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NOT WORTH KILLING
R&B are honoured to bring us John Mutz and Eric Ivey's moving short 20-minute documentary film on 20th November, and to have John Mutz and James Alexander with us to share their thoughts on grace, compassion, and the power to change.

Mitchell Rutledge grew up in a broken home with a father he never knew. His mother was a child of 13. who herself died at 16. He was illiterate. As a teen, he roamed the streets with drug dealers and prostitutes. With no real family, without schooling, without love of any kind. He became a convicted murderer serving life without parole in an Alabama state penitentiary.

Not Worth Killing is his story with Sr Lillian Oliver, IHC, a teacher in Southern California, who read Mitchell's story on death row in a Time article, that outraged her. "Forget him", the article concluded, suggesting that with an IQ of 84, he was not worth killing. She recalled “I will not forget you! .. says the Lord". Isaiah 49:15-16.

Today, Mitch serves as a mentor and guide to many of the lost young men in the penitentiary. He has a wide circle of correspondents and friends. Many, including his warden, have spoken up for him. "There may be no inmate in the United States who is more rehabilitated than Mitchell Rutledge," write Burton and Anita Folsom, in their book, Death On Hold. He remains incarcerated.

John Mutz is a member of the Immaculate Heart Community (IHC).

He is a former police captain with the Los Angeles Police Department and led a new model for the police service after meeting members of the IHC in connection with the Blythe Street project.

John produced Not Worth Killing, inspired by the story of Lillian Oliver, a member of the IHC, and her friendship with Mitchell Rutledge for over 30 years.

James Alexander was trained as a Drug and Alcohol Counselor and worked in Sonoma County upon his re-entry.

He facilitates the Quaker’s “Alternative to Violence” workshops that have been offered in the prison system as well as in the community.

He is a frequent speaker sharing honestly about his experience in prison. He is the author of “Courage in the Face of Cruelty," a book about his 28 years in the Californian prison system.

Root & Branch present Dr. Jon Rosebank

NOTHING APOSTOLIC

For video CLICK HERE

Script (pdf)

"There is very little continuity", says historian Dr Jon Rosebank, "between the humble, spirit-led, house-church movement before Constantine, dating back to Jesus’s time and the first Apostles, and the worldly, corrupt, bitterly divided and violent outfit, decked out in its fourth century imperial robes, that burst upon the Roman Empire from the AD320s.

By AD300 the church had lost virtually all interest in the first Apostles. It was not holding on to any idea that there was a direct connection between its own times and those of Jesus. The evidence the Church now chooses to quote is little more than a series of errors in translation. Nor is there any reliable historical or archeological evidence that St Peter went to Rome or was buried there."

Do not miss this rare opportunity to spend an evening with historian

Dr Jon Rosebank and Penelope Middelboe,

producers of the History Cafe podcast.

You may never think the same about the Church again.

You had always wondered, had you not, how we got from the carpenter and fishermen to the overweening majesty of St Peter's in Rome? From Jesus's spoken Aramaic and koine Greek to the Latin Mass and vestments? From the earliest personified symbols of the Good Shepherd, beardless and pastoral, to the post 4th-century glittering representations of Christ Pantocrator, King, Ruler and Judge, Christ in Majesty?

Dr Jon Rosebank took the top first for his year in Modern History at Oxford, and was quickly elected Fellow of New College, where he completed his D.Phil on English history, leaving five years later for the BBC. There he worked on history series, starting with Michael Wood and Christopher Frayling and becoming Executive Producer and Editor. He wrote, directed and produced many series for BBC television and later Channel 4, telling history stories from Neolithic archeology to trawling on the North Sea. After a brief career in teaching, Jon was able to give time to his own writing and TV work. A colleague wrote at the time, ‘the man is a whirlwind. His imagination and creativity are simply extraordinary.’

Jon is author of ‘GN Clark and the Oxford History School. Hidden origins of 1066 And All That’ (English Historical Review 2020) and Partisan Politics. Looking for consensus in 18th century towns (University of Exeter Press 2021). Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His most recent venture is the novel A Spring Marrying, published by Blue Poppy.

Penelope Middelboe is a writer, historian, and series editor of 70+ animated films making cultural heritage accessible. She is a former CEO of the Shakespeare Schools Foundation, a large UK charity using Shakespeare to give disadvantaged youth a sense of self-worth. She is a co-founder of Root & Branch and a founder member of Spirit Unbounded. She now at last takes some time for family, and is co-producer of the radical history podcast HistoryCafe.org with Jon.

For video CLICK HERE

Script (pdf)