DALLAS (BP) – In the latest attempt to abolish or defund the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, nearly 57 percent of messengers voted to keep the entity.
A total of 6,563 ballots were cast, with 3,744 (56.89 percent) opting to support the ERLC and 2,819 (42.84 percent) voting to abolish it. Eighteen votes (.27 percent) were disallowed. Two successive majority votes are necessary to abolish an SBC entity.
“We thank the messengers for affirming the need for a Southern Baptist entity that advocates for our policy priorities before our nation’s leaders in ways that are rooted in Scripture, reflective of the Baptist Faith & Message, and responsive to the actions of our messengers,” said ERLC President Brent Leatherwood. “We are committed to continually listening to Southern Baptists on ways to better serve our Convention in the public square.”
The motion was brought by Willy Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Fla., and followed similar ones in recent years.
Messengers overwhelmingly rejected a motion in 2018, the last time Southern Baptists met in Dallas, and did so again in 2022 in Anaheim. A 2023 motion to reallocate the ERLC’s funding to the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force was ruled out of order. A motion last year in Indianapolis grew to about a quarter of messengers voting in favor.
In making his motion, Rice said that requiring two successive conventions to abolish an entity brings the opportunity for a wake-up call.
“It gives that entity time to hear the concerns of the churches, pursue meaningful reform and return with a renewed mission. And that’s what we hope for,” he said. “For too long, the ERLC has caused division and confusion among our churches. What was designed to be a prophetic voice in the public square has too often become a conduit for the culture to speak back to us.”
ERLC board chair Scott Foshie said concerns have been heard.
“We would like to thank the messengers for their careful consideration of the work of the ERLC,” he said. “We are committed to listening well to pastors and lay leaders, both those who support and those who question, as we work together to best serve Southern Baptists and advocate for their priorities in the public square.”
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