John was born on June 8, 1961 in La Jolla, California. His mother, D.Ann, walked up the hill from graduate student housing on Coast Boulevard to give birth at the old Scripps Hospital, where his father Darrell was working as a resident.
After brief stays in Baltimore, San Francisco, and Kansas City, John's family returned to San Diego when Darrell secured a position at UC San Diego. Brother Brad and sisters Jane and Kay were constant companions. They remain the best of friends.
John was born on June 8, 1961 in La Jolla, California. His mother, D.Ann, walked up the hill from graduate student housing on Coast Boulevard to give birth at the old Scripps Hospital, where his father Darrell was working as a resident.
After brief stays in Baltimore, San Francisco, and Kansas City, John's family returned to San Diego when Darrell secured a position at UC San Diego. Brother Brad and sisters Jane and Kay were constant companions. They remain the best of friends.
John spent his junior year of high school in Cambridge, England where his father was on sabbatical. John was very unhappy to miss the basketball season, but attending an English "village college" gave him a life-changing first experience in making "friends across borders."
John graduated as valedictorian of La Jolla High School in 1979. He was even prouder to play in the San Diego City-County All Star Basketball game. John's high school basketball team includes many lifelong friends.
As an undergraduate at Dartmouth College from 1979-1983, John worked with John Hall, Dhruv Khana and many other friends to launch a progressive magazine, The Harbinger, as a counterweight to the notoriously right-wing rag, The Dartmouth Review.
While studying at Oxford University from 1983-1985, John worked with other Rhodes Scholars -- many of whom are friends to this day -- and students from 37 countries to organize an International Fast for Peace in Nicaragua, a response to Reagan Administration policy in Central America.
John and Jennifer Allison Leich were married in 1990. They adopted Eleanor Grace Fanestil in 1994 and Jacob Eli Fanestil in 2001. Granddaughter Asijah was born to Ellen in 2018. Jacob married Amoy in 2024.
In 2006 Doubleday published John's first book, in which he reflects on his experience as a pastor and shares "Lessons on Living from People Preparing to Die."
John first served communion at Friendship Park in August 2008, trespassing repeatedly on federal property to pass grape juice and tortilla strips through the border wall. In February 2009 Border Patrol agents formed a human wall to prevent hundreds of people from accessing the border for communion. John was detained and released without charge.
Friendship Park Release Oct 3 2012
Beginning in 2010, John and the Friends of Friendship Park, joined by Jim Brown, pursued negotiations with San Diego Border Patrol to reopen Friendship Park. After the construction of double border walls was completed in 2011, thousands traveled to this location from across both the US and Mexico, where they were able to reunite with friends and family through the border wall during weekend "visiting hours."
With Pastor Saul Montiel, and later Pastor Guillermo Navarrete, John launched a weekly cross-border communion service at Friendship Park. The Border Church / La Iglesia Fronteriza has now gathered people on both sides of the border every Sunday for over 15 years, with leadership on the US side passing to Seth Clark and now Manuel Retamoza. Hundreds of clergy from every Christian denomination have participated.
While working at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego from 2015-2019, John completed his Ph.D in the History Department at USC. His dissertation gave rise to his second book, published by Fortress Press in 2021. In this book John shares the history of "martyrdom and the making of the American Revolution."
John officially retired from the United Methodist Church in 2023. In his most recent book, published by Fortress Press in 2023, John shares "the roots and reach of White Christian Nationalism."
Working with President Mona Kuczenski, Treasurer Eric Bowlby and many others, John established the Friends of International Friendship Park, Inc. as a stand-alone nonprofit organization. Founding team members included Dan Watman, Alexanda Calvaruso and a wide network of artists, organizers and activists. Inspired by the example of the Peace Arch Park, a cross-border park at the Washington/British Columbia border, the mission of the new organization is to "create a truly international park at the western end of the U.S.-Mexico border.