Southern Baptists dumping their Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission because it's "Never Trumper"

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2025/05/move-to-defund-and-disband-ethics-and.html

Led by Bush ally Richard Land, renamed the "Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the organization pushed hard to become an anti-abortion activist organization and to drag the SBC into Republican right wing extremist politics following the "Conservative Resurgence." Neither Land nor Paul Pressler, the Texas appeals court judge who was one of the major "architects" of the resurgence, were ever able to push the SBC to the point of outright endorsements of GOP Presidential candidates, but that was not for lack of trying.

Then Land stepped down in 2013, due to a shift in denominational politics, and Russell Moore became executive director. Moore's legacy at the ERLC looked to be more bland, conservative extremism, until the election rolled around in 2016 and he became an outspoken right wing Evangelical opposed to Trump's candidacy, because of his disgusting immoral behavior and crude, worldly attitude. Moore, now editor of Christianity Today , never backed down from that perspective, so the Trump machine within the SBC went to work to try and bring the whole organization down.

And that's what's happening now, with the involvement of the great Southern Baptist pontificator, Dr. Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mohler wasn't a Trumper in 2016 either, but he's a "lick your finger and stick it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing" kind of Baptist leader. So he eventually changed his mind. But Moore never did. He managed to make an exit and land on his feet in a more sympathetic, more moderate, less politically insane branch of Evangelicalism. His successor failed to denounce him or trash his reputation or behave in other un-Christ-like vengeance, and so, jiggling with rage, Southern Baptist Trumpers are now pushing to simply shut down the whole ERLC to hurl their hatred and get back at the remaining leadership for not bowing at the feet of their political enamorata and favorite ungodly idol.

[FadedMullet]

1. Read the last paragraph again. It is truly poetic. "Jiggling with rage". Perfect.

[erronis]

2. Children, stop your bickering. Get back to taking care of your "flock". HAHA

[jls4561]

3. I'm sure the commission was doing thoughtful and conscientious work on ethics and religious liberties.

This emoji is not big enough to denote the hypocrisy of the Southern Babtists.

[lees1975]

4. Oh that's not nearly big enough...

The clergy sex abuse scandal mentioned in the linked article is an embarassing saga of cover ups to protect prominent, well known, prestigious pastors and denominational leaders who either used their power to cover up for their good buddies who got caught, and it has exposed an ugly attitude among Southern Baptists that tends to blame the victims and accuses them of being feminists for standing up to defend those who were victims of rape and assult by pastors and church leaders. The whole attitude sucks. It like they are OK with a pastor taking advantage of his position in a congregation to get a little on the side, because, after all, boys will be boys, and the victims are "just women." That is exactly the attitude that denominational leaders have expressed about this scandal and efforts to stop it. There's a group of denominational leaders working behind the scenes to give the appearance of doing something while sabotaging every effective proposal.

It's a scandal that has the potential, along with all of the extreme right wing politics, to bring the denomination down completely, and evidence shows it is well on its way to that fate.