ERLC reverses course, Brent Leatherwood not fired

VaselineJuly 24, 2024

0 5 minutes read

ERLC reverses course, Brent Leatherwood not fired

(RNS) — In a stunning turn of events, the executive board of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention now says its leader has not been fired.

Late Monday, July 22, the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission announced that Brent Leatherwood, the group’s president, has been fired — a day after he praised President Joe Biden for ending his re-election bid.

Less than 12 hours later, the ERLC’s executive committee issued a new statement on Tuesday, saying Leatherwood would remain at the helm.

“Brent Leatherwood remains the president of the ERLC and has our continued support,” the statement read.

The committee also said that ERLC board chairman Kevin Smith acted on his own in announcing that Leatherwood had been fired. Smith, a former seminary professor and denominational administrator who currently pastors a church in Florida, resigned as ERLC president, according to the statement.

“There was no meeting, vote or authorized action taken by the Executive Committee,” the executive committee’s statement said.

Smith, who has served on the ERLC board since 2018, was elected president last fall.

Smith’s error

Smith, pastor of Family Church in West Palm Beach, Fla., did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He told the Baptist Press, an official SBC publication, that he had spoken with other members of the ERLC executive committee about Leatherwood’s removal and believed they agreed. Now he said he was wrong.

“After several conversations with ERLC Executive Committee members, I was convinced in my mind that we had a consensus to remove Brent Leatherwood as ERLC President. It is a delicate matter and in an effort to resolve it expeditiously, we acted in good faith, but without a formal vote of the Executive Committee,” he told Baptist Press. “It was an error on my part and I take full responsibility.”

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The ERLC bylaws allow the executive committee to fire the entity’s leader. The bylaws require 10 days’ notice of special board meetings, but do not detail notice requirements for executive committee meetings.

Smith is a former professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. and former executive director of the Maryland/Delaware Baptist Convention. Smith told Baptist Press that he has resigned both as president and as a trustee of the ERLC.

ERLC board response

A statement issued by the ERLC board on the evening of July 23 acknowledged the board’s failure to fulfill “(the obligation to oversee the ERLC’s ministry mission) in ways that ensure the stability of this organization.”

The council affirmed its “support for ERLC staff and their faithfulness in fulfilling their mission to our churches. This board stands behind the staff and will do everything in its power to ensure that the work of the organization—protecting a culture of life, upholding God’s good plan for marriage and sexuality, and defending a free church in a free state— continues uninterrupted. “

Citing the “events of the past 24 hours,” the board said Smith’s “decision to act” was unilateral and “outside his authority as chairman of the board.” Additionally, “executive board members were not aware of the president’s actions until they received the email” sent by staff.

“While the executive committee recognizes a wide range of views regarding the work of the ERLC, most visible in a recent attempt to disband the organization at the 2024 SBC annual meeting, the executive committee does not believe that this dissatisfaction amounts to a offense dismissed,” the statement continued.

The council also defended Leatherwood against allegations of “moral lapse”, saying he was considered “a man of the highest moral and ethical integrity”.

Administrators also wanted to make clear that their withdrawal “was not about responding to pressure from outside organizations. As people accountable to God and Southern Baptists for the way we have handled this commission, we have worked to ensure that every action taken follows the proper procedures affirmed by Southern Baptists.”

“Vice Chairman Tony Beam has assumed the responsibilities of Chairman of the Board. The other members of the executive committee are: Amy Pettway, Anthony Cox and Nathan Lugbill.

“As a board, it is our responsibility to ensure that this commission can carry out the task given to it by the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention. We are committed to this task’ and to rebuild trust in the ‘executive committee, the board of directors’ and the ERLC.

Kudos to Leatherwood

Eric Costanzo, pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church and an ERLC board member, praised Leatherwood after it was announced that the ERLC president had not been fired.

“Brent deserves countless apologies for this error and all the assumptions that came with it,” Costanzo wrote on X. “He has proven himself to be a faithful leader and a man of integrity time and time again.”

The confusion over Leatherwood’s status is the latest crisis for the ERLC — which has been embroiled in seemingly endless controversy since the election of Donald Trump as US president in 2016.

Criticism of the ERLC

Several prominent megachurches withheld funding for the group after Leatherwood’s predecessor, Russell Moore, criticized Trump, leading to calls for Moore to be fired.

That led to a meeting between Moore and Frank Page, who was then head of the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville, Tennessee, where the two pledged to work together to unite Southern Baptists. Page later resigned in a scandal.

The SBC Executive Committee continued to investigate the ERLC in 2020 for allegedly being divisive and causing a shortage of denominational donations. A 2021 report of the investigation, which was led by Georgia pastor Mike Stone, a fierce critic of Moore, called the ERLC “a significant distraction.”

Moore resigned as ERLC president in May 2021, leaving the commission for a role at the evangelical magazine Christianity todaywhere he is now editor-in-chief.

Critics such as Florida pastor Tom Ascol, head of a Calvinist group called Founders Ministries, have repeatedly called for the ERLC to be shut down. This summer, Ascol made a motion to that effect at the SBC annual meeting. The motion failed.

Criticism of Leatherwood

Leatherwood has been criticized for opposing legislation backed by Ascol and other members of the so-called abortion abolition movement that would have imprisoned women who have abortions. More recently, Leatherwood criticized the GOP for dropping anti-abortion language from its 2024 platform.

Leatherwood also called for gun law reforms after a March 2023 shooting at a Nashville Christian school where his children were students.

He did not respond to requests for comment. Leatherwood posted his thanks on social media.

“I deeply appreciate everyone who reached out, especially our admins who were absolutely baffled by what transpired yesterday and jumped in to set the record straight,” Leatherwood wrote on X Tuesday morning.

With additional reporting by Baptist Standard Editor Eric Black.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

VaselineJuly 24, 2024

0 5 minutes read