Nashville, Tenn. | Brent Leatherwood resigned as head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) on July 31. The decision to leave was his own, board members said, as they accepted his resignation in a special called meeting in Nashville. The trustees moved immediately to name ERLC Vice President and Chief of Staff Miles Mullin as acting president.
“I am grateful for the leadership of Brent Leatherwood and for his service to Southern Baptists,” Trustee Chair Scott Foshie said. “Brent has led the commission well and demonstrated loving courage in the face of a divisive and increasingly polarizing culture in America.”
While Leatherwood did not provide a reason for leaving, his resignation may offer a better path forward for the agency that has struggled to speak on behalf of grassroots Southern Baptists amid ongoing criticism by pastors aggravated by the ERLC’s stances on political hot potatoes.
Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
“I believe gratitude is at the heart of conservatism,” Leatherwood wrote in a statement announcing his departure. “That means I will always be thankful for the opportunity provided to me by our churches—for the support they have offered and the resources they have sacrificially given to this entity.”
The news release included a long list of ERLC’s achievements under Leatherwood during his four years in office. (Read Leatherwood’s full statement here.)
Like his predecessor, Russell Moore, Leatherwood himself was cited in attempts at the last two SBC Annual Meetings to abolish the entity. In both 2024 and 2025, messengers turned away the effort.
Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida, brought the motion to abolish the ERLC at the June convention in Dallas. “For too long the ERLC has caused confusion and division for our churches,” Rice said. The voice of Southern Baptist beliefs to public officials has instead “become a conduit for the culture to speak back to us (the church).”
In his brief floor argument for giving the ELRC its notice, Rice contended, “The facts are clear…The trust is broken.”
Others defended the ERLC and Leatherwood, including Richard Land, who served as its head and a very public spokesman for almost 25 years. Land, like his successor Moore, left under a cloud resulting from comments he made on his daily ERLC radio show.
Moore, an administrator and professor under Albert Mohler at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, became President of the ERLC in 2013. He ran afoul of a significant group of SBC pastors and leaders during the first Trump Administration over issues including immigration and the handling of sexual abuse survivors during the investigation of the denomination’s actions. Moore resigned the ERLC in 2021 to join Christianity Today as a “public theologian.” He now serves as the magazine’s editor-in-chief.
Leatherwood tried to redirect the ERLC’s course, focusing on less political issues and more on matters of religious freedom and sanctity of human life, but his actions were still characterized by critics as liberal. After a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville where his children attend, Leatherwood supported a Tennessee bill limiting firearms.
Miles Mullin
But it was his public remarks about former president Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election that drew the most criticism. Leatherwood commended Biden for “doing the right thing.” That led to a one-day firing by then ELRC Trustee Chair Kevin Smith, but Smith’s unilateral action was deemed out of order, and Smith himself resigned, while Leatherwood’s board publicly endorsed his retention.
Smith was replaced as chairman by Foshie in September 2024. Currently an IBSA employee, Foshie began service as an ERLC trustee in 2018 while he was pastor of Steeleville Baptist Church.
Foshie commended Leatherwood for his service. “While biblical values have been under attack, Brent has been a consistent and faithful missionary to the public square. We are thankful for his commitment to the Lord and to this commission.”
Mullin will serve as acting president while a search is underway. Mullin joined the ERLC under Leatherwood’s leadership in January 2023. Mullin holds a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt. He served as professor and dean at Hannibal-LaGrange University and taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
A search committee will be appointed by the ERLC trustees.
–Eric Reed with additional reporting by Lisa Misner and Ben Jones