I’ve been thinking about the Western craving for what I sometimes call a Disneyland ending—a curated, comforting wrap-up to hard stories. I'm in one of these moments. Bear with me as I try to unpack what it feels like when people abandon the ones we care about—or the work we do to stand alongside them.

On March 25, 2025, video footage went viral showing a Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk, being arrested by ICE agents while walking to class. Her quiet, stunned compliance—the way she whispered "I'm a student at Tufts..." as agents pulled her away—echoed through social media like a lament. Though she was later released, the imagery haunts: an unarmed woman of color, quietly disappeared in broad daylight, on a college campus.

This is not an isolated moment. It’s part of a broader climate of fear and dehumanization toward immigrants in our country—especially those whose presence challenges dominant narratives of whiteness, power, or security. In the face of all this, a friend recently asked me, “What would Jesus do?” That question hits hard. And it’s worth flipping: What did Jesus do? Because we actually have a pretty solid record.

In this work, I’ve seen how a shared meal can become a foretaste of the Great Feast Jesus spoke of. A table becomes a space where walls come down and the Kingdom comes near. In a broken world, breaking bread together becomes a revolutionary act. It’s a way of bearing witness to God’s love, awakening to the possibilities of reconciliation, and empowering others to join in the work of peace.

The war in Gaza has been going on for almost a full year. At Peace Catalyst, we believe that God’s mission is to build a holistic and just peace and that our calling as Christians is to follow Jesus in the work of peacebuilding. Watch this video to hear our peacebuilders talk about what the Church should be learning and doing, and how everyday people can be engaged.

In a time of unimaginable violence in the Middle East, how can the Church imagine a future reconciliation? What wisdom can Christians gain from Jewish, Muslim, and Middle Eastern Christian concepts of justice? In this conversation, we talked with Palestinian Christian Salim Munayer about his latest book, Reconciling Justice: Concepts of Justice in the Multireligious Context of Palestine/Israel.