep my eyes on him, to follow him, no matter what, for the rest of my life.