Land, Religious Leaders: Sanctions Needed on Iran

Baptist Press reports that Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land has joined Jewish and evangelical Christian leaders in New York in calling for immediate sanctions to thwart Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission 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 Nov. 2 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. These leaders recommended sanctions on banks that work even indirectly with Iranian banks and on firms and government that export refined petroleum to Iran. "Such actions could quickly damage Iran's economy, shrink the regime's domestic popularity, provoke real diplomacy, and engender significant steps toward ending the Iran regime's murderous pursuit of nuclear weapons," their statement said.