Rep. John Lewis and Rev. John Dear in Conversation
SELMA, ALABAMA - MARCH 01: Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) speaks to the crowd at the Edmund Pettus Bridge crossing reenactment marking 55th anniversary of Selma's Bloody Sunday on March 1, 2020 in Selma, Alabama. Mr. Lewis marched for civil rights across the bridge 55 years ago. Some of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates attended the Selma bridge crossing jubilee ahead of Super Tuesday. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Rev. John Dear March 3, 2021, Waging Non-Violence Org.
My long-lost conversation with John Lewis on his vision of nonviolence
In this never-before-released interview, the late civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis talks systemic racism, permanent warfare, extreme poverty and nonviolence as a way of life with Rev. John Dear, a life long, committed pacifist. Both men are devoted Christians.
“We are one people with one family. We all live in the same house... and through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear.”
Let me start right off and ask you what nonviolence means for you and how you got involved and committed to the life of Christian nonviolence?
I must tell you that I grew up in rural Alabama during the ‘40s and 50s. I grew up in a Christian home where there was a great deal of love. At an early age, I came to appreciate the philosophy and discipline of Christian love. So, I view nonviolence as Christian love in action. It is a part of my faith; it is believing that love is the most powerful force in the universe. And somehow, someway, you have to live it.