The U.S.’s largest Protestant denomination this week felt a bit like a Monty Python skit.
During the opening credits to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, nonsense subtitles start coming on screen along with the names of the actors and other key figures behind the film. Viewers are encouraged via these subtitles to take a “høliday” to Sweden to see “the løveli lakes” and “the wøndërful telephøne system,” followed by a story about a moose biting someone who was carving their initials on the animal. After nearly two minutes of this, a message comes on screen to announce, “We apologise for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.” Yet, the subtitles continue the moose story, leading to another message: “We apologise again for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked.”
That is what happened in the Southern Baptist Convention this week.
Brent Leatherwood speaks during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Anaheim, California, on June 15, 2022. (Justin L. Stewart/Religion News Service)
On Sunday, the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the SBC, put out a statement commending President Joe Biden for dropping out of the presidential election as “the right decision for our nation.” Despite adding criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris in the statement and clearly arguing Biden was not up for another four years, the praise for Biden by ERLC President Brent Leatherwood quickly created a storm of criticism from some Southern Baptists. Among those condemning Leatherwood were those who have been pushing MAGA politics in SBC life, including those who were part of an event during last month’s SBC meeting featuring video remarks from Donald Trump.
Monday evening, barely more than 24 hours after Leatherwood’s comments about Biden, the ERLC announced he had been fired by the executive committee of the ERLC board. The short statement did not give a reason and noted that additional details would be made available at their next full board meeting … in September. However, Tuesday morning, the ERLC sent out a new press release to “formally retract the press release” sent the night before.
“There was not an authorized meeting, vote, or action taken by the Executive Committee. Kevin Smith has resigned as Chair of the Executive Committee,” reads the ERLC statement as it bravely runs away from the previous act. “Brent Leatherwood remains the President of the ERLC and has our support moving forward.”
The person responsible for the sacking was sacked.
Unsurprisingly, the announcements of Leatherwood’s firing and nonfiring sparked furious responses from Southern Baptists and others. And the power struggle’s not dead yet. This is not just organizational disfunction or merely a flesh wound. The incident reveals the significant political fault lines within the SBC and the broader Christian community that threaten the witness of churches. So this issue of A Public Witness grabs two empty halves of coconut to take off on a quest to understand what the ERLC debacle tells us about religion and politics (and African swallows).
GOP at Prayer
There was a moment in the late 1990s when Southern Baptists ruled the United States. Not the SBC but individuals in both parties who were part of the denomination. Bill Clinton was president. Al Gore was vice president. Newt Gingrich (prior to his conversion to Catholicism) was speaker of the House. Dick Gephardt was the House minority leader. Trent Lott was the Senate majority leader. And Strom Thurmond was president pro tempore of the Senate. That means not only the president but the next three people in line to succeed him were all Southern Baptists in addition to some other key leaders in Congress. And this list of six Southern Baptists in high offices included three Republicans and three Democrats.
“We’re no longer out in the cold,” then-ERLC president Richard Land said in 1998. “We’re on the inside now. We don’t have to explain to Bill Clinton and Al Gore how important Southern Baptists are to the political life of this nation. We had to explain it to George Bush.”
Such a convergence of Southern Baptists in power is highly unlikely today. The Baptist leaders in D.C. right now demonstrate that.
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