ERLC Archives - Baptist & Reflector

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…]

CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON ‘TODAY’S PARENTING’

September 14, 2017

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector

ERLC president Russell Moore addresses the crowd at this year’s ERLC national conference at the Opryland Hotel.

NASHVILLE — The lineup of speakers at this year’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission conference was impressive. So, too, was the setting for the event, which was held at the sprawling Opryland Hotel.

But the true appeal of this year’s gathering was the event’s central topic: Parenting.

Touching on subjects that ranged from social media to sports to foster care, the conference examined the guidelines of “Christ-Centered Parenting in a Complex World.” The event generated a sell-out crowd that was estimated around 1,300. [Read more…]

THE NASHVILLE STATEMENT: A CLEAR WORD IN A CONFUSED SOCIETY

September 5, 2017

By Todd Brady
Vice President for University Ministries, Union University

My wife and I were in Nashville recently for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s annual conference on parenting. Hearing from folks like Russell Moore, Jen Wilken, Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) and others, we sought to learn what we could to grow in this great work of parenting.

While we were there, the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood finalized The Nashville Statement, a series of affirmations and denials “declaring once again the true story of the world and of our place in it—particularly as male and female.” In a world of squishy ambiguities, vague double-speak and moral menageries, I was glad to read this clear, precise and definitive declaration espousing God’s design for biblical sexuality. You may read The Nashville Statement at www.cbmw.com. [Read more…]

NEWS ANALYSIS: WHAT IS THE ALT-RIGHT MOVEMENT?

June 27, 2017

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

The alt-right social and political movement is in the spotlight after the Southern Baptist Convention condemned alternative-right white supremacy at its 2017 annual meeting in Phoenix.

What is the alt-right movement?

Many Southern Baptists aren’t familiar with the term, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) President Russell Moore said in the June 14 “The Weekly,” ERLC’s e-mail newsletter on news and opinion from the public square. Speaking from the floor of the annual meeting as a messenger from Grace Church in Nashville, Moore was among those encouraging adoption of the resolution condemning “the anti-Gospel of alt-right white supremacy.” [Read more…]

MOTION FOR SOUL-WINNING TASK FORCE AFFIRMED AT SBC

June 15, 2017

By Seth Brown
Baptist Press

Phoenix, AZ.

PHOENIX — Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention proposed 11 motions during two 15-minute scheduled segments of the 2017 annual meeting in Phoenix.

Messengers voted affirmatively on one of the motions, submitted by Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board and member of First Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Ga., to authorize the convention’s president to appoint a task force to study how Southern Baptists “could be more effective in personal soul-winning and evangelistic preaching.”

Ezell, acting on behalf of SBC President Steve Gaines, commented to Gaines in making the motion, “We must be about sharing our faith.” Ezell added, “You do that. I’m grateful for your heart and I join you in wanting to mobilize pastors to lead their people to have gospel conversations.” [Read more…]

PRESTONWOOD TO RESUME CP GIVING ‘WITHOUT DESIGNATION’

April 27, 2017

By David Roach
Baptist Press

Jack Graham

PLANO, Texas (BP) — Prestonwood Baptist Church has announced it will resume giving through the Cooperative Program after two months of evaluating its support of Southern Baptist missions and ministries.

“After a time of prayerful evaluation, Prestonwood is renewing our commitment to Southern Baptist missions by giving to the Cooperative Program without designation,” Prestonwood executive pastor Mike Buster told Baptist Press in a statement. [Read more…]

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

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