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ERLC ISSUES APOLOGY, EXPLANATION REGARDING AMICUS BRIEF

December 10, 2020

NOTE: The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, which recently joined an amicus brief in a lawsuit involving the North American Mission Board, has issued an apology and explanation for an inaccurate description of Baptist polity and church autonomy.

By ERLC staff

Russell Moore

NASHVILLE —  Several weeks ago, the ERLC was presented with an invitation to join a brief written by lawyers at the Thomas More Society, in support of one of our SBC entities. We decided to join the brief because of the importance of the underlying religious liberty issues at stake.

But there’s no avoiding the fact that there were problems with language in the brief, specifically, language and statements that inaccurately describe Baptist polity and church autonomy and that are inconsistent with the positions the ERLC has repeatedly taken. We wish, instead of joining Thomas More Society’s brief, that we had written our own. We fully recognize this brief created concern and unnecessary confusion. Before we say anything else, let us say — we apologize.

Last week, we issued a statement to Baptist Press, focused on the principal point of the autonomy of local churches. But over the last week we’ve asked ourselves how else we can serve Southern Baptists to the best of our ability. One thing that may be helpful is simply more information, particularly on the amicus brief itself and the legal doctrine at the heart of it. We’re happy to provide that information.

The Autonomy of the Local Church

There are few issues nearer the center of what it means to be Southern Baptist than the autonomy of the local church. As Russell Moore has noted, “Some churches and denominations have decisions made at the top – by bishops or other leaders – and these decisions filter down to the churches. Our decisions go the other way. We think every church – no matter where or what its size – is governed by Jesus through His Word and by His gifts and is free from dictation by any other church or by some religious bureaucracy.” In fact, Moore argues, the issue of autonomy is the very reason “the SBC was able to turn around from its direction toward theological liberalism in the 1970s and 1980s toward orthodox, evangelical conviction. The people had the final say.”

This Baptist distinctive is something we point out regularly. For example, in the most recent brief we filed against the Governor of New York concerning religious liberty violations, the Southern Baptist Convention is described as “comprised of more than 46,000 autonomous churches and nearly 16 million members.” In a recent legal comment letter to the Internal Revenue Service, we noted that Southern Baptists “are congregationally governed. The key feature of congregational governance is the autonomy of the local church or church-associated organization.”

But autonomy is not only a Baptist theological distinctive but also an important legal category, commonly referred to as the ecclesial abstention doctrine or “the doctrine of church autonomy.” This legal doctrine of church autonomy means that the inner workings of local churches are free, or autonomous, from interference by the state. We advanced this argument in another amicus brief we filed in Whole Woman’s Health v. Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops alongside the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and the Christian Life Commission of the BGCT. In that brief, we argued that the First Amendment rights held by churches “not only includes autonomy in their selection of religious leaders, but also ‘the freedom to decide for themselves, free from state interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.’”

To the brief in question, the argument the brief was seeking to establish was not one about “hierarchy” or “umbrella organizations” (and, again, should not have used that language) but rather about the inherently religious character of Southern Baptist cooperative ministry. All Southern Baptist churches are autonomous, self-determining and subject only to the lordship of Christ. At the same time, we freely cooperate with each other for the sake of the Gospel, and any associations, entities or conventions are, as the Baptist Faith and Message puts it, “voluntary and advisory bodies designed to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of our people in the most effective manner.” But the fact that they are organized by and for our churches also means these bodies are inherently religious, and therefore protected by the First Amendment and fully autonomous from interference by the state.

The ERLC, in service to the SBC, has always doggedly opposed state interference with the internal affairs of local churches and religious organizations. This is why we felt it was important to engage in this case in the first place. This does not dismiss concerns about the inaccurate language in the brief, but it does explain our underlying conviction, namely, the conviction that courts have no business interfering with the work of the church, whether deacon meetings or church discipline or even our cooperative Gospel work together as Southern Baptists. B&R

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Filed Under: News, SBC Tagged With: ERLC, ERLC apology, SBC hierarchy

TBMB LEADER CHALLENGES ERLC OVER LANGUAGE IN AMICUS BRIEF

December 3, 2020

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

FRANKLIN — A state convention leader has publicly challenged the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for stating that there is a denominational hierarchy in an amicus brief filed by the SBC entity in August.

“There is absolutely no denominational hierarchy when it comes to the Southern Baptist Convention,” Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board in a column released Dec. 2 on the Baptist and Reflector website.

Davis also wrote a letter to Russell Moore, president of the ERLC. Referring to an amicus brief, written on behalf of the Thomas More Society and the ERLC, Davis wrote that he “was deeply distressed that our Southern Baptist polity, our historical practice and our SBC constitutionally-protected relationships were so blatantly misstated and misrepresented.”

ERLC filed the amicus brief on behalf of the North American Mission Board which is involved in a lawsuit with Will McRaney, former executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Tennessee Tagged With: amicus brief, denominational hierarchy, ERLC, Randy C. Davis

DAVIS: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO SBC HIERARCHY

December 2, 2020

By Randy C. Davis
President and executive director, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board

Let’s make one thing clear from the outset: There is absolutely no denominational hierarchy when it comes to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Seldom does my Clarity column address matters involving SBC or Tennessee Baptist Convention entities or institutions, and never in a negative manner. However, this column is birthed out of a significant burden I have regarding an issue too important to bypass. Bear with me; I’ll get to the issue in a moment.

First, some context. There are two important bedrock values Southern Baptists hold dearly and historically: Biblical confession and voluntary cooperation. These were shaped by a unity gathered around the basic tenets of faith as expressed in the Baptist Faith and Message. Together we embrace non-negotiable doctrines like the exclusivity and sufficiency of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; biblical inerrancy and sufficiency of the Bible; substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross for the atonement of our sins; and the literal, physical resurrection of Christ from the grave. 

These are a few of the essentials. We provide a broad tent on non-essentials.   [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, News, SBC Tagged With: ERLC, hierarchy, SBC, Southern Baptist Convention, TBC

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…]

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Filed Under: News, SBC Tagged With: coronavirus, ERLC, government

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…]

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Filed Under: Culture, News, SBC Tagged With: abortion, ERLC, Supreme Court

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…]

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Filed Under: Opinion Column Tagged With: ERLC, Russell Moore

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…]

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Filed Under: Opinion Column Tagged With: Conservative Baptist Network, ERLC, Executive Committee, racial reconciliation

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…]

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Filed Under: News, SBC Tagged With: ERLC, SBC, task force

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…]

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Filed Under: News, SBC Tagged With: ERLC, transgender

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…]

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Filed Under: News, SBC Tagged With: ERLC, transgender

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