ERLC President Brent Leatherwood to remain in office; board chairman resigns
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Brent Leatherwood is not resigning from his position, according to the Southern Baptist Convention body, contradicting an earlier announcement.
On Monday, ERLC released an announcement stating that Leatherwood was being removed from office shortly after he had issued a statement that spoke positively of President Joe Biden.
However, the Baptist Press, the official news outlet of the SBC, reported Tuesday morning that the announcement did not reflect the ERLC's actual decision.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Instead, the ERLC executive board informed BP that the announcement came exclusively from Board Chairman Kevin Smith and that his actions violated the commission's bylaws.
“As members of the ERLC’s Executive Committee, we formally retract the press release which was sent yesterday,” stated the board, as quoted by BP. “There was not an authorized meeting, vote, or action taken by the Executive Committee. Kevin Smith has resigned as Chair of the Executive Committee.”
On Sunday, Leatherwood released a statement in response to Biden’s announcement that he was not going to seek reelection, labeling it both “a historic decision” and “the right decision for our nation.”
“We should all express our appreciation that President Biden has put the needs of the nation above his personal ambition,” said Leatherwood. “Despite what some partisans will say, to walk away from power is a selfless act—the kind that has become all too rare in our culture.”
Although Leatherwood restated the need for both parties to embrace pro-life and pro-traditional marriage views, he received much criticism from several conservative Christians for his remarks.
Megan Basham, for example, wrote a piece for Clear Truth Media in which she argued that Leatherwood “offered the same talking points as the left-wing media and Democrat Party” and that he “helps the Democrats conceal the fact that they are running roughshod over the electoral process.”
“The question for Southern Baptists is why Leatherwood chose to so closely mirror the talking points of the dishonest media and Democrat party,” wrote Basham. “The ERLC is representing someone’s interests in the public sphere. And once again, it does not appear to be those of Southern Baptists.”
The day after Leatherwood offered his statement, the ERLC appeared to announce that the SBC body’s president had been removed from office, but this was later clarified as not having happened.
Over the past several years, there has been considerable tension between the conservative wing of the SBC and the ERLC due to the body's stances on certain issues and the rhetoric of past leadership.
“Although Leatherwood and the ERLC have a solid track record of taking conservative stances on social issues such as abortion and LGBTQ rights, their failure to embrace the fulness of Trumpism and to deny the reality of sexual abuse in the SBC have remained constant points of criticism,” wrote Mark Wingfield, executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global.
“A motion to abolish the agency failed to get traction at this summer’s annual meeting. Some ultra-conservative churches already have stopped giving to the SBC Cooperative Program in protest of the ERLC.”
