The Telos Channel

This week’s episode is a heartfelt one. After six transformative years, Telos’ Director of Communications and Christian Engagement, David Katibah, joins us for one final conversation before he steps into a new chapter. David has left an indelible mark on Telos—shaping our mission, growing our story, and living out the work of peace and justice with clarity and conviction. In this farewell episode,...

This month marks five years since 2020 and a summer of protest across the world for Black lives, dignity, and justice. There was a lot of hope during that summer—hope that our communities would begin to ask questions about our history; pursue lasting, structural changes to our society; and begin to take serious steps towards true repair. In the years since, we’ve worked hard at Telos to create spa...

We have a new ambassador in town. Earlier this month, the US Senate confirmed former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, as US Ambassador to Israel.  As Ambassador, Huckabee is expected to endorse policies that forcibly promote Israeli government priorities. He has been quoted saying, “there is no such thing as a Palestinian” and that the West Bank is “Judea and Samaria,” a term used by Israeli s...

What does US history have to tell us about what's happening in Israel/Palestine?  Last month, a cadre of four Palestinian theologians—the next generation of scholars and activists and social scientists—joined us in an exploration of US history and how its legacies carry us to the present. These legacies exist as both currents of deep injustice, and as the wellsprings of joy that sprung out of...

In the past year, Telos has launched a new peacemaking travel experience in Ireland & Northern Ireland, to see what we can learn from the history, movement, and current reality of the conflict in Northern Ireland, and how we can support the work of true justice and peace in the area. While we’re still in the early stages of this program,  we traveled with 5 different groups in 2024—and there’s...

Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident and green-card holder, was arrested without charge or warrant on private grounds for his activism during last year’s encampments in protest of the genocide in Gaza. He is currently detained in Louisiana, alongside a number of other legal residents and foreign national scholars who have also been arrested and detained without charge—including Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turki...

Since January 19th, when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect, a lot has continued to unfold on the ground. While for the first time in 15 months a path out of the horrific violence seems possible, we know it is far from the end of the road towards a sustainable future of peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians.  Since the ceasefire we’ve seen violence expand across the...

Telos recently led a ReStory US trip to the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Through our ReStory program we are working together to repair our home by knowing, owning, and writing a more honest American story. This conversation with Dr. DeSean Dyson and Dr. Otis Pickett unpacks some of the unique history of Charleston, and lessons, insights, and stories that can help our work of ReStorying our...

Cities across America have boulevards named after him. The nation celebrates his life and legacy every year in January. Washington, D.C. boasts a massive monument of his likeness. Even so, most Americans have no idea that Martin Luther King Jr. was widely despised during this life and decades after his death. On this MLK Jr. Day, it's important to go "beyond the quotable King," as h...

What roles can and should women play in peacemaking movements? How can we connect the struggle for justice across contexts in a way that furthers the work of mutual flourishing and collective liberation? What does it mean to be an effective ally, advocate, and friend? This week, we are joined by our friend, author, preacher, trainer, liturgist, activist Sandra Van Opstal. Sandra is the Co-founder...

No one could have predicted what happened in Syria last week. After more than half a century of rule and thirteen years of a bloody war, the Assad regime fell. Across the world, Syrian communities erupted in celebration at seeing the brutal, dictatorial regime end, many quickly filling the roads back to Damascus and the city squares across large portions of the country to gather in freedom for the...

With Christmas on the horizon, what does it look like to not just take the Advent stories seriously, but also the land out of which they came? In this episode, we invite our listeners who come from the Christian tradition to encounter a new lens on Advent that recognizes the geographic, political, and economic landscapes out of which it emerged—landscapes whose terrain echoes across millennia to b...

What does it take to be humanely happy? Perhaps it's the very journey of the peacemaker that helps us discover the answer to this question, and it might not be the journey you would expect.  Theologian, author, and peacemaker Andrew DeCort details this journey in his new abundantly profound and copiously beautiful book, “Blessed Are the Others: Jesus' Way in a Violent World." Throug...

