Beyond Division: Building Peace in a Fractured World with Jer Swigart and Osheta Moore

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A conversation with peacemakers Jer Swigart and Osheta Moore reveals a profound alternative to our increasingly divided religious and political landscape. As founders of Global Immersion, they've dedicated their lives to training Christian leaders in the art of transformative peacemaking.

Their journey began with a realization that the Christianity they inherited "promoted domination more than restoration." Through experiences in conflict zones and learning from marginalized communities, they discovered a Jesus who was "magnificently defiant against systems that dignified some while denigrating others" yet "indefatigably nonviolent."

What makes their approach unique is how they combine big-picture vision with everyday practice. While Jer brings strategic thinking about global conflict, Oshita brings spiritual direction and embodied practices that help peacemakers sustain their work. Together they create transformative experiences that don't just inform but awaken participants to the question: "Who must we become?"

Their flagship program takes Christian leaders on a six-month journey culminating in immersion trips to places like Belfast, Northern Ireland. There, participants learn directly from those who have navigated sectarian conflict—and surprisingly, find these experienced peacemakers expressing concern about America's growing divisions.

The parallels are striking: in both contexts, groups "cloistered with people who thought just like them" and became convinced that "building enough power to crush the opposition" was necessary, all while claiming divine blessing. Against this mindset, Global Immersion promotes a vision of community that includes ideological "others," pointing to Jesus's own community of former enemies.

Perhaps most compelling is their emphasis on "companioning" rather than converting. "It used to be that clergy made their living being certain," Swigart notes. Today's faith leaders must instead create "environments where people can be incomplete, imperfect, and in process."

This conversation offers hope that even in our fractured world, another way is possible—one that builds bridges rather than walls, that restores rather than dominates, and that finds in faith not a weapon but a path toward healing.