#34 with Ken Butigan, author, organizer, activist and nonviolence trainer: “We have been preparing for this moment; we have more power than we think!”
Today I'm speaking with Dr. Ken Butigan, author, organizer, activist, speaker, nonviolence trainer, and leader of Pace e Bene, a Franciscan-based peace organization. Ken is Professor of Practice in the Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies Program at DePaul. He has worked in a series of movements for social change, including campaigns addressing homelessness, nuclear weapons, freedom for East Timor, and the US wars in Iraq. In the 1980s he was a founder and national coordinator of the Pledge of Resistance, which for nearly a decade mobilized nonviolent action for peace in Central America. He has worked for over 30 years with Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, which has trained tens of thousands of people in the power of nonviolent change and which organizes Campaign Nonviolence, a long-term, nationwide effort seeking to foster a more nonviolent culture free from war, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction. In recent years, Ken works with Pax Christi International's Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and the Vatican to promote Gospel nonviolence literally around the world through the Catholic church. He has published seven books, including Pilgrimage through a Burning World: Spiritual Practice and Nonviolent Protest at the Nevada Test Site; Nonviolent Lives; and From Violence to Wholeness. Ken earned his Ph.D. in the Historical and Cultural Studies of Religions at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He lives in Chicago with his wife Cynthia and daughter Leah.He shares with me his spiritual awakening as a young man and how it changed his life path and led him to take part in anti nuclear weapon demonstrations. Dan shares with me: "I wasn't particularly political, but I was distressed by nuclear weapons, so I called Daniel Berrigan and asked to visit him when I was going to be in New York City. He invited me over. I was transformed in those 3 hours." Listen as he tells us how Dan Berrigan clarifies why Ken should in nonviolent organization. When describing his leadership in various campaigns, he keeps returning to the refrain: "We have more power than we think.” “We stopped the official U.S. invasion of Nicaragua because of ordinary people power….Through the Nevada Desert Experience, by 1993, after over 25,000 were arrested at the Test site, we generated enough people power to get a test-ban treaty promulgated and signed by over 187 nations. Through the Declaration of Peace, we helped end the U.S. war in Iraq in the mid-2000s.” Be inspired and motivated by this conversation with this amazing human being who believes: "We need each other, we need to be rooted in prayer, we need to follow the nonviolent Jesus, and create conditions for a global shift.” Check out: www.paceebene.org
Netherlands