(RNS) — A bunch of 10 former Southern Baptist Conference presidents have weighed in on a debate over the denomination’s controversial ethics and public coverage arm.
In an open letter, the ten former presidents — a few of whom have been critics of the SBC’s Ethics and Non secular Liberty Fee — acknowledged the company has been controversial and might do higher. However, they mentioned, that’s no cause to close the ERLC down.
“Each entity — together with the ERLC — ought to be open to critique and dedicated to enchancment,” the presidents wrote. “However there’s a distinction between refinement and eradication. A sledgehammer shouldn’t be the device for adjusting a mirror.”
The letter, first revealed by the Baptist Paper, an Alabama-based publication that covers Southern Baptists, was signed by the denomination’s 4 most up-to-date previous presidents — Texas pastor Bart Barber, Alabama pastor Ed Litton, North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear and Tennessee pastor Steve Gaines. Becoming a member of them had been Louisiana pastor Fred Luter, retired pastor Bryant Wright, Georgia pastor James Merritt — together with longtime denominational leaders Tom Elliff, who additionally led the SBC’s Worldwide Mission Board, retired Florida pastor Jim Henry, and Jimmy Draper, who led Lifeway, SBC’s publishing arm.
The ERLC has survived three votes to disband or defund the entity — which weighs in on social points and public coverage — since the start of the Donald Trump period. A vote final summer season appeared to have the help of a few quarter of the delegates to the SBC’s 2024 annual assembly in Indianapolis.
Critics of the ERLC — who say the ERLC is out of contact with the beliefs of native church members and lacks shut ties to the Trump administration — have engaged in a web based public relations battle over the company’s status and effectiveness. The web rhetoric over the ERLC has heated up because the 2025 SBC annual assembly — set for June 8-11 in Dallas — attracts nearer.
Of their letter, the ex-presidents say they’ve listened to the ERLC’s critics — and, whereas a few of the former presidents share their considerations, they don’t imagine these considerations warrant shutting down the company.
“These of us who would have some measure of critique for the priorities or techniques of the ERLC nonetheless imagine within the significance of its existence and in its mission,” they wrote. “If this weren’t the case, we’d not have such robust emotions about wanting it to get its mission proper.”
James Merritt, who was SBC president from 2002 to 2004 and at the moment pastors Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia, instructed Faith Information Service that Southern Baptists nonetheless must have a voice within the public sq. — and the ERLC fills that position.
“I simply suppose it’s a particularly essential duty on our half that the most important Protestant evangelical denomination within the nation have a presence and a voice in Washington, D.C.,” he mentioned. He additionally mentioned the ERLC’s management is conscious of considerations raised by critics and is attempting to handle them.
Issues could be completely different, he mentioned, if the ERLC had been ignoring critics.
The ERLC has been controversial prior to now, largely as a result of the company typically weighs in on public coverage and thorny moral points like immigration, sexuality and abortion.
Teams just like the Middle for Baptist Management have criticized the ERLC for becoming a member of with different anti-abortion teams in opposing laws calling for girls who’ve abortions to be jailed. Critics have additionally been angered by the ERLC’s help for immigration reform — regardless that Southern Baptists have supported such reforms prior to now.
FILE – Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Conference’s Ethics and Non secular Liberty Fee, speaks June 12, 2019, through the annual assembly of the Southern Baptist Conference on the Birmingham-Jefferson Conference Complicated in Birmingham, Alabama. (RNS picture/Butch Dill)
A lot of the present controversy over the ERLC dates again to the tenure of Baptist ethicist Russell Moore, who led the ERLC from 2013 to 2021. Moore was common with Southern Baptists at first however clashed with some SBC leaders — together with former SBC Presidents Frank Web page and Jack Graham — when he criticized Donald Trump.
The company has additionally skilled inside battle. Final summer season, the chair of the company’s board of trustees introduced ERLC President Brent Leatherwood had been ousted after he praised former President Joe Biden for ending his reelection bid. The following day, the trustee chair was eliminated and the board introduced Leatherwood had not been fired.
Present SBC President Clint Pressley, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, instructed RNS earlier this month that he’s conscious of criticism of the ERLC however mentioned that native church representatives — often known as messengers — will resolve the company’s destiny.
“I feel these considerations in regards to the ERLC can be answered by the messengers,” Pressley instructed RNS earlier this month. “I can’t do something in regards to the ERLC.”
A minimum of one pastor has introduced plans to make a movement to impose pointers on the ERLC through the upcoming annual assembly. Critics are anticipated to make a movement to close down the company as nicely. The SBC’s structure and bylaws name for 2 votes to close down an company.
The SBC presidents argued that reforming the ERLC is a greater consequence than abolishing it. “If the purpose is reform, then we urge Southern Baptists to make use of the means already accessible — electing presidents, talking with trustees, and dealing by means of the method in good religion,” wrote the SBC presidents.