Before we can hope to heal our world, we must first learn to see it how it actually is. By listening to understand, we cultivate our curiosity while surfacing the motivations and views that underlie the issues that divide us. But what does this look like in practice? Over the past weeks, we've focused on individuals and organizations who model how holding perspectives in tension allows us to...

Before we can hope to heal our world, we must first learn to see it how it actually is. By listening to understand, we cultivate our curiosity while surfacing the motivations and views that underlie the issues that divide us. But what does this look like in practice? Over the next few weeks, we’re focusing our Learning Corps series on individuals and organizations who recognize that my story is no...

Before we can hope to heal our world, we must first learn to see it how it actually is. By listening to understand, we cultivate our curiosity while surfacing the motivations and views that underlie the issues that divide us. But what does this look like in practice? Over the next few weeks, we’re focusing our Learning Corps series on individuals and organizations who recognize that my story is no...

It’s been a whole year. A whole year since the region was upended by the violent attacks of October 7, and the 365 days of onslaught on Gaza. Now expanded into Lebanon.  What has it meant for our friends in the region? And what can we do in this moment to support them?  This week, we hear from our dear friend Robi Damelin, who is a peacemaker, internationally renowned speaker, and mother. Robi sha...

It’s been one year. A whole year since the region was upended by the violent attacks of October 7, and 365 days of merciless onslaught on Gaza, now expanded into Lebanon.  What has it meant for our friends in the region? And what can we do in this moment to support them?  This week, we hear from former Telos Israel/Palestine Director and dear friend of ours, Jack Saba. He shares with us his reflec...

This week, we were joined by the pastor of City Bible Church of Beirut, Marwan Aboul-Zelof. He gives us an on-the-ground perspective of what's happening in Beirut right now (recorded Friday Sept. 27, before the Israeli invasion or the Iranian strikes on Israel).  Pastor Aboul-Zelof has been living in Lebanon for eight years, and his church was the closest church to the Beirut port explosion....

Women are often at the forefront of effective nonviolent movements for peace and justice across the world. But their stories are often not the ones being told in mainstream spaces. Over the next few weeks, we’re focusing our next Learning Corps series on women who embody what it means to embrace nonviolence as a courageous and countercultural way of life. We’ll tell the stories of individuals comm...

We have an invitation for you, your church, and your faith communities. Join us Sunday, October 6th for a Global Sunday of Mutual Flourishing. After almost an entire year of witness and reflection, the time is now to speak with a collective voice for the sake of peace.  Todd Deatherage is joined by Telos alum Mike Goldsworthy to discuss how you can join us to use your platforms and pulpits, your p...

Women are often at the forefront of effective nonviolent movements for peace and justice across the world. But their stories are often not the ones being told in mainstream spaces. Over the next few weeks, we’re focusing our next Learning Corps series on women who embody what it means to embrace nonviolence as a courageous and countercultural way of life. We’ll tell the stories of individuals comm...

Women are often at the forefront of effective nonviolent movements for peace and justice across the world. But their stories are often not the ones being told in mainstream spaces. Over the next few weeks, we’re focusing our next Learning Corps series on women who embody what it means to embrace nonviolence as a courageous and countercultural way of life. We’ll tell the stories of individuals comm...

Women are often at the forefront of effective nonviolent movements for peace and justice across the world. But their stories are often not the ones being told in mainstream spaces. Over the next few weeks, we’re focusing our next Learning Corps series on women who embody what it means to embrace nonviolence as a courageous and countercultural way of life. We’ll tell the stories of individuals comm...

Perhaps one of the most contested terms when it comes to talking about Israel/Palestine. Many in our network ask: What does “apartheid” really mean? Is it a fair word to use in this context? If so, why is there such a strong reaction to it? And how might it shape the engagement of peacemakers like us, who are working to build a future where Israelis and Palestinians can flourish in equal measure?...