The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) is a godless, Christless, gospel-void organization designed to elect Democrats to office by encouraging Christians to not vote. The organization, owned and operated by the Southern Baptist Convention, has nothing much to do with ethics or religious liberty. In fact, it has little to do with Christianity at all.
The ERLC has run a tribute, oddly enough, to the “legacy” of Kobe Bryant, the skilled and celebrated NBA basketball player who died in an untimely helicopter crash in Los Angeles on Sunday. In doing so, the ERLC forsook the opportunity to have a prophetic voice or to speak to the culture with compromise.
The article, written by Jeremy Linneman (who is also a contributor to the far-left Gospel Coalition) and posted to the ERLC website, lauded the star without any attempt to use his death to preach the gospel or give a firm warning to unbelievers who, like Bryant, lived their life without faith in Jesus and in a lifestyle of sin.
Linneman painted Bryant as a man of faith who prioritized his family.
In reality, even Kobe Bryant’s secular admirers could not leave out of their eulogies the credible accusations against him of rape, which the player settled out of court with a monetary payoff. Not even the New York Times could go the last 48 hours without reminding the public that this man was likely a woman abuser.
Likewise, Bryant is credibly accused of having consensual affairs with more than 100 women while married to his wife, who filed for divorce over his infidelity in 2011 (they reconciled in 2013 after he purchased her a 4 million dollar ring).
How is that for a legacy?
Bryant was not a believer in a salvation of grace, and was a practicing Roman Catholic, which Baptists and other Protestants do not believe to be Christians (the feeling is mutual, if it makes you feel better). A practicing Roman Catholic (which Kobe was, as he died returning from Mass) does not believe they are justified by faith alone. The ERLC, a Southern Baptist organization, shouldn’t doctrinally consider him a converted Christian.
Again, how is that for a legacy?
For all the talk of being ‘prophetic’ in our culture, the ERLC has again erred terribly in providing a Biblical perspective on a current event. They are not stewards of the Biblical faith but only serve to besmirch it at every turn.
Christians can – and should – rightfully call for sympathy and prayers for Bryant’s family and the families of the seven others who perished in that fateful flight. We should mourn with them and show compassion. But ignoring reality and ‘mourning as those who have no hope’ is not the way to do that.
Jesus preached, “Repent, lest ye likewise perish.”
