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It's Saturday, July 27, 2024.

Today’s edition covers this week’s back-and-forth over whether Brent Leatherwood had been fired from the ERLC, some abortion statistics, Christopher Columbus’ motivations, “stirring up” other believers, and more.

“Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.” (Proverbs 23:12)

Of Christian Concern

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS’ ERLC PRESIDENT WAS FIRED, BUT NO, HE WASN’T

Brent Leatherwood, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. (ERLC, edited)

While national politics sees one upheaval after another, this week also saw a sudden flurry of controversy in Southern Baptist politics with the announcement of an agency president’s removal, followed by a retraction of the announcement.

Baptist Press reported on Monday that Brent Leatherwood had been removed from his office as president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the public policy entity of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which is the nation’s largest and most influential Protestant denomination. The report did not name any reasons for the removal, though it indicated that details were set to be revealed at the ERLC’s September trustee meeting.

The Day Before

Notably, however, the announcement came one day after the ERLC tweeted a quote from Leatherwood in which he praised President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign exit as “selfless”:

Not only is this a historic decision, it is the right decision for our nation … Despite what some partisans will say, to walk away from power is a selfless act – the kind that has become all too rare in our culture.

Journalist Megan Basham expressed the opinions of many with her response to this quote:

This is one of the most dishonest and cynical political statements I have ever seen. No one believes that Joe Biden dropped out due to selflessness. It’s almost obscene to utter something so discrediting in a moment like this.

Responses to the Firing

After Leatherwood’s supposed removal was announced, many on social media celebrated. Evangelical entrepreneur Rod D. Martin wrote,

A Russell Moore wannabe whose noteworthy achievements include working to suppress the trans shooter’s manifesto, lobbying for gun control laws, and flacking for Biden and Kamala. All on your tithe dollars.

The ERLC’s board clearly did the right thing.

A commenter replied, “You forgot actively working against bills that would outlaw abortion,” to which Martin agreed: “Indeed.”

Popular pastor Tom Ascol added his assent to Leatherwood’s removal with a familiar choice of phrasing:

Not only is this a historic decision, it is the right decision for our convention. Despite what some will say, for the trustees to remove Brent from this position of power is a righteous act—the kind that has become all too rare among trustees in our recent SBC culture.

Not everyone was happy, though. Leatherwood’s predecessor, Russell Moore, who left the SBC in 2021, chimed in:

Shameful and disgraceful. A great Christian man who lived through his children barely surviving a school shooting.

Southern Baptists, how much more of this are you going to let go on?

You cannot pretend not to see what is happening in your name.

A Retraction and a Resignation

The following morning, Southern Baptists woke to a new and surprising development. The ERLC’s Executive Committee issued a statement retracting the previous press release and clarifying that Leatherwood had not, in fact, been removed. “There was not an authorized meeting, vote, or action taken by the Executive Committee.” Furthermore, “Kevin Smith has resigned as Chair of the Executive Committee.” Apparently, Pastor Kevin Smith, who was serving as chairman of the committee, had issued the press release without proper authorization.

For his part, Smith issued a statement claiming, “After multiple conversations with Executive Committee members of the ERLC, I was convinced in my mind that we had a consensus to remove Brent Leatherwood as the president of the ERLC.” He states that he had acted in good faith but made the error of acting without a formal vote

He adds, “At this time, the Executive Committee does not wish to move forward with my course of action. Therefore, I am resigning as the Chairman of the ERLC Board of Trustees and as a Trustee.”

Questions Raised

The fact that Smith believed he had consensus but was later opposed caused some to question what may have changed. Basham reported:

Speaking to sources within ERLC this morning who tell me that, yes, the media blowback from CNN, the New York Times, and other secular left media orchestrated by Russell Moore was indeed what caused [ERLC] to retract its dismissal of [Leatherwood].

She also commented:

Russell Moore has a long history of using his connections in the mainstream media to move the the Southern Baptist Convention (the country’s largest and most influential Protestant denomination) in a progressive direction. He did this while leading the ERLC, and yesterday we saw evidence that he is still doing it now that he has left the SBC.

For support of this claim, Basham points to her new book, which “cover[s] how Moore has used his friends at CNN, the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other secular left outlets to the church…”

ERLC’s Clean-Up

The ERLC’s board of trustees released another statement intending to clarify the events. The statement alleges that “Smith acted of his own accord” and “the members of the executive board were unaware of the chair’s actions” until the press release had been published. It claims, “To be clear, this retraction was about following the procedures laid out in the bylaws of the ERLC, not about responding to pressure from outside organizations.”

Whatever the truth, one social media user summarized the situation:

National politics: we’re going crazy

SBC politics: hold my root beer

Also Noteworthy

Posted to X by Lois McLatchie Miller

→ Elon Musk, following Richard Dawkins from back in March, calls himself a “cultural Christian” in an interview with Jordan Peterson.

→ Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United States this week. Protestors released maggots and crickets at the hotel where he was staying in Washington, DC. Following his address to Congress on Wednesday, demonstrators burned and replaced an American flag with a Palestinian flag and burned an effigy of him outside Union Station. Many Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, declined to attend the address. Netanyahu met with President Joe Biden and, separately, Vice President Harris on Thursday. He met with former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday.

→ Less than 1.5% of abortions are due to rape and incest, according to a graphic based on data from Guttmacher Institute (see above). A large majority of women who have abortions do so because “Having a baby would dramatically change my life” (74%) and “Can’t afford a baby right now” (73%). Nearly half (48%) give the reason, “Don’t want to be a single mother or having relationship problems.” Over one third (38%) say, “Have completed by childbearing.”

