SBC’s PR chief fired after Biden statement 'immediately sparks backlash from far-right factions'

After President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign on Sunday, July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, Brent Leatherwood — then president of the Southern Baptist Convention's public relations arm — applauded the decision as "selfless."

Leatherwood argued, "We should all express our appreciation that President Biden has put the needs of the nation above his personal ambition. 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."

The following day, the Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) announced that Leatherwood had removed from his position.

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According to Nashville Tennessean reporters Melissa Brown and Liam Adams, "The column and comments, published by The Baptist Press and shared by ERLC's own social media accounts, immediately sparked backlash from some far-right factions within the conservative evangelical denomination."

The Tennessean journalists go on to describe tensions within the SBC.

"Leatherwood, in recent years, has emerged as a target of an opposition conservative faction seeking to push the SBC further right in an ongoing denominational tug-of-war over cultural and political issues," Brown and Adams explain. "Leatherwood and his predecessor, Russell Moore, represented more mainstream conservative positions as the opposition faction sought to tilt the ERLC, already a deeply conservative body, rightward."

The Tennessean reporters add, "In June, leaders of the faction, notably Florida pastor Tom Ascol, sought to abolish the SBC's public policy arm at the denomination's annual meeting. The attempt followed another failed effort to abolish the ERLC in 2022 after Leatherwood and others expressed opposition for criminalizing women for abortions — a position hardline anti-abortion activists in the denomination refer to as 'abolitionist.'"

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Read The Nashville Tennessean's full report at this link.