Early Jewish Christian Relations and the Presidential Executive Order on Immigration

Early Jewish Christian Relations and the Presidential Executive Order on Immigration February 7, 2017

A statement from the steering committee of the SBL Early Jewish Christian Relations program unit:

As scholars devoted to the topic of early Jewish-Christian relations, we are saddened by the executive order barring admission of non-citizens from predominantly Muslim countries, including those with legally-issued visas, into the U.S. We know all too well the result of scapegoating others by virtue of religious differences. The persecution of Christians in the first few centuries, and the subsequent persecution of Jews through the ages, should alert the majority of Americans to the dangers, both ethical and existential, of such unwarranted, discriminatory, and internationally hostile actions. Such slander and canards evoke the treacherous lies used by governments of past eras to whip up hate in efforts to mollify fear by offering simplistic, erroneous, and ineffective solutions to complex problems. We stand in solidarity with the ACLU and its clients in their constitutional challenge to this executive order, and we fully support the public statement issued by our parent organization, the Society of Biblical Literature.

SBL Early Jewish-Christian Relations Unit

Shira Lander, Co-Chair, Southern Methodist University
Eric Smith, Co-Chair, Iliff School of Theology
Marcie Lenk, Shalom Hartman Institute
Ari Finkelstein, University of Cincinnati
Jesper Svartvik, Lunds Universitet


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