The Telos Channel

Palestinian American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed on May 11th while reporting on Israeli raids in the Palestinian West Bank city of Jenin. Eyewitnesses and video and audio evidence point toward the shots coming from Israeli forces, a claim that Israeli authorities at least initially disputed. And over the weekend, multiple communities in the US were terrorized by mass shootings including in Buffalo, NY, and Laguna Woods, CA.

We discuss how peacemakers should respond to these incidents, the importance of listening to understand and amplifying the voices that we see being marginalized, and more. 

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How can you humanize the “other” if you never walk alongside them? 

David Bailey grew up in relationship with those on the margins of society. But it wasn’t until he moved into an under-resourced community that he began to more fully understand the ways that race, geographic segregation, and poverty intersect to create realities that are difficult to escape. It was through this proximity that he began to build authentic relationships with his neighbors, transforming how he advocates for healing and justice in his city and across the country.

Today, David is a public theologian, the founder and Chief Visionary Office of Arrabon, and a culture-maker focused on building reconciling communities. He shares with us why his faith compels him to always love his ‘enemy,’ and offers practical help for how to humanize those we naturally want to see as irredeemable. David’s work embodies one of the foundational principles of peacemaking: relationships across lines of difference fuel transformation. 

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

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Resources from this episode:

• Learn more about Arrabon

Follow Arrabon on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

This week on The Check-in, we tried something new: a live episode!

A few weeks ago, we gathered the Hosts from our Telos Table program, which builds the peacemaking movement locally in cities across North America, for a weekend of training and connection. We discussed the ways communication can divide, but also the ways it can be used to counteract violence and build pathways to peace.

We then had a very special evening hearing from international peacemaker and founding director of the Neighbor-Love Movement, Andrew DeCort (PhD). Andrew blew us away with his vision for what it looks like to “love the other.” He discussed the ways in which “when we love the enemy, we become the enemy,” and how grief and lament are essential to the work of peacemaking.

Despite the technical challenges, we think this conversation is one you do not want to miss.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

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Resources:

• Learn more about the Neighbor-Love Movement
• Christopher Bollas, “Being A Character”
• Elisabeth Külber Ross, “On Grief and Grieving”
• Learn more about the Telos Table Host program

Last weekend, Israeli police raided Al-Aqsa mosque, injuring hundreds at Islam's third holiest site, and inflaming tensions during a tense moment in Israel/Palestine as Ramadan, Passover, and Easter converge.

Tensions have continued to rise, and we discuss our prediction for where things might go in the next few weeks, as well as how we can cut through the noise to promote a framework of human rights and mutual flourishing in the region.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

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Resources shared:

• My Neighbourhood, by Just Vision

This week, we turn our eyes back to Israel/Palestine, where a spate of attacks which killed around a dozen Israelis have tensions heightened leading into the holidays.

We also discuss the recent gathering of nations who signed the Abraham Accords with Israel in the Negev, including a visit from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. What does the summit have to say about the Palestinian issue?

*Note: We recorded this show the afternoon before the attack in Dizengoff Square, near where Jack and Carly live in Jaffa. Carly shares an honest reflection on the event at the top of the show.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

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Resources shared:

• Infamous photo from the Negev Peace Summit
• Negev Coexistence Forum
• Boy cartwheeling outside the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem

How can you enjoy for yourself what you deny for your neighbor?

This is the question that drove Todd Deatherage in co-founding Telos. It’s a question that compels him to a life of “neighbor love,” to not just passively accept that his neighbors need the same things that he does, but to actively work at providing these things for them. 

Todd shares how this neighbor love is at the core of Telos’ guiding principle of mutual flourishing, which imagines a future for Palestinians and Israelis where all people can enjoy dignity, freedom, and security in equal measure. He shares his story, journeying from Congressional politics to co-founding an American peacemaking movement, and why imagining a third way of mutual flourishing is necessary for building a better future—in Israel/Palestine, in the US, and beyond.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Subscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGH

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

With the war in Ukraine continuing, we called in our friend and former team member Marina Klimchuk to help us understand the human-toll of the war on Ukrainians both within the country and in the diaspora. 

Marina, who was born in Ukraine but now lives in Germany, shares stories from family members and friends fleeing the violence, and helps us navigate a difficult conversation on the efficacy of nonviolence in the midst of violent war. Is it applicable in all stances? Is nonviolence pacifism? What can we as Americans do to support Ukrainians nonviolently? We discuss these questions in an honest conversation that you won’t want to miss. 

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

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Resources

• Telos' shortlist of resources on Ukraine: 
• Marina’s Ukrainian Literature Recommendations: Orphanage: A Novel, by Serhiy Zhadan; In Isolation, by Stanislav Aseyev
• Pacifism, Violence, and Nonviolent Resistance in Ukraine, by Bryan Carey

In the face of ongoing injustice, does nonviolence actually work? 

Sulaiman Khatib spent 10 years in prison for being part of armed resistance against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank. But during his time in prison, he experienced an unexpected transformation: he became an activist for nonviolence. 

He came to believe that more than vanquishing his enemy, his freedom was better secured by liberating them—that his liberation and the liberation of the very people imprisoning him are actually intertwined. Nonviolent resistance, he realized, was the only way to make a future of mutual liberation and mutual flourishing possible. After his release from prison, Sulaiman co-founded the joint Palestinian-Israeli organization Combatants for Peace, a group of former soldiers, ex-prisoners, and other activists in Israel/Palestine that reject the use of violence and fight for peace through nonviolent means. 

Nonviolence isn’t passive. It actually costs something. And Sulaiman teaches us how we can remain steadfast in nonviolent practice in the face of ongoing injustice. 

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Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Subscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGH

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Resources:

Learn more about Combatants for Peace 

The invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces is upending the world. Already, more than 1 million refugees have fled into bordering nations, and analysts predict this will be the biggest war in Europe since WWII. 

We invited Chris Seiple, PhD, President Emeritus of the Institute for Global Engagement to help explain unfolding events in Ukraine. We discuss what’s happened so far, the unrecognized religious dimensions of the conflict, and the ways we as peacemakers can respond to this crisis. This is an important conversation. Lean in, and stand up. 

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify

Subscribe to the Telos newsletter

Resources mentioned: 

• Telos' shortlist of resources on Ukraine
• Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine, Anne Applebaum
• Winter On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Independence

None of us can turn away from the news in Ukraine. We stand behind international law and decry the Russian invasion, just as we lament the loss of life and displacement this invasion will cause. In this moment, don't look away. We're developing and sourcing resources now to direct you on getting active for peace.

In the meantime, we want to share some good, and dare we say it, hopeful news: Telos travel is finally back after two years. We'd love to tell you all about it.

Commander Mike Horn, recently retired from the Tempe Police Department, joined David Gungor to discuss his recent Telos trip leading law enforcement across the US South to discover deeper truths about what it means to be a "peace officer." Mike shares about their powerful encounters with stories that have left them completely changed and ready to dive back into their work transformed.

We also hear from Jack as he shares about our first trip to Israel/Palestine since early 2020, and the joy of reuniting with our partners and friends on the ground.

In this moment, we're not asking you to tune out from the headlines—we're living in a potentially world-shifting moment. But those are often the exact moments when we need stories of hope and joy all the more.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking
Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup
If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!
Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify