Dallas | With debate on a motion to abolish his commission scheduled about two hours later Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Brent Leatherwood made the case for the necessity of the SBC’s public policy voice.
“It’s not about me. It’s not about those who came before me,” Leatherwood said in a video that opened the ERLC presentation before SBC messengers meeting in Dallas Wednesday morning. Then speaking live on the platform, he was more direct about efforts to kill the Commission and its work on Capitol Hill.
“We work in a contentious environment,” Leatherwood said, speaking of their D.C. fishbowl where much of their advocacy, especially for pro-life occurs. Leatherwood drew attention to another pending defunding—that of Planned Parenthood by Congress. Leatherwood has steered more of the ERLC’s work toward right-to-life and religious liberty issues in the four years of his administration.
“We are closer to the churches now than we have ever been,” he told messengers, countering a common complaint. And he thanked Southern Baptists for the “grace and prayers you have made for our team.”
Leatherwood was backed up by ten former SBC presidents in a letter released ahead of the convention, when it appeared likely that opposition to the ERLC would produce a motion on the floor to defund it. Pastor Willie Rice of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida brought that motion at the first opportunity on Tuesday morning.
Doubt about the effectiveness of the ERLC was raised by Southern Seminary President Al Mohler in a podcast last month, the latest salvo in a broader, years-long argument over the ERLC’S representation of SBC perspectives to civic leaders. The conflict that emerged under former ERLC President Russell Moore focused on a perceived disconnect between Moore and the views of grassroots Southern Baptists over the first Trump administration and its view of key issues, including immigration.
On a side note, Moore had served in with Mohler’s Southern Seminary leadership team for many years. Then he resigned from ERLC leadership after tensions over his position related to Trump policies arose.
Mohler and others now contend that the ERLC is unnecessary, as large SBC churches and their pastors have become forces for biblical input on political and social issues, and a few of them have been welcomed to the White House in lieu of ERLC representatives.
Leatherwood referenced meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Southern Baptist, during his Dallas address this morning.
After Mohler’s latest criticism, ERLC Trustees chair Scott Foshie replied, “For over 100 years, the (ERLC) has played a pivotal role in shaping culture and equipping pastors by bringing a distinctively Baptist voice to the public square,” Foshie, who is also an IBSA employee, said. “The board of trustees is steadfast in its commitment to advancing the future of the invaluable service the ERLC provides to its Convention of churches.”
Once again, it will be up the messengers gathered at the Annual Meeting to decide.
Look for the outcome later today.