Departed head of Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission rips Southern Baptist Convention leadership

By William H. Perkins Jr.
Editor

Just days before the opening of the 2021 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in Nashville, a letter written May 31 by disgruntled former Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) President Russell Moore to SBC President J.D. Greer has surfaced that accuses SBC leaders of “spiritual and psychological abuse of sexual abuse survivors by the [SBC] Executive Committee itself.”

The SBC Executive Committee, headquartered in Nashville, manages many of the administrative and financial functions of the convention, but in keeping with Baptist polity has no control over the 47,000 autonomous churches that choose to voluntarily cooperate with the SBC’s aims.

Moore, a Biloxi native, wrote to Greear, who is senior pastor of multi-campus The Summit Church in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina: “You and I both, in seeking to address this issue… faced one stonewall after another by leaders within the SBC Executive Committee…

“What I know, but Southern Baptists do not, is the bullying and intimidation of at least one sexual abuse victim by the SBC Executive Committee and the attempted intimidation of at least one SBC entity president. If Southern Baptists decide that these are the sorts of tactics they want employed, and that the primary problem for them is not sexual predators but those who call for justice against sexual predators, then that is certainly their right,” Moore wrote.

The source who leaked the letter is not known.

Moore has in recent years created dissension within the SBC and ridicule outside the convention for, among other actions, injecting the SBC and ERLC into partisan politics during the 2020 U.S. presidential election and for ERLC involvement in a federal court amicus brief that declared all Southern Baptist churches are under the control of a central SBC authority.

Moore in the letter to Greear also accused convention leaders of fraud, cover-ups, and corruption that he said he witnessed during his eight years at ERLC.

Greear response

In a June 7 twitter post, Greear confirmed receipt of Moore’s letter and said, “I received a letter on Dr. Moore’s last day at the ERLC. It came to me as private correspondence and I have treated it as such.” In a pair of subsequent  twitter posts the same day, Greear wrote:

— “I was aware of some things contained in the letter, but not everything, although my own struggles with the Executive Committee related to some of these initiatives are well documented.”

— “I know churches in our convention both want and deserve the truth on these matters and I expect these things to come up at our annual meeting next week.”

“I know churches in our convention both want and deserve the truth on these matters and I expect these things to come up at our annual meeting next week.”

J.D. Greear, SBC president

Floyd issues statement

Ronnie Floyd, president of the SBC Executive Committee, released a June 5 statement through Baptist Press: “I have received a copy of the letter from former ERLC president Russell Moore to our current SBC president J.D. Greear. Some of the matters referenced occurred prior to my coming here in this role. For those matters of which I was present, I do not have the same recollection of these occurrences as stated.

“I do take seriously allegations in this letter which may raise concern for Southern Baptists. I have been very committed to always operate with the highest integrity and skillful hands. I am right now considering ways in which we can develop the best path forward for the sake of Southern Baptists and our God-called commitment to our unified Great Commission vision.”

Earlier letter

In another letter written by Moore more than a year before his departure from ERLC, he asserted much of what he described as pushback from Southern Baptist leaders during his tenure resulted from his stances on race as well as sexual abuse.

Moore claimed that some SBC leaders — though he did not name them — employed “psychological warfare” and “vicious guerilla tactics” when he attempted to lead on those issues. He described private conversations in which he was “told to be quiet” about the issues.

The letter, originally obtained by Religion News Service and published June 2, was addressed to the Executive Committee of the ERLC Board of Trustees and dated Feb. 24, 2020 — a week after the SBC Executive Committee voted to create a task force commissioned to “review the past and present activities” of ERLC.

In the February 2020 letter to ERLC trustees, Moore wrote that messengers during votes at Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meetings regarding the ERLC or his leadership had “encouraged us and affirmed us overwhelmingly, unanimously or virtually unanimously every time.”

Individual accused, not named

Moore asserted that the task force investigation was “motivated by an individual, the current chairman of the Executive Committee.” Though not mentioned by name, the reference was to Mike Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Church in Blackshear, Ga. who was Executive Committee chairman from 2018-20.

“This person not only drove the motion, but also saw to it that he would be a member of the ‘task force,’ chairman of it, and the one with the power to elect its membership,” Moore wrote. Stone responded to Moore’s allegations on June 3. His statement can be found here. A video statement from Stone can be viewed here.

Moore also wrote of being wrongly called a liberal, despite his belief “in the inerrancy of Holy Scripture, in the authority of Holy Scripture,” and having “spent my life defending such concepts as the exclusivity of Christ for salvation.”

“I am a ‘liberal’ in this definition not because I deny the inerrancy of Scripture but because I affirm it.” He said he had “been clear for twenty-five years on abortion, on sexual chastity and morality, and on racism.”

Race allegations

In the 2020 letter, Moore also wrote that he and his family had “faced constant threats from white nationalists and white supremacists, including within our convention” while addressing “the absolutely draining and unrelenting issue… of racial reconciliation.”

Moore said a prominent SBC leader he didn’t identify who was “at the forefront of these behind-closed-door assaults… ripped me to shreds verbally” for suggesting that the SBC should elect an African American president.

He dated that exchange as coming one year before Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Church in New Orleans, was elected by messengers as the first African American convention president at the 2012 SBC annual meeting.

Moore is currently engaged with Christianity Today magazine as a public theologian for what the magazine described as “a new Public Theology Project.” Moore has also been announced as minister-in-residence at Immanuel Nashville, a nondenominational congregation.

Editor’s note: Baptist Press contributed to this article.