Musings on Jesus’s call to prioritize love for the other over violence towards the other, and how that relates to violence and nonviolence in the world today.
When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, “Lord, should we strike with the sword?” Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him. – Luke 22:49-51
Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” – Matthew 26:52
It was past 9pm, past curfew, shops closed and streets dark as I returned from distributing snacks to the rickshaw drivers. The only people outside were others sneaking home from "essential" tasks and small groups of men hanging out near their doors to take advantage of the cooling air. I don't remember what I first …
Keanon Lowe, a young high school football coach, demonstrated the beauty of fighting violence with love as well as anyone I've ever seen. Lowe served as a security guard at Parkrose High School to supplement his coaching duties. One morning he was responding to a teacher's report of a missing student when 19-year-old Angel Granados-Diaz …
“He had a look on him that he was willing to kill. He said that he didn’t have any reason to live and that he knew he was going to die today…I knew that if he got out that door he was gonna kill everybody.” Antoinette Tuff was a bookkeeper at the Ronald E. McNair …
We were wiped out from the wedding. The trip to the nation's capital was in itself exhausting, and a long day had played out getting the groom's side into a bus, across town to the event, and out in the hot sun for the festivities. It was well past dusk before all fifty of us …
Peregrine is asleep. So is Sakeenah. There is yelling outside and then that distinct dull thwop of fists connecting with heads. So of course I get outside. I'm awkward in putting on my shorts and by the time I get out into the alleyway the combatants have already been separated. A skinny guy is projecting …
I was getting kids for the literacy program when I saw a crowd gathering in one of the poorer neighborhoods of our community. An older woman was flailing about; three other ladies attempted to restrain her. I told my kids to hurry along without me and approached to see if it was a medical emergency. …
When a certain sound hits, you know something is going down in the slum. I look for the cause of the commotion and see a woman bathing at one of the communal water tanks. A gang of kids has gathered and are harassing her with glee, yelling “Ghost! Monster!” She shouts back at them and …
Soon after we came to the country, we encountered a man in our community who suffered from mental illness. He tended to sit half-dressed in the alley near our friends' room. At times he shouted incoherently and made motions with his head. He appeared to be suffering. One of my friends would sometimes sit next …
A post by Peregrine I want to share a story from the Catholic human rights advocate Angie O'Gorman. When I think of the surprising power of a nonviolent response to counter violence, this is the story that most often comes to mind. This woman's experience really challenges me, especially as I find myself often in the …
Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.1 When Peregrine and I were volunteering in the red light districts,2 I found my feelings towards the foreign men on the streets to be the most difficult …
Stranger in a Slum 