{"id":19134,"date":"2025-03-19T12:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T16:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/?p=19134"},"modified":"2025-03-19T12:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T16:11:15","slug":"will-the-erlc-divide-southern-baptists-for-evermore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/article\/concise\/will-the-erlc-divide-southern-baptists-for-evermore\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the ERLC Divide Southern Baptists for Evermore?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Having grown up as the child of an Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) staffer and having served as an ERLC Trustee for eight years, I\u2019ve witnessed the Commission\u2019s transition from a Nashville-based ethics group to a Southern Baptists\u2019 public policy voice.

While the ERLC has notable achievements\u2014such as its role in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act<\/a> (1993) and the Nashville Statement<\/a> (2017)\u2014recent trends suggest its controversies are growing. At the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting, nearly 40% of messengers voted to abolish the ERLC<\/a>.

No SBC entity has ever lost so much messenger support and survived without fundamental reorganization or reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have we, the Convention, given the ERLC an assignment that produces division and anger?\u00a0 Can it produce unity for a Cooperative Program missions and education effort?\u00a0 I have spent my time as an ERLC Trustee seeking to uphold the best possible version of the Messengers\u2019 assignments.\u00a0 But it is time for a fresh assessment of the modern experiment. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see three recurring issues at the heart of messenger anger:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

1. Unbiblical Political Theology<\/em>: The legacy of Russell Moore\u2019s ‘Kingdom consensus’ has fostered a vague political inclusiveness that undermines clear doctrinal distinctions, resulting in division rather than unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Uncertainty About Success<\/em>: Without clear metrics, it is difficult for Trustees to distinguish between active engagement and effectiveness.  Whenever success is unclear, so is failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Unauthorized Statements<\/em>: The ERLC often speaks to the public beyond its mandate, representing positions the SBC has not adopted, which further fractures unity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

1. Unbiblical Political Theology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A key issue today is the problem of unbiblical political theology in the SBC \u2014 a legacy of former ERLC President Russell Moore. Moore\u2019s attempt to craft a ‘Kingdom consensus’ failed because it avoided taking a clear stand on policy matters that required one. The result only deepens our divisions by imposing a vague, muddied, politically inclusive program in search of an \u201cevangelical witness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until this \u2018Kingdom consensus\u2019 is rejected, this unbiblical political theology will divide us.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key to understanding today\u2019s mess is Moore’s doctoral thesis, published in 2004 as The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective<\/a><\/em>. In it, Moore claimed that a new “Kingdom consensus” among evangelicals offered “a renewed theological foundation for evangelical engagement in the social and political realms.”[1]<\/a> “Gospel centrality” was a kind of glue that could overcome divergent views of almost any kind\u2014whether cultural, political, or denominational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Russell Moore, The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective<\/em> (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), publisher\u2019s description.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In hindsight, the idea was a ruinous failure. Moore failed to develop the necessary theological tools for assessing<\/em> political outcomes. In the conclusion to the book, he asserts that the “emerging evangelical consensus” would succeed where Progressivism had failed, because the new evangelicals recognized that “the disparate traditions are based on partial truths,” and “unlike Rauschenbusch . . . evangelical theology did not start with a social or political agenda, and then seek to find a theology to fit it.”[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Russell Moore, The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective<\/em> (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), 177.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

