The letter comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the U.S., where he is expected to address Congress on Wednesday and meet with President Joe Biden on Thursday.
During the annual gathering of the Baptist World Alliance, members of the body’s general council unanimously passed a resolution on religious nationalism that specifically denounced Christian Nationalism. Two other unanimous resolutions addressed issues of world hunger and the Israel-Gaza conflict.
On Monday, the denomination also passed a resolution denouncing Christian Zionism.
There are 182,000 Christians in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and 1,300 in Gaza, according to the U.S. State Department. The vast majority are Palestinians.
Over the past nine months, student-led encampments popped up at universities across the country. For many students, multi-religious programming at the encampments became unexpected sites for religious connection.
He recalled that Saturday marked the 10-year anniversary of a peace prayer he hosted in the Vatican gardens, attended by then-Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
‘A core practice of nonviolent resistance, including within our tradition, is economic non-cooperation with injustice,’ the Christian organizations wrote.
Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon of Churches for Middle East Peace argues we need a new foreign policy that stops alienating young people, Muslim and Arab voters, and millions of American Christians committed to justice.
Levant Ministries CEO Dr. Fares Abraham makes the case that the Christian call for benevolence should not be contingent upon the intricacies of politics or theological disagreements.
The chaplains at Ivy League and other top schools say the students have learned about the concerns of other faiths, while finding ways to express their own.