(RNS) — Richard Land, who led the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for a quarter-century, said he would often remind his staff that if they did their job right, they’d eventually end up in hot water.
“Sooner or later, we’re going to make everyone in the convention mad,” Land recalled in a recent phone interview advising his employees. “When you are the conscience of the convention, you are going to irritate people.”
Land’s adage has applied to many who have led the public policy and ethics arm of the SBC, a job some describe as providing a “prophetic” voice in showing Southern Baptists how to apply their faith to the social problems of the day. Though Land lasted more than two decades, heading the ERLC from 1988 to 2013, eventually it applied to him.
Brent Leatherwood, the current president of the ERLC, lasted only a year and 10 months before getting in hot water. On Monday night (July 22), the executive committee of the ERLC’s board announced he had been fired. The following morning, the entity changed course, announcing that Leatherwood was still on the job. The ERLC’s former chairman, Florida pastor Kevin Smith, was blamed for the “confusion” and resigned.
The episode left Land and other Southern Baptists shaking their heads, but it has also increased questions from some corners of the SBC about the value of the ERLC. At a time when trust in religious institutions is in decline, can the SBC afford the tumult the agency seems to invite?
Had his firing held up, Leatherwood would have been the fifth ERLC leader in a row to leave office amid controversy. From 1960 to 1987, Foy Valentine led what was then known as the Christian Life Commission before being forced out by conservatives who took over the SBC in the 1980s. His successor, Larry Baker, lasted 16 months on the job. Land retired in 2013 after being accused of plagiarism and making controversial remarks about Trayvon Martin, the young Black man killed by a Florida man in a “stand-your-ground” case.
Richard Land at the White House Easter Prayer Breakfast on April 5, 2013. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)
Russell Moore then led the ERLC from 2013 to 2021, before stepping down to join Christianity Today magazine. Moore’s last few years in office were filled with controversy, primarily due to his criticism of Donald Trump and his advocacy for survivors of sexual abuse.
Leatherwood was named ERLC president in 2022, after initially serving as interim. Even before this week’s events, he had drawn criticism for his opposition to legislation that would have jailed women who have abortions and for praising President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his reelection bid.
Like the broader American culture, Southern Baptists have been divided over politics, race and Trump in recent years. That’s made the job of the ERLC leader even more complicated than it was in the past.
Baylor University history professor Barry Hankins, who has long studied Southern Baptists, said Leatherwood, though he has seemed to survive for now, likely faces an uncertain future. As ERLC president, Leatherwood’s mandate is to focus on Christian values, rather than politics. “That won’t fly with the hardline culture warriors” in the SBC, said Hankins. “They want an ERLC that’s going to fall in line with the Trumpian right wing.”
Southern Baptists have also become increasingly suspicious of their institutions and their leaders. Since 2018, a pair of top leaders resigned from the denomination’s Executive Committee due to alleged misconduct; one of its seminaries fired a leader for misconduct, was sued by another and announced it had overspent by $140 million; a former SBC president was accused of plagiarism; and the denomination has struggled to resolve an ongoing crisis over sexual abuse.
The SBC isn’t the only faith group whose credibility is suffering. Gallup’s annual survey of confidence in institutions found only a third of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of trust in organized religion. That’s better than newspapers (18%), banks (27%) and public schools (29%), but only slightly above the beleaguered Supreme Court (30%).
Pastor Tom Ascol speaks at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis, Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (RNS Photo/AJ Mast)
At the SBC’s annual meeting in June, Florida pastor Tom Ascol, a vocal ERLC critic, made a motion to disband the ERLC entirely, saying the entity “has become increasingly distant from the values and concerns of the churches that finance it.” The motion failed but did get a surprising amount of support, with as many as a third of local church representatives, known as messengers, voting for it.
That vote should be a wake-up call, said Griffin Gulledge, pastor of Madison Baptist Church in Madison, Georgia, and an avid supporter of the ERLC. In recent years, Southern Baptists have had vocal disagreements over religious liberty and the best strategy for opposing abortion, he said. Those disagreements are showing up as conflict over the ERLC.
“There is real division here,” he said. “Not just about any individual’s performance or accomplishments, but about the very convictions that drive the organization.”
Gulledge, who received an award from the ERLC in 2021 for his advocacy in drawing attention to the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China, said the ERLC has also been charged with dealing with some of the most contentious issues in American culture, from immigration reform to presidential politics. “Every issue they deal with is complicated,” he said.
Gulledge said the ERLC needs to focus on connecting with local churches and pastors, to make them more aware of the work it does on their behalf. “The future success of the ERLC is completely dependent on the extent to which it builds relationships with, works alongside and empowers local church leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention.”
The Rev. Russell Moore addresses the Caring Well conference in Dallas on Oct. 3, 2019. (Photo by Karen Race Photography, courtesy ERLC)
Jon Whitehead, a Missouri attorney and member of the ERLC’s board of trustees, said ERLC can’t shy away from controversial issues, but he believes the agency should focus on positions Baptists agree on, rather than take sides in debates on abortion and other divisive issues.
“Increasingly, we’re committed to being on the side of life, from natural conception through natural death,” he said. “There are obviously some disagreements about how that is implemented, and I’m not sure the convention intends the ERLC to be the referee for that fight.”
Most immediately, Whitehead said, the ERLC needs “complete transparency” about the circumstances around Leatherwood’s firing and un-firing. He worries that Smith, the former ERLC chair, will take all the blame when the situation is more complicated.
“Kevin Smith did not go postal,” Whitehead told RNS, repeating a sentiment he had shared on the social media site X.
In a press release earlier this week, the ERLC’s executive committee said rebuilding trust will be a key task when the ERLC trustees meet in September in Nashville.
“We know that the task of rebuilding trust will be great,” he wrote. “We know that it will require listening to Southern Baptists about their concerns. And we know that we are accountable to Southern Baptists, and ultimately God, for how we carry out our work. To that end, we seek your prayers as we faithfully discern the next best steps for us as a board and for this organization.”
Land, meanwhile, said he believes Leatherwood may be in a stronger position after this week’s events but warns that his accustomed warning is more true today, thanks to social media and email, which make it easier for criticism to turn into a firestorm.
“It used to be that if someone wanted to complain — they had to write a letter or get me on the phone,” said Land.
