ERLC Archives - Baptist & Reflector

ERLC ENCOURAGES CHURCH, CIVIC PARTNERSHIP ON COVID-19 CONTACT TRACING

July 13, 2020

Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (BP) — Churches should partner with government officials to fight the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) while receiving First Amendment protections as they cooperate, the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission said in a new statement.

The ERLC issued a document July 10 that provides guidance to church and civic leaders regarding the effort to protect public health, particularly through the process known as contact tracing. In the procedure, trained workers contact people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 so those potentially infected individuals can isolate from others and thereby prevent the spread of the virus. [Read more…]

SUPREME COURT RULING DISAPPOINTS PRO-LIFERS

July 8, 2020

Baptist Press

WASHINGTON — Pro-life leaders expressed deep disappointment with the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal 29 to uphold a Louisiana law designed to protect the lives and health of women by requiring hospital admitting privileges for doctors who perform abortions.

In a 5-4 decision, the high court ruled the law — which mandated a physician must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of a facility where he or she performs an abortion — violated the U.S. Constitution by imposing an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to the procedure. The justices found the Louisiana measure was nearly identical to a Texas admitting privileges law they struck down in 2016. [Read more…]

FIRST PERSON: ‘SEISMIC IMPLICATIONS’ FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, CHURCH IN SCOTUS RULING

June 15, 2020

By Russell Moore
President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

Russell Moore

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court of the United States released its long-awaited decision in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., over whether sexual orientation and gender identity are included in the definition of “sex” in Title VII of the federal non-discrimination laws. The Court ruled, in an opinion written by Justice Gorsuch, that “sex” does, in fact, include sexual orientation and gender identity, despite the fact that legislators repeatedly voted against including those categories in the legislation. So, what now?

That this case is not well-known in the American public, and not much a part of the ongoing “culture wars,” might cause one to think that this is an unimportant case, but this would be the wrong conclusion. [Read more…]

START PRAYING NOW FOR SBC MEETING IN JUNE

March 4, 2020

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

For a number of years the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention has come and gone without a lot of fanfare, a far cry from the late 1970s to the early 2000s when annual meetings were national news during the years of the “Conservative Resurgence.”

Attendance has dwindled dramatically at annual meetings but there could be a major uptick in numbers when Southern Baptists gather June 9-10 in Orlando, Fla. Yes, the location will be a factor in more attendees, but so will recent developments in the Southern Baptist Convention.

A dissatisfaction with some current leaders in the SBC is becoming more prevalent among pastors and churches throughout the SBC, including Tennessee. Here are just a few examples. [Read more…]

ERLC, EC TRUSTEE OFFICERS RESPOND TO TASK FORCE ANNOUNCEMENT

February 24, 2020

By George Schroeder
Baptist Press

The SBC Executive Committee voted Tuesday (Feb. 18) to form a seven-member task force to address some Southern Baptists’ concerns about actions taken by the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. — Photo by Eric Brown

NASHVILLE — Officers of the Board of Trustees of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) strongly objected Thursday (Feb. 20) to the formation of a task force to study the ERLC’s effectiveness and instructed the entity and its leadership “not to comply” with the inquiry.

In an open letter to SBC Executive Committee chairman Mike Stone and EC members, the ERLC trustee officers called the task force, which was formed by the EC earlier this week, “unwarranted, divisive, and disrespectful.” Signed by ERLC Board of Trustees chairman David Prince and the board’s other officers, the letter suggested the EC was attempting to usurp the role delegated to the ERLC’s trustees and included a statement of support for ERLC president Russell Moore.

“We find the action of the Executive Committee … disappointing, unnecessary, and harmful to our cooperative work in the SBC,” the ERLC trustee officers wrote, adding: “At a time where a unified voice is needed for our cooperative Gospel work, the Executive Committee is sowing needless division, treating trustees with disrespect, and spreading suspicion with this unnecessary task force.” [Read more…]

ERLC: LAW DOES NOT INCLUDE GAY, TRANSGENDER RIGHTS

September 4, 2019

By Tom Strode
Baptist Press

WASHINGTON — Non-discrimination protections in federal workplace law do not cover “sexual orientation” or “gender identity,” the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and other faith-based organizations have told the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ERLC signed onto friend-of-the-court briefs filed Aug. 23 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that urge the high court to rule that the classification “sex” in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not include “sexual orientation” or “gender identity.” [Read more…]

NEW HHS RULE ON GENDER TRANSITION DRAWS PRAISE

May 30, 2019

By Tom Strode
Baptist Press

WASHINGTON — Religious liberty and pro-life advocates have praised a newly proposed federal regulation to revise an Obama administration rule that required doctors to perform gender transition procedures as well as abortions.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a proposed regulation May 24 to rescind a 2016 rule that defined discrimination “on the basis of sex” to include gender identity and abortion. The redefinition of “sex” by the Obama-era HHS described gender identity as “an individual’s internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither or a combination of male and female, and which may be different from an individual’s sex assigned at birth.” [Read more…]

MEETING TO FOCUS ON ‘GOSPEL ABOVE ALL’

May 29, 2019

Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Keeping the focus on the “Gospel Above All” theme is Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear’s main goal going into SBC’s annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala., June 11-12.

But following a year of transition among five SBC entities searching for new leadership and the convention responding to reports of sexual abuse, Greear noted there will be other issues demanding attention.

Greear, who is expected to be reelected SBC president without opposition, acknowledged that confronting sexual abuse is among them. [Read more…]

EC WRAP-UP: SEX ABUSE PREVENTION, PRES. SEARCH, DR

September 20, 2018

Baptist Press staff

Concern over Baptist work in Utah and Idaho, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission were voiced during an Executive Committee open forum Sept. 18. Photo by Morris Abernathy

NASHVILLE — An initiative by Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear to address sexual abuse in the church will be funded by the first $250,000 in Cooperative Program overage for 2017-2018, by a vote of the SBC Executive Committee. [Read more…]

VICE PRESIDENT ADDRESSES SBC MESSENGERS IN DALLAS

June 26, 2018

Pence appearance, Greear election were among top storylines at this year’s annual meeting

Editor’s Note: Visit baptistandreflector.org for complete coverage of the SBC annual meeting.

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Messengers at the SBC annual meeting raise their ballots while voting on one of the 20 proposed motions on June 12. — Photo by Matt Miller/Baptist Press

DALLAS — Though an attempt was made to exclude the vice president of the United States from speaking to Southern Baptist Convention messengers, Mike Pence addressed the convention in the June 13 morning session.

Pence’s appearance was one of several highlights during the annual meeting held June 12-13 in Dallas. The meeting drew 9,637 messengers, including 615 from Tennessee. Tennessee trailed only Texas (2,036) and Louisiana (718) in number of messengers. It was the largest attended convention since 2010. [Read more…]

Pence appearance, Greear election were among top storylines at this year’s annual meeting

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