Today the Supreme Court has issued a ruling upholding President Trump’s travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries. As peacemakers, we are deeply disturbed by the anti-Muslim sentiment that has surrounded this travel ban and the ways that prejudice and discrimination have increased in our nation’s rhetoric. We will continue to stand alongside our Muslim and refugee neighbors to work for a country that upholds its own highest ideals.

From the perspective of Israelis, in recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, "United States president Donald Trump is to be commended for finally correcting the painful and unjust slight and doing justice to the Jewish State. But that is only a part of the truth. There is another truth as well, and there will never be peace as long as we hang on to only part of the truth as if it were the full truth."

What happens when you bring together a dozen teenagers who don’t know each other, come from two totally different religious backgrounds, and ask them to put their phones away for the day and actually TALK to each other?

For the past five years I have been working with Muslim refugees in the Phoenix area and trying to get the Church to faithfully love the neighbors that God has brought to our city. On this journey God has been faithful to teach me, through many failures, how to effectively move people toward loving the neighbors they would never otherwise spend time with. Here are some lessons I've learned.