The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) is the

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

arm of the

Southern Baptist Convention The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The wor ...

, the second-largest Christian denomination in the United States, with over 16 million members in over 43,000 independent churches. President

Russell D. Moore Russell D. Moore (born 9 October 1971) is an American theologian, ethicist, and preacher. In June 2021, he became the director of the Public Theology Project at ''Christianity Today'', and on August 4, 2022, was announced as the magazine's incomi ...

left office on June 1, 2021. Brent Leatherwood was unanimously voted in by the board of trustees to be the next ERLC president on Sept. 13, 2022 . The commission is headquartered in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, with additional offices in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

History

Formerly known as the Christian Life Commission (1953-1997), the entity with organizational predecessors dating back to 1907 received its current name in the course of a broad reorganization of multiple Southern Baptist entities in 1997 (Sutton, p 335). The Southern Baptist Convention terminated its participation with the

Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty Founded in 1936, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) is a national faith-based organization which focuses on upholding the historic Baptist principle of religious liberty. With a staff of attorneys, scholars, ministers and mo ...

in 1992 (Sutton, p. 300) due to conflicts over

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

and whether Baptist organizations should play a role in partisan politics. It was led by

Richard Land Richard D. Land (born 1946) is the president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, a post he has held since July 2013. Formerly he served as president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the public polic ...

from 1988 to 2013. Land announced his intention to retire effective October 23, 2013, after the uproar that ensued from his controversial comments about the

Trayvon Martin Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had accompa ...

case that resulted in an official reprimand by the ERLC's executive committee.

filled the post afterwards. Moore is an outspoken critic of then-Republican Presidential candidate,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

. His criticism of Trump has been controversial with several Southern Baptist leaders. The stated vision of the ERLC is an organization "dedicated to engaging the culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ and speaking to issues in the public square for the protection of religious liberty and human flourishing. Our vision can be summed up in three words: kingdom, culture and mission. Since its inception, the ERLC has been defined around a holistic vision of the kingdom of God, leading the culture to change within the church itself and then as the church addresses the world." At the Convention's 2018 annual meeting, a motion to defund the ERLC was rejected.

Activities

The agency has many ministries to carry out its stated missions, including

voter registration In electoral systems, voter registration (or enrollment) is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register (or enroll) on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote. The ru ...

, a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

called the Research Institute, and the Psalm 139 Project, which donates sonogram machines to crisis pregnancy centers. ERLC is involved in legislative advocacy. Its achievements include: * The

Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) is a federal statute passed into law in 2000 by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Clinton. The law was later reauthorized by presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump. In addi ...

(TVPA) * The

Sudan Peace Act The Sudan Peace Act () is a United States federal law sponsored by Thomas Tancredo condemning Sudan for genocide. President George W. Bush signed the Act into law on October 21, 2002. The Act was passed to facilitate a comprehensive solution to ...

of 2002 * The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) * The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 The ERLC campaigned unsuccessfully against the 2022 passage of the

Respect for Marriage Act The Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA; ) is a landmark United States federal law passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden. It repeals the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), requires the U.S. federal gover ...

, arguing that its gender-neutral definition of marriage contradicted the Bible, and claiming that it is a threat to religious freedom.

Leadership history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Baptist organizations established in the 20th century Southern Baptist Convention

History

Activities

Leadership history

See also

References

External links