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Religious liberty, sanctity of life top ERLC 2021 agenda

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WASHINGTON (BP) – Advocating for religious freedom and the sanctity of human life will headline the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s 2021 public policy priorities at what the Southern Baptist entity described as “a time of unique peril and uncertainty” for the United States.

The ERLC released its annual Public Policy Agenda [2] Friday (Jan. 22) while “anxiety exists in perhaps unprecedented levels” from the COVID-19 pandemic, its accompanying economic stress and the recent invasion of the Capitol by protesters, Russell Moore and Travis Wussow wrote.

God does not provide followers of Christ with “the option to yield to fear or … cynicism,” Moore and Wussow said in the 14-page agenda. “A time of peril is also a time of opportunity, for witness, for cooperation, and for the quest for justice.”

Moore is the ERLC’s president, while Wussow is the entity’s general counsel and vice president for public policy.

The ERLC will pursue its agenda in a changed political environment that will make achieving some of its priorities extremely difficult.

The Democratic Party controls not only the House of Representatives but also the Senate and White House. Democrats took over the Senate by the slimmest of margins in the latest election, tying with the GOP at 50 seats apiece. The victory by Democrat Joe Biden – who was inaugurated Jan. 20 – over incumbent President Donald Trump resulted in new Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the deciding vote when a Senate roll call ends in a tie.

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Wide-ranging, bipartisan support may exist on such issues as criminal justice reform, payday lending regulation and a just solution for undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children, Moore and Wussow wrote.

They said far less consensus probably will be found “in a divided and increasingly partisan” country on other issues, including the protection of unborn children and their mothers, increased safeguards for religious freedom and support for oppressed religious minorities overseas.

“Nonetheless, whether issues are currently popular or unpopular, we have the opportunity to bear witness, to seek to persuade, and to build the consensus needed to make change,” Moore and Wussow wrote.

Each of the agenda’s five sections – religious liberty, sanctity of human life, family and marriage, justice, international engagement – begins with an excerpt from the Baptist Faith and Message, the SBC’s confessional statement.

The ERLC’s 2021 agenda consists of 37 items, including:

The ERLC’s agenda is available at https://erlc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ERL1001_LegisAgenda_012121b.pdf [2].