WASHINGTON—Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has joined Jewish and evangelical Christian leaders in New York in calling for immediate sanctions to thwart Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Dr. Land collaborated with Paul de Vries, president of the New York Divinity School and leader of the New York Evangelicals, and Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, in issuing a statement urging all governments to apply sanctions in order to produce effective diplomacy and encourage the human rights efforts of Iranians living under a militant Islamic regime.
The evangelical and Jewish groups recommended two actions:
* Sanction banks that work even indirectly with Iranian banks;
* Sanction firms or governments that export refined petroleum to Iran.
Regarding the effort, Dr. Land said, “Jesus commanded his followers to be the ‘salt’ of the earth and the ‘light’ of the world [Matthew 5:13-16]. In seeking meaningful sanctions against the current Iranian regime, we are attempting to be ‘salt’ in preserving Israel and the entire region from bloody conflict and terrible loss of life. We are seeking to be ‘light’ by expressing our commitment to the intrinsic value and invaluable worth of all of our fellow human beings—both inside and outside Iran—whose lives and liberties are in peril by the dangerous rogue regime which presently oppresses the Iranian people.”
Dr. Land added, “We stand in solidarity with all people of good will both in the region and around the world in seeking to stop a nuclear Iran from grievously imperiling Israel, the Middle East and the world’s peace.”
For the full statement, including ten reasons for sanctions, please visit “stopiran.us”:http://stopiran.us.
_The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest non-Catholic denomination with more than 16.2 million members in over 44,000 churches nationwide. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is the SBC’s ethics, religious liberty and public policy agency with offices in Nashville, Tenn., and Washington, D.C._
