Internal politics, disagreements, and scandals have wreaked some havoc in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in recent years, nowhere more so than in the dramatic exit of Dr. Russell Moore from his position as President of the denomination’s public policy office, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). Any who might have hoped that SBC turmoil and crisis would culminate there have been sorely disappointed.
Tensions between Moore and certain members of SBC leadership, particularly on the Executive Committee, came to a head with the leak of two letters written by Moore (one to the ERLC’s Board of Trustees, the other to outgoing SBC President J.D. Greear) in May of this year, just before the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention. In the letters, Moore accuses Executive Committee leadership of seeking to exonerate churches that had covered up sexual abuse and censor survivors of sexual abuse.
“These are the tactics that have been used to create a culture where countless children have been torn to shreds, where women have been raped and then ‘broken down,’” Moore wrote. He also discusses a pattern of leaders making racist comments to him behind closed doors. Moreover, Moore alleges that there was a campaign from figures such as Mike Stone and Ronnie Floyd, the former chairman and president of the Executive Committee respectively, to personally intimidate him and to silence him on issues of race and sexual abuse.
The most prominent display of the Executive Committee’s displeasure with Moore was the establishment of two separate task forces, first in 2017 and again in 2020, to investigate the question of whether churches were contributing less to the SBC on account of the ERLC’s direction and leadership. While the first task force found no evidence of such a phenomenon, the second, headed by Stone and relying only on the testimony of 15 unnamed state convention leaders, was decidedly more critical. Its final report argued that the ERLC was “a source of significant distraction from the Great Commission work of Southern Baptists,” and in light of Moore’s outspoken opposition to then-President Donald Trump, recommended that ERLC leadership “refrain from opposing specific candidates for public office.” In the leaked letters, Moore notes that because his leadership had come under investigation from the Executive Committee to such an extent, his wife had fielded questions from his own children about whether he had some sort of moral failure.
Despite the rather shocking content of Moore’s letters, one might reasonably have hoped that amidst his departure to work with Christianity Today, the SBC could forge a path forward marked by integrity and unity. After all, at the Southern Baptist Convention, Stone’s bid to become SBC president was rejected, with Ed Litton elected instead. A task force to investigate the Executive Committee’s handling of sexual abuse claims was established, and survivors’ advocates such as Rachael Denhollander have maintained an important presence in those conversations.
However, recent developments prove that difficulties lie ahead, and that the saga of Moore’s fraught relationship with the Executive Committee persists.
While the motion approved at the Southern Baptist Convention to establish an investigative task force suggested that the Executive Committee should waive attorney-client privileges so that relevant documents could be obtained, the Executive Committee at first voted not to do so. When they did vote to waive privilege, Floyd resigned as president of the Executive Committee, citing his reputation, his fiduciary responsibility, and the possibility that the SBC would be open to lawsuits.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Whitehead, a Trustee for the ERLC, sent a letter to the leadership of the new task force alleging that Moore had intentionally concealed the nature of his relationship with the Executive Committee from the ERLC’s trustees, and that the letters had been both written and leaked “to shock and dismay SBC Messengers before an annual meeting, to produce political ends.”
And in spite of the Apostle Paul’s clear admonition in 1 Corinthians 6:7 (To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?), Stone has filed a lawsuit against Moore, saying he has “suffered a tremendous loss in professional cultivation and reputational standing, decreased future earning power…and serious mental and emotional injury in the form of extreme public embarrassment, stress, anxiety and fear.” Moore’s opponents in the SBC have demonstrated, time and again, their unwillingness to concede any ground.
Meanwhile, the ERLC has yet to appoint its next president. It has; however, assembled a presidential search committee and put forward a profile for the next candidate to serve as the commission’s president: someone who is spiritually mature, a faithful servant, convictionally Southern Baptist, appropriately educated, an excellent communicator, pastoral in heart, an experienced leader, and a proven unifier.
“The ERLC has a rich history and it is our prayer as a search committee that God will reveal to us the right leader He has in mind to continue leading this Commission forward to defend religious freedom and be an advocate for life, the marginalized, the abused and the oppressed across the globe,” said search committee chair Todd Howard.
Surely the next step for SBC churches and congregants must look like what Howard has laid out here – a call to remember the need for integrity and faithful leadership as well as the centrality of the gospel mission. The very quickness with which the Southern Baptist Convention acted to respond to Moore’s claims about mishandling of sexual abuse proves that, at its heart, the battle between Moore’s supporters and his detractors has not merely been one of politics or a somehow inevitable response to his statements about President Trump. Rather, the convention has agreed that no matter which political differences may endure, the task of securing the SBC’s witness and principled leadership remains paramount. That continues to be the case, even though distractions from that vision still arise. And in the midst of disagreements over politics, over the handling of sensitive issues, or over Moore’s conduct, Southern Baptists on both sides of the proverbial aisle must remember Jesus’ words of wisdom to his disciples, “The one who is not against you is for you.” However divisive such controversies may appear to be, they should not and ultimately will not overcome the unity found in Christ.
Comment by David S. on November 17, 2021 at 9:34 am
As someone who partly grew up in the Baptist church and for ten years attended one of the most prominent churches in the denomination, I am thankful that the faction that sought to hide behind legal liability did not win the day. I find it rather telling that Moore appears to have moved on, whereas Stone has not. This lawsuit by Stone, by citing things of monetary value, indicates that Stone is mad at the loss of the perceived long-term benefits that come with being President of the SBC, since the President is more of a figure-head, while real power lies with the Executive Committee. In other words, with this lawsuit, Stone appears to have wanted to be SBC President for all the wrong reasons and praise God that he lost. However, what Stone fails to realize is that not everyone, who has been President of the SBC, will become an Adrian Rogers or Charles Stanley with a long reach and audience. Furthermore, I wonder how many individuals, who aspired to be President, went on to have very fruitful ministries and deemed loss of the election as a blessing rather than a curse.
Of past SBC Presidents, James Merritt is remains known primarily within SBC circles (and outside primarily because of his son, Jonathan), I don’t think many other folks know who he is, post-Presidency. Same would have been true of Paige Patterson, if not for how he was forced out of Southwestern over the exact same issues that Stone and Floyd seemed to have been stonewalling (no pun intended) a proper review and handling for the broader denomination, a firing which was compounded by a very questionable retirement package, which I believe was rescinded once more evidence came forth concerning his handling of the matters in question. Time will tell how well JD Greear is known in the broader church as memory of his Presidency fades, but Stone would be best to remember that Al Mohler, President of the denomination’s flagship seminary, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and who ran as the middle ground candidate and was eliminated on the first ballot this past election, and others have done quite well for themselves without such a prestigious moniker, and are known outside the denomination. The fact is that aside from Merritt, Patterson, and Greear, of SBC Presidents over the past 25 years, I could not name a single one with confidence, though I could probably name some with uncertainty and be right.
Comment by Mary Bass on November 17, 2021 at 2:58 pm
Thanks for this timely update.