As we enter the season of Lent — a time of reflection, repentance, and renewal — I am reminded of the moral imperative at the heart of my faith: to stand for justice, peace, and the dignity of all people. This calling has led me, an African American evangelical bishop from Jackson, Mississippi, to walk the streets of the Holy Land, where Jesus once walked, and to witness firsthand the painful realities faced by both Israelis and Palestinians.
Bishop Ronnie Crudup
This month, I will be thinking again of those realities — and how they relate to the struggles for justice and equality that our communities face right here at home. I will be meeting with the participants of ReStory US, a unique, groundbreaking delegation of young Palestinian Christian leaders traveling through the American South to explore the deep parallels between racial injustice in the United States and the oppression Palestinians face in their homeland.
The delegation’s journey will take them to New Orleans, Selma, Montgomery, and Jackson, where I am honored to host their meeting with pastors at New Horizon Church International. As they travel through places of iconic and powerful history for the civil rights movement, their trip will be an opportunity to listen, learn, and affirm that the pursuit of justice is not bound by borders.
Like my own trip to the Holy Land, this trip bringing a rising generation of Palestinian Christian leaders here to Mississippi and the South is led by Telos, an organization that works to form communities of American peacemakers across lines of difference and equips them to help reconcile seemingly intractable conflicts at home and abroad.
Through my own travel with Telos, I have seen how the struggle for freedom connects us across time and place. In Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank, I walked through segregated streets where Palestinian families are barred from entering areas accessible only to Israeli settlers. I watched as children threw stones at my Palestinian friends simply for existing in spaces where they were unwelcome. The echoes of my own experiences growing up in Mississippi were unmistakable. Injustice, whether in the Jim Crow South or occupied Palestine, is an affront to the God of justice we serve.
The ReStory US trip is a chance to deepen these connections and understanding, not just by drawing historical parallels but by forging real relationships between communities that have long been struggling for justice and peace. This delegation will bring together Palestinian Christians and Black faith leaders to share stories of resistance, resilience, and faith in the face of systemic oppression. Through conversations with pastors, activists, and community members, together we will explore how our shared struggles — and our shared hopes — can guide us toward meaningful action today in pursuit of mutual flourishing and a better future.
We cannot forget that we in the US are not far removed from the situation in Israel-Palestine, but that our government is an active and important participant in what takes place there. The U.S.’s role in Israel/Palestine, including its use of military aid and diplomatic influence, in some ways mirrors its historical role in perpetuating racial and economic divides in the American South. By examining these connections, we can consider our responsibility in shaping policies and mindsets that either perpetuate or dismantle injustice.
Palestinians wait behind a barbed wire fence as they seek to be allowed to cross from the West Bank into Jerusalem for a religious service on March 31, 2023. (Nasser Nasser/Associated Press)
Since October 7, 2023, the world has witnessed unimaginable suffering — Israeli families mourning loved ones taken from them in brutal violence, Palestinian families enduring relentless bombardment, displacement, and hunger. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, and as followers of Christ, we are called to respond — not with silence or indifference, but with moral clarity and unwavering compassion.
That is why I believe the United States must do everything in its power to ensure that the ceasefire agreement is fully maintained and carried out, that hostages and detainees are released, and that urgent humanitarian aid reaches those in desperate need. True peace can never be achieved through military might alone — it requires justice, equality, and the recognition of every person’s God-given dignity.
Lent reminds us that transformation is possible — that out of suffering can come redemption, and out of despair, hope. I pray that more of us will have the courage to walk the difficult road of peace, to reject the false choice of choosing one people’s suffering over another’s, and to work instead for the flourishing of all.
I hope the journey of these fellow Christians from the Holy Land to the American South will inspire more communities and congregations to become involved in peacemaking and to see themselves as called to take constructive action in support of a more just and peaceful future for both Israelis and Palestinians. By learning from one another’s histories and struggles, we can move beyond a vague sense of remote solidarity and toward deeper, transformative engagement. Our faith calls us not only to bear witness but to act — to stand where Jesus stood, to love as He loved, and to work for a peace rooted in justice.
The road to justice is long, but as those who have come before us have shown, it is a road worth traveling.
Bishop Ronnie Crudup is the Senior Pastor of New Horizon Church International in Jackson, Mississippi, and a board member of Telos.
