A round up of responses a week after the inaugural Church at the Crossroads Conference.

Glen Ellyn, Illinois — A week after over 800 American Christians gathered in Chicago and online to listen and respond to Palestinian Christians, over two thousand additional American supporters have added their signature to a public declaration  issued at the conference. Recent signatories include Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture Founder Dr. Steven Garber, sociologist and activist Dr. Russell Jeung, speaker and theologian Dr. Brian D McLaren, pastor and writer Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, therapist and author K.J. Ramsey and many others.

“We’re incredibly encouraged and grateful for the initial outpouring of interest and solidarity this week,” said Ben Norquist, Church at the Crossroads organizer and coauthor of the declaration. “But this is just the beginning. Our Palestinian brothers and sisters are calling on the Church to break its silence, take the moral stand for a ceasefire, and pursue peace for all. Join the movement and add your name.”

The public declaration, entitled: “Church at the Crossroads: Our Public Response to the Public Calls of Palestinian Christians,” calls on Christians to listen, mourn, repent, affirm convictions rooted in the gospel, and take practical steps toward peacemaking. The declaration includes commitments to re-examine biblical interpretations that justify harm, advocate for a permanent ceasefire, call for the release of all hostages, and support for unrestricted humanitarian aid. 

By signing the letter, Christians are indicating their personal and public commitment to listen to their brothers and sisters in Christ in Palestine, lament in solidarity with the suffering being experienced, repenting of any harmful beliefs that may have contributed to violence, and committing to personal concrete action to pursue peace in the way of Jesus.

Bill Forbes, a recent signatory, commented when adding his name: “What a beautiful and fundamental expression of what it means to follow Jesus. My heart breaks with our Palestinian brothers and sisters, and I believe that Christ is suffering with them. May we deeply grieve, repent and act in alignment with God’s love for all – which in this case is first and foremost about stopping all forms of support for the violence in Gaza and the West Bank. And then moving forward with love and healing and humility toward justice and peace.”

The conference has generated attention across evangelical media and influencers, reaching hundreds of thousands with the call to solidarity with Palestinians. Selections from highlighted coverage includes:

Bob Smietana quoted Fares Abraham, Palestinian-Amerian and president and CEO of Levant Ministries, in a piece for Religion News Service: ‘“The gospel witness, and the church’s witness, is at stake,” said Abraham. “The world is watching to see how Christians will respond to this man-made evil in our beloved homeland.”’

Chasing Justice Executive Director Sandra Maria Van Opstal shared with Yasmine El-Sabawi for Middle East Eye: “I see a generation of young leaders, particularly Black and brown leaders, people of colour, who saw right away that [Israel’s genocide in Gaza] was not right,” she said. “We come from communities that are usually not centred in churches… we don’t have huge auditoriums with 2000 people, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t as many in the streets”. 

Jonathan Kuttab, Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), shared with the Christian Post: “My hope is for Christians to be Christians, to follow the teachings of Christ. Somehow, Christian Zionism takes a political ideology, Zionism, and dresses it up in religious language,” Kuttab told CP. “But if we were to follow Christ rather than Zionism, then we have to show love to everyone. We have to favor peace, not war.”

In an opinion piece for Sojourners, editor Josiah Daniels observed, “Similarly, conference speaker and theologian Preston Sprinkle, who spoke from the main stage on the second day of the conference and described himself as “a bible believing, non-liberal, card-carrying evangelical Christian,” called bombing women, children, and civilians “immoral,” but insisted that he was neither making a partisan claim nor a political one. For Sprinkle, his claim was theological, based on his conservative reading of scripture, and not rooted in the politics of the world but in the politics of being on Jesus’ side.”

Finally, Lydia El-Sayegh shared with Middle East Eye: “Right now it’s revolutionary to be pro-Palestinian, but I think what is consistently that revolutionary is to be ever loving in Christ.”

Full text of the declaration can be accessed at churchatthecrossroads.com/declaration.

About Church at the Crossroads 

Church at the Crossroads is an inaugural gathering of Christians from diverse theological and cultural backgrounds committed to peacemaking, justice, and solidarity with the oppressed. The 2025 conference will bring together speakers from across traditions to address urgent issues of faith and public witness — with the conviction that the way of Jesus offers both a truthful reckoning with injustice and a hopeful vision for reconciliation. 

For more information, visit churchatthecrossroads.com.