A conservative reader might assume that a gospel foundation would have avoided the Social Gospel entirely. But Moore was stating that Rauschenbusch’s politics might have succeeded with better theological foundation. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of contradicting the Social Gospel, Moore\u2019s Kingdom was a roadmap to Social Gospel 2.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without critical theological foundations, Moore\u2019s project collapsed. It made \u201cgood progressives\u201d\u2014those on the political left\u2014a necessary part of a \u201cgospel witness,\u201d even at the expense of concrete results wherein success could be measured.  Under such a system, the value of, say, the fall of Roe v. Wade<\/em> is hard to quantify, since it was mostly a victory for all Evangelicals.   In contrast, for Moore, a movement without evangelical progressives was obvious \u2018proof\u2019 of \u201cpolitics\u201d above \u201cgospel witness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, Moore and his disciples continually hunt for imaginary \u201corthodox evangelicals\u201d with modern liberal politics.\u00a0They venerate Jimmy Carter, a Democrat who claimed Baptist faith but refused to use his role to counter Roe v. Wade<\/em>, so called gay marriage, and female pastors.\u00a0They praise \u201cevangelical\u201d scientist Francis Collins<\/a> who does not affirm a historical Adam<\/a>. They lament any break with \u201csocial justice\u201d proponents who claim a Gospel motivation.\u00a0A political version of \u201cdiversity, equity, and inclusion\u201d became the test for whether a Christian is meets the requirements of a proper \u201cevangelical witness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moore’s political theology is not limited to Moore. It has many disciples in Evangelical institutions.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Walker recently criticized \u201cOur Confession of Evangelical Conviction<\/a>\u201d a statement signed by Dr. Moore, Beth Moore, Richard Mouw, and a who’s who of the Evangelical left.\u00a0Walker observed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This statement seems to assume that the gospel is the solution to political fracture. It is and isn\u2019t. That sounds controversial, but stay with me. . . . Yes, I need my political foe to ultimately understand that Christ is Lord. But I also need my political foe defeated if they\u2019re wrong with regard to the substance of what politics is and political morality requires: political justice done to procure and advance the institutions of creation order necessary for the common good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gospel can unite political foes if and only if the one who has the wrong political morality has his error rectified in light of Christ. Until a political foe stops opposing God\u2019s authority over creation order, he is indeed a political foe, and power should be wielded against him so he can stop doing harm.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As Walker sees correctly, Moore was actually in conflict with historic, Baptist theology. The Baptist Faith & Message calls us to cooperate on ends<\/em>, not just intentions (See Article XIV in the Baptist Faith & Message [2000]).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ERLC captive to Russell Moore\u2019s failed political theology will perpetually remain in conflict with Southern Baptists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Uncertainty About a Vision of Success<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another challenge in the ERLC is the lack of clear metrics for success. Trustees struggle to distinguish between mere activity and true influence, leading to ongoing debates about whether the ERLC\u2019s actions are effective or merely divisive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own understanding of a \u201csuccessful\u201d ERLC is one that meaningfully advances Baptist political theology and ethics in the public square, consistent with its assignments, in a way that protects and encourages the Cooperative efforts of Southern Baptists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few SBC pastors and laymen have a practical background in government or politics. Membership in a local church provides much of the education necessary to judge seminaries and missions agencies\u2019 mission fidelity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But few churches equip members to judge policy efforts. Trustees can tell that staff are busy and earnest. But how do they know when that activity is effective? There are many meetings in Washington, but do they get things done?\u00a0Is the ERLC invited to draft legislation, or merely asked to support it? Are the hand-stamped ERLC letters read by a Congressmen before his staffer puts them in the trash?\u00a0If we lack influence in Washington, is it because of our uncompromising stand, or have we pursued irrelevant strategies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I explained above, Dr. Moore\u2019s theology sought to frustrate a lopsided, conservative evangelical consensus. As Southern Baptist professor Hunter Baker observed<\/a>: \u201cEvery evangelical org[anization] should think carefully whether they want to drift into something like the role of the old Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, which basically existed to protect America from conservative Christians. The secular progressives are already on it.\u201d Under Moore, protecting \u201cthe gospel\u201d from too much conservatism was seen as its own success, even when it frustrated goals supported by the majority of Baptists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This frustration of larger Convention goals runs contrary to the Baptist belief in democratic congregationalism. The beliefs of the (conservative) majority became suspect and dangerous, unless that majority included progressives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One might hope that an almost 40% vote to abolish the ERLC is an unmistakable signal. But in response, you are likely to hear a now-familiar quote from the modern ERLC\u2019s founder, Dr. Richard Land. He repeated it to RNS recently<\/a>: \u201c[Land] would often remind his staff that if they did their job right, they\u2019d eventually end up in hot water. \u2018Sooner or later, we\u2019re going to make everyone in the Convention mad.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, far from being a warning sign, making \u201ceveryone in the Convention mad\u201d\u2014100% opposition!\u2014can be spun as evidence that the ERLC \u201cdid their job right.\u201d A few leaders have reasoned themselves out of this circle, but it maintains a potent talking point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as \u201csuccess\u201d and \u201cfailure\u201d in public policy remain fuzzy and abstract concepts, the ERLC will continue to divide the SBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Unauthorized Statements for SBC Churches<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A further concern is that the ERLC frequently speaks for the SBC on issues where the Convention has remained silent.\u00a0Whether addressing conflicts on Ukraine, immigration, or gun control, these statements often extend beyond the narrowly defined mandate of discussing religious liberty and ethical positions. Under current practice, Trustees do not vote on these positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actual \u201cMinistry Assignment\u201d from the SBC to the ERLC might surprise many people.\u00a0The ERLC has a wide assignment to speak directly with churches; in this role, supporters have sometimes called it the \u201cconscience of the Convention.\u201d\u00a0But ERLC\u2019s authority to speak to the public and public officials about<\/em> Southern Baptist beliefs is narrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ERLC\u2019s assignment to speak to the public and public officials is constrained to the area of religious liberty, and \u201cthe moral and ethical positions of the Southern Baptist Convention.\u201d\u00a0If a statement is not about religious liberty, or \u201cthe moral and ethical positions of the Southern Baptist Convention,\u201d the ERLC isn\u2019t assigned a representative role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it has proven irresistible to put words in the mouths of our churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ERLC often speaks beyond the positions adopted by the SBC. The majority of my fellow Trustees interpret the assignment to allow the ERLC to speak on any issue, so long as it does not unavoidably contradict the positions of the Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0This allows the ERLC to speak to the public where the SBC has been silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in 2022, Messengers called on Vladimir Putin<\/a> to \u201cend this war of aggression against Ukraine,\u201d Messengers said nothing about urging the United States to fund Ukraine\u2019s defense. But in 2024, the ERLC told Congressional Leaders<\/a> that Southern Baptists opposed efforts in Congress to limit funding out of the United States Treasury (echoing Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer\u2019s attack on Republican House Members blaming them for Ukraine\u2019s military losses). Whatever you might think of the US defending Ukraine, the ERLC was not communicating a position taken by the Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0The messengers had remained silent on the US taxpayer\u2019s obligation to fund Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same thing has happened repeatedly in the area of immigration. Despite very little immigration legislation passing since the 1980s, \u201ccomprehensive\u201d immigration reform is a steady drumbeat in ERLC articles and policy proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the ERLC has a privileged role in the SBC\u2019s Resolutions process, messengers have passed multiple resolutions listing, but not balancing, policy goals. Messengers repeatedly affirm that \u201cborder security\u201d is a chief priority. The also oppose the separation of families. They support human dignity. They support legal immigration. They support requiring illegal immigrants to pay restitution as a prerequisite to citizenship. But apart from these broad outlines, the Convention takes no position on any particular immigration bill or proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under current policy, the ERLC staff then decides how to balance these factors for the churches. In 2024, the ERLC staff made a public show of supporting (Baptist) Sen. James Lankford\u2019s \u201cbipartisan\u201d immigration reform proposal.  ERLC\u2019s \u201cexplainer\u201d said the bill was \u201cin line\u201d with SBC resolutions.[3]<\/a>  Mr. Leatherwood told Baptist Press: \u201cThe SBC has been very clear. Reform needs to happen \u2026 My understanding is that Sen. Lankford is pushing for that exact combination,\u201d he said.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
3. ERLC. \u201cExplainer: Bipartisan Border Proposal Surfaces in U.S. Senate – ERLC<\/a>,\u201d June 21, 2024.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. \u201cImmigration Reform, Care for Children Highlight ERLC Policy Agenda<\/a>, Leatherwood Says | Baptist Press.\u201d<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

