Motions to abolish ERLC and censure Al Mohler, Ben Mandrell and Bart Barber fail at annual meeting

Motions to Disband the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Commission on Ethics and Religious Freedom (ERLC) and to censor Albert Mohler, Ben Mandrell and Bart Barber overwhelmingly failed during Wednesday’s morning session annual meeting.

Motion of censure by Albert Mohler, Ben Mandrell and Bart Barber

“I propose that the messengers censor Albert MohlerBen Mandrell and Bart Barber for their roles in approving a amicus brief in the state of Kentucky that prevented an abuse survivor from having a day in court,” proposed Louis Cook, a bi-vocational pastor of Oak City Baptist Church.

Former Church leaders reported that the friend short in question was filed in an unrelated case involving the SBC, the Executive Committee (EC), Lifeway Christian Resources, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS).

Cook said Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS), Mandrell, president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, and Barber, the outgoing SBC president, were in “direct opposition to the expressed will of the messages of the Baptist Convention of the South through multiple resolutions adopted regarding sexual abuse”.

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Before the motion was voted on, standing at a microphone on the floor of the convention hall, both Mohler and Mandrell defended themselves and encouraged messengers not to vote in favor of the proposed motion.

Referring to the Lifeway booth in the exhibit hall of the SBC Annual Meeting, Mandrell said, “I want to say first that the gentleman who made the motion. I have been in the Lifeway village for three days. He never came to talk to me.”

Mandrell added, “I worry about a convention where people can come up to microphones and not be asked, ‘Did you try to have a conversation with the person you’re talking to?'”

Mandrell explained that he did not make the decision alone, but that there are 46 other Lifeway board trustees who supported the signature of the amicus brief. “So if I am in censorship, I would propose that you expand it to include me and all 46 administrators who work together to make these decisions,” he said.

Mandrell said he’s also worried about a “future where Christian lawyers are looked upon with suspicion as if they didn’t go to law school and don’t have expert opinions and want to be able to help their institutions move forward without unnecessary litigation”.

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Praising Lifeway’s attorneys as “good” and “godly” people, Mandrell said, “They’re not trying to (cover up) any harm. They are trying to keep Lifeway free and clear of any litigation it shouldn’t be involved in.”