VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 3/16/19)—In response to the attack against the Muslim community in New Zealand, ABCUSA General Secretary Rev. Dr. Lee B. Spitzer has shared the following message.

“Once again, the world is confronted with the tragic results of a terror attack directed against the Muslim community, this time in New Zealand. Baptists throughout the centuries have stood in solidarity with and extended the hand of friendship to all peoples, believing that we should love, respect and live in peace with one another. There is no legitimate room for white nationalism, Islamophobia, or anti-Semitism (the similar attack against the Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh comes to memory, being not so long ago), either within the Baptist community or in any civil and just society.

I would encourage American Baptists across our country to express their sympathy for and solidarity with those families who have suffered such indescribable loss of life in New Zealand by joining with other members of the Baptist World Alliance to, in the words of BWA General Secretary Dr. Elijah Brown, ‘support religious freedom for all, reject discriminatory marginalization, and build communities who pray for one another, support one another, and value the image of God found in each and every person.’”

American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with approximately 5,000 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.