However, the bill was doomed from the start, in part due to opposition from other Baptists, including Speaker Johnson<\/a>. \u201cThe \u2018border deal\u2019 is an easy NO. It reads like a parody of an actual border security bill,\u201d then-Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, posted on social media<\/a>. Again, the Convention clearly took no position on Lankford\u2019s particular bill proposal; the Convention did not agree that Lankford properly prioritized border security. Sen. Rubio and Speaker Johnson\u2019s opposition to the bill had as much support in SBC resolutions as the ERLC\u2019s full-throated approval. But the ERLC once again spoke for the churches where the churches did not speak.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as the ERLC speaks for the Convention where the Convention has remained silent, it will continue to divide us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A trustee\u2019s responsibility is to carry out the Convention\u2019s assignment. But it is a fair time to ask if the \u201cmodern\u201d ERLC experiment is working. If our political theology remains divided, letting a few voices set policy only deepens the rift. If our political theology is unified, letting our outliers frustrate progress will bring division, too. We must ask whether we have unwittingly adopted a strategy that tends toward division, not unity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is clear that the rift between the ERLC and its convention continues to grow as messengers lose confidence\u2014where does all the frustration come from?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"It is clear that the rift between the ERLC and its convention continues to grow as messengers lose confidence\u2014where does all the frustration come from?","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[32,12,1969,38],"tags":[1411,1784,1690,1656,128,82,371,1413,1422,488,1634,884,181,2036],"scripture-reference":[],"post_folder":[],"ppma_author":[1629],"class_list":["post-19134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-concise","category-march-2025","category-theme","tag-conservatism","tag-cooperation","tag-erlc","tag-ethics-and-religious-liberty-commission-erlc","tag-liberal-theology","tag-political-theology","tag-public-policy","tag-public-religion","tag-religious-liberty","tag-russell-moore","tag-sbc","tag-social-gospel","tag-southern-baptist-convention-sbc","tag-transparency"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Whitehead-Article-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-01-13 11:42:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"authors":[{"term_id":1629,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"jon-whitehead","display_name":"Jon Whitehead","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/whitehead.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/whitehead.jpeg"},"author_category":"","job_title":"","church_city_state":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","church_site":"","user_url":"","description":"Jon Whitehead<\/b> practices civil litigation, including deep experience representing charities and religious nonprofits. He graduated from Harvard Law School and has run his own law firm since 2008. He is a member of Abundant Life Baptist Church in Lee's Summit, MO."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19134"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19146,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134\/revisions\/19146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19134"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-reference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-reference?post=19134"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=19134"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=19134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}