Destiny Magnett is part of a wonderful team at one of my favorite organizations, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP). Destiny has travelled extensively to the Middle East and has been personally impacted by her education and experiences with people living in the land as they are impacted by the conflict, policies, wars, and politics. My own travel to the Holy Land began back in 2003 right after the second intifada. Since then, I have taken just shy of a dozen trips, most of them for weeks at a time, but it wasn’t until 2022, almost 20 years after I first set foot in the Middle East, that I visited the West Bank. That trip was facilitated by CMEP and it was truly a paradigm-shifting pilgrimage. Destiny and the CMEP team understand that what happens in the Holy Land continues to influence churches all over the world as well, and that’s why they are engaging in the work of educating people on the conflict and inviting them to learn more about how to interact with the news and one another in ways that are consistent with the faith we claim. In this episode, we chat quite a bit about peacebuilding and how to think well and act effectively around complex issues and circumstances that affect so many of our neighbors across faiths and borders.
Mentioned in this episode:
Churches for Middle East Peace
Dar al-Kalima University, founded by Mitri Raheb
Mae’s Reflections on Holy Fire Ceremony – April 30, 2025: CMEP Executive Director Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon Spends Holy Week in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan
Positive Approaches to Peacebuilding by Cynthia Sampson, Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Claudia Liebler, and Diana Whitney (our conversation featured concepts from Ch. 2)
“No Other Land” Wins Best Documentary Feature Film | 97th Oscars Speech (2025)
Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza by Munther Isaac
The Prophets by Abraham J. Heschel
Church at the Crossroads conference
You might also enjoy:
Ep. 219 with Mae Elise Cannon on the Israel/Palestine
Ep. 200 with Jack Sara, president of Bethlehem Bible College
Ep. 225 with Kelly Nikondeha