Vote to abolish SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission fails

I wondered what unjust policies ERLC has allegedly advocated for. Did a little digging.

Apparently Abbotoy et al were disappointed that ERLC didn’t strongly oppose the Jackson nomination: https://twitter.com/Byzness/status/1512440997350936592 It’s true that ERLC noted some of the positives in the tradeoffs involved in the nomination.

Also, ERLC’s joining of a letter from numerous pro-life entities against prosecuting women for getting abortions was apparently a factor. Ascol and CBN were vehemently critical of that move.

“He specifically cited the National Right to Life Committee letter and noted that the ERLC’s position contradicted an answer given a few minutes earlier by Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.” - BNG

And apparently Abbotoy is buddies with stolen election hoaxer and vaccination critic Eric Metaxas. https://twitter.com/Byzness/status/1479571417721196546

I think I probably haven’t always agreed with ERLC, but what the organization has generally understood is that idealism doesn’t get things done in DC. You have to deal with the real tradeoffs involved in policy decisions and you have to choose your battles. They’ve also at least tried to take the ethical high road consistently in these increasingly radicalized times… which gets you a lot of critics on both sides of issues. Correct or incorrect, what I’ve seen is a lot of courage, integrity, thoughtfulness and resistance to becoming mere partisans.

I’m encouraged that the vote wasn’t successful. (It wouldn’t have ended ERLC in any case. There would have to have been another vote in a year, and what probably would have happened in between would been a series of ‘reforms’ of the entity, like replacing leadership and adopting a more strident and partisan tone.)

Joeb,

Thank you for your gracious comments :).

David R. Brumbelow

I think SBC benefits from internal tensions. It doesn’t benefit from “infighting,” but the perspective of the CBN segment—or something like it, but less strident—is good for the overall mix.

I don’t think it would be great if they pulled out. I do think it would be great if the furthest points on the spectrum of ideas/attitudes had more coffee and conversation with each other, with lots of “first, understand” (HT: Stephen Covey) as the goal.

If you’re determined to understand first and then fight later, you end up with quite a bit less to fight. (I hasten to add that you also fight much more effectively.)

Russell Moore left the SBC and running the ERLC over all the bad Pastors in the Conservative Baptist Network (CBN) giving him a hard time over his criticisms of their Demigod Donald Trump and the hiring of a African American SBC Woman Pastor to work with him.

That was part of it but the real strife was caused by Moore’s refusal to shut up about the epidemic of sexual abuse that members of the EC were sitting on. He talked about that at length - and the fact that those members of the EC were literally trying to terrorizing him into silence - in his resignation letter that was leaked.

Ronnie Floyd, I think, pushed back on Moore but then Phil Bethancourt added HIS voice and backed up Russell Moore so Floyd shut up. And now, of course, we have the SATF report which makes it very clear that Floyd was one of the key players in the coverup.

Here’s a link to a news article about it and there’s a link to the resignation letter embedded in the story as well.

Moore news story: https://religionnews.com/2021/06/02/leaked-russell-moore-letter-blasts-…

Moore resignation letter: https://religionnews.com/2021/06/02/russell-moore-to-erlc-trustees-they…

Floyd/Stone Respond: https://churchleaders.com/news/398867-floyd-stone-dr-russell-moore-lett…

Bethancourt responds to Floyd/Stone:

https://www.christianpost.com/news/whistleblower-challenges-sbc-leaders…