SBC Public Policy Department Reverses Presidential Impeachment, Chairman Resigns

In a terse statement Monday evening, the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy department announced a sudden and surprising staffing change.

Brent Leatherwood, the chairman of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, has been “removed” from his position, less than 24 hours after he made statements praising President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek reelection.

On Tuesday morning, everything changed.

Leatherwood is not going anywhere, the ERLC executive committee said, retracting its statement that the president had ever been removed. There was no “authorized meeting, vote or action” taken in Leatherwood’s now-overturned ouster.

“Brent Leatherwood remains president of the ERLC and has our support going forward,” the executive committee said in a statement this morning.

When the dismissal became public, Kevin Smith resigned as chairman of the ERLC executive committee and from its board. In a later deleted statement on social media, Smith apologized for making a “consequential procedural error.”

In a broader statement to The Baptist Press, Smith said numerous conversations with executive committee members convinced him there was a “consensus” Monday to remove Leatherwood as president, though the board committee reaffirmed its commitment to Leatherwood a day later.

“This is a sensitive matter and in order to address it expeditiously, I acted in good faith but without a formal vote of the Executive Committee,” Smith said. “It was a mistake on my part and I accept full responsibility.”

Leatherwood has not yet responded to The Tennessean’s request for comment, but in a statement on social media, he indicated that at least some ERLC trustees were caught off guard by the news of his firing on Monday evening.

“I really appreciate everyone who reached out to me, especially our trustees who were absolutely bewildered by what happened yesterday and stepped in to set the record straight,” Leatherwood said.

Opening Statement: Southern Baptist Convention public policy leader forced out over Biden column

Biden column sparks controversy

The Southern Baptist Convention is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and remains one of the most influential groups in American Christianity. The ERLC serves as its public policy arm, taking positions on key issues such as abortion and advocating for religious liberty.

It’s unclear exactly what led to what now appears to be an unauthorized move to oust Leatherwood, who has led the ERLC since 2021. But the announcement of his removal as president came just hours after he made the comments and published a column in Baptist Press praising Biden.

Leatherwood praised Biden not for his liberal policies, which Leatherwood has consistently criticized, but for his decision not to seek reelection and effectively step down from power, a decision Leatherwood called a “rare” and “selfless” act, rarely seen in a political sphere rife with personal ambition.

In his column, Leatherwood also criticized the record of Vice President Kamala Harris and her potential run for president, writing that she would be “a cause for considerable concern among pro-lifers and those who hold to the biblical definition of marriage.”

Tug of War Among Southern Baptists Over ERLC’s Role

Leatherwood’s comments, however, were outrageously negative to some SBC members, who have long had an internal feud between Leatherwood and the ERLC over the denomination’s policy priorities.

SBC leaders like Leatherwood and Russell Moore, his predecessor who faced strong opposition for criticizing former President Donald Trump, represent more mainstream conservative positions that have been challenged by an opposition faction trying to move the ERLC, already a deeply conservative body, even further to the right on cultural and political issues.

In June, faction leaders, most notably Florida pastor Tom Ascol, sought to abolish the SBC’s public policy division at the denomination’s annual meeting in Indianapolis. The attempt follows another failed attempt to abolish the ERLC in 2022 after Leatherwood and others expressed opposition to criminalizing women for having an abortion, a position that hardline anti-abortion activists in the denomination have described as “abolitionist.”

“This is not only a historic decision, it is the right decision for our convention,” Ascol said Monday on social media about Leatherwood’s removal, mocking the former ERLC president’s statement about Biden. “Contrary to what some will say, the trustees’ removal of Brent from this position of power is a just act — one that has become all too rare among trustees in our recent SBC culture.”

On Tuesday, Ascol called the ERLC’s dismissal “a complete embarrassment” to the SBC and urged the trustees “to come clean to the churches that own the entity.”

“It’s time for transparency — something churches have been asking for for years,” Ascol said.

Meanwhile, other ERLC leaders apologized to Leatherwood for the whiplash injury.

“Brent deserves countless apologies for this mistake and all the assumptions that went with it,” said Oklahoma pastor Eric Costanzo, who is an ERLC trustee. “He has proven himself to be a faithful leader and a man of integrity time and time again.”