→ “Pro-life” organizations have opposed over 35 bills that would have abolished abortion in 14 different Republican-controlled states, according to a graphic (below) from a new docuseries called “Abortion-Free” (see Content Catch-Up below). At least 11 of those bills were filed after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Posted to Facebook by Erika Schanzenbach

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content of Christian interest.*

Screenshot: cover image of “Abortion-Free”’s first episode. (Foundation to Abolish Abortion / YouTube)

→ Joe Rogan Shocked By Dark Bible Stories: Pastor Brett of One Life Network reacts to a clip of Joe Rogan hearing one of the seedy stories from the Bible for the first time. (Video)

→ “Abortion-Free”: Foundation to Abolish Abortion presents a new series documenting the post-Roe state of abortion in the states that are supposedly “abortion-free” (spoiler: they’re not). Episodes are being progressively released on YouTube, available to watch for free. (First Episode)

→ Lamentations’ Path to Recovery: Pastor Cody Watson of Lake Mystic Baptist Church shows how Lamentations 3 offers “a clear roadmap for those grappling with the consequences of their sin and seeking redemption.” (Article)

→ Where Judas Hanged Himself: Sergio and Rhoda, a Christian Israeli couple who explores historical sites in the Holy Land, visit Akeldama (the field of blood) where Judas committed suicide. (Video)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

Church History Tidbit

Why Columbus Sailed

Posthumous portrait of Christopher Columbus by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519 (Public Domain)

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” goes the classic children’s mnemonic couplet. But why did Columbus sail?

That is the question posed by a 1992 Christian History article by Kevin A. Miller, then-editor of the publication. “The textbook answer…” he writes, “is that Columbus wanted to find a trade route to the Orient.” He offers as typical the words of writer Robert Hughes:

Sometime between 1478 and 1484, the full plan of self-aggrandizement and discovery took shape in his mind. He would win glory, riches, and a title of nobility by opening a trade route to the untapped wealth of the Orient. No reward could be too great for the man who did that.

Miller’s rejoinder: “That’s true, but incomplete—so incomplete it’s misleading.” The fuller picture is that Columbus “saw his voyage in much greater terms,” reflecting upon his journey with these words:

Who can doubt that this fire was not merely mine, but also the Holy Spirit who encouraged me with a radiance of marvelous illumination from his sacred Scriptures, . . . urging me to press forward?

and,

With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible . . . and he opened my will to desire to accomplish that project. . . . The Lord purposed that there should be something miraculous in this matter of the voyage to the Indies.

Of course, he was mistaken about the Indies, thinking he had landed on the easternmost part of South or Southeast Asia. In fact, Thomas S. Giles reports, “[Columbus] died in 1506 unaware he had landed thousands of miles short of the Orient.”

But, mistaken though he was, it cannot be denied that his motivations were religious. In fact, he believed himself to be the fulfillment of biblical prophecy who was helping to usher in the end of the world:

God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth of which he spoke in the Apocalypse of St. John [Rev. 21:1] after having spoken of it through the mouth of Isaiah; and he showed me the spot where to find it.

The Bible, Briefly

Stir Up One Another

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

These verses are perhaps most famous for their encouragement to gather regularly with other believers (“not neglecting to meet together”). That is a fine point to emphasize, as a previous edition of Project 18:15 did. However, there is more than one remarkable detail in this passage, another one of which is the word translated “stir up.” Here are two notable points.

1. It’s A Noun

The way it’s translated in English makes it appear that “stir up” is a verb (an action), but in Greek it is a noun (a thing). We could perhaps translate it as “a stirring up” — specifically, “a stirring up of love and good works.”

We can hardly fault English translators for using a verb instead of a noun, as a more direct translation would be awkward and confusing in English: “Let us consider one another to a stirring up of love and good works.”

2. It Means Sharp Disagreement

The noun translated “stir up” (παροξυσμὸν / paroxysmos) also means “sharp disagreement.” It appears in Scripture only one other time, in Acts 15:39: “And there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other.” This is the famous moment in which Paul and Barnabas part ways after disagreeing about whether to bring John Mark on their next missionary journey.

So, as Pastor Aaron Wojnicki of Faith Community Church says, this is “an extremely strong word,” “a very forceful word” for the author of Hebrews to use. But what could it possibly mean to have a “sharp disagreement” of “love and good works”?

Wojnicki says it means Christians are called to “stir the pot” with one another—

not to provoke one another up towards controversy, but…to be the kind of person who chooses very carefully their words so as to help and to prompt the believers of [one’s] church to love God supremely and others sacrificially.

This text is inviting us to give real thought, to flick the switch from autopilot to manual, and to give thought every time we come to church… “How can I help the people of this church love God the most and others sacrificially? How can I help them please Jesus rather than themselves?”

In an American culture where many fear offending or confronting others, and where niceness is often considered a virtue—sometimes even the highest virtue—Hebrews 10:24 calls Christians to godly provocation and confrontation with other believers, sometimes even to openly disagree with them (cf. Galatians 1:11-14) and risk offending them (cf. Matthew 16:23) for the sake of helping them love better and do what’s right.

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Why "18:15"? The name Project 18:15 is based on Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” The aim is for this weekly email—a Christian news briefing, a Bible study, and a Church history lesson rolled into one—to be one way you keep abreast of current events and acquire knowledge you might not acquire elsewhere.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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