NASHVILLE (BP) — Ethics & Religious Liberty President (ERLC) Brent Leatherwood and Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Clint Pressley submitted a joint letter today (Oct. 2) to both President Joe Biden and U.S. congressional leaders expressing Southern Baptists’ continued support for Israel. The letter comes on the heels of escalation in the Middle East conflict and a few days before the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
“Since the inception of the modern state of Israel in 1948, Israel has faced numerous attacks, incursions, and violations of its national sovereignty,” the letters said. “The Jewish people have long endured genocidal attempts to eradicate them and to destroy the Jewish state. These antisemitic, deadly ideologies and terrorist actions must be opposed.”
Iran began firing missiles into Israel Tuesday (Oct. 1), moving the region closer to all-out war. Israeli Prime Ministry Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate.
In an email to Baptist Press, Pressley said he hopes the letters “raise awareness, voice support and assure the people of Israel of our continued support.”
“Tragedies are often quickly forgotten and it’s good for Christian people to remember how terrible the Oct. 7 attacks were,” Pressley said.
“Israel is one of our closest allies, the only democracy in the Middle East and is heroically fighting against terrorists after being viciously attacked. We stand with them in the justice of their cause and believe they have been raised up in the Providence of God.”
Leatherwood told Baptist Press (BP) that Southern Baptists have been “very clear that we stand in solidarity with the nation of Israel.”
“That is an ironclad belief. We expect the same from our nation’s leaders,” he said.
The letters focus on Southern Baptists’ stated position on Israel, as documented in a resolution adopted by messengers to the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis in June.
“This summer at the annual meeting of our convention of churches, Southern Baptists overwhelmingly passed a resolution ‘On Justice and Peace in the Aftermath of the October 7 Attack on Israel,’” the letter tells U.S. leaders. “That resolution states clearly that Southern Baptists ‘condemn Hamas’ terrorist attacks of October 7, commit to standing with the Jewish people and those suffering in the region, and oppose all forms of antisemitism.’
“The resolution further rejects ‘calls for the nation of Israel to lay down its arms, repudiat[es] any calls for a permanent ceasefire that do not also result in the immediate release of all hostages’ and urges ‘the international community to redouble its efforts to support the nation of Israel toward a just and lasting peace, addressing underlying issues such as terrorism, human rights violations and regional instability, consistent with biblical calls to defend the oppressed and promote justice, especially among non-combatants and civilians.’”
The letters are “meant to serve as a reminder of our support and an encouragement to [the president and Congress] not to waver or back down in their commitment to Israel’s right to exist and defend itself from the existential threats posed by terrorists and terrorist-supporting regimes,” Leatherwood said in comments to BP.
“At the same time, Southern Baptists are a people of prayer, and we will continue to pray for a just and lasting peace to come about when Israel is no longer under threat, hostages are released and innocent life is not taken in the Middle East.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Laura Erlanson is managing editor of Baptist Press.)
