An organization of Baptist college and seminary professors is on record stating “concern and opposition” to President Trump’s plan to restrict travelers from predominantly Muslim nations from entering the United States.
The executive committee of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion issued a statement Feb. 27 commended previous statements by the American Academy of Religion and the Society for Biblical Literature to “demonstrate the seriousness of the recent restrictions and exclusion of people from visiting, living or traveling in the U.S. based on their religious commitments.”
“As professors of religion we recognize, acknowledge and uphold the benefits of the longstanding Baptist commitment to religious freedom and toleration of other faith groups,” the Baptist professors said. “Our religious freedom depends on the religious freedom of all individuals of faith groups.”
The National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion is a community of teaching scholars. Most members teach at Baptist-affiliated schools, colleges and seminaries, but members also hail from a wide range of institutions in the United States, Canada and abroad, including church-related and state-supported schools.
The 8,500-member American Academy of Religion board of directors issued a statement Jan. 30 calling on the president and Congress “to retract the Muslim immigration ban and to denounce religious intolerance in all its forms.”
The Society of Biblical Literature, the oldest and largest learned society dedicated to academic study of the Bible, said it “strongly opposes the ban and its implementation.”