Ever since Russell Moore, the leftist communitarian and former Democratic staffer, took control of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, it has focused less and less on the topic of abortion. The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) is the entity of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) that are supposed to be fighting for liberties. Apparently, the right to life is down on the list of their priorities.
While Moore and the ERLC provided virtually no resistance to Obergfell v Hodges and insisted that lesser magistrates more inclined to follow their state laws than activist federal judiciaries – like Kim Davis and Judge Roy Moore – resign, they were instead pushing animal rights alongside the radical humane society. That’s right! Instead of defending the rights and liberties of it wasn’t just a matter of what the ERLC was saying on important topics, but what they weren’t saying.
As anti-abortion laws are being passed around the country at a record pace the ERLC is hard to be found at all. They not only seem position-less on abortion, but they also seem voiceless. An occasional half-hearted article may appear on the website, written by an ERLC intern or unnotable blogger. An article aggrandizing Russell Moore sometimes appears, with a title something like, “Russell Moore Defends [such and such] Bill,” which amounts to nothing but a showcase of Moore with a sound-byte from a television morning show somewhere where he gives a reluctant answer to a forced question.
However, pro-life groups and conservatives around the country have noticed that there is one giant voice missing from the abortion conversation in this country, and it was once the voice of our allies. The ERLC has largely abandoned the fight to end abortion, and instead, it is focusing on a host of issues ranging from White Guilt to Artificial Intelligence.
Conservative Christians of Tennessee expressed their frustration of having no support from Southern Baptists through their entity, the ERLC, in trying to end abortion. Nashville is the headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention, and so it seems especially strange that the SBC-heavy state would have no official voice on the topic of infanticide.
Perhaps there are more important issues at stake?
Yes. Yes, there are more important issues than abortion to the ERLC.
They have been drafting, signing, and publishing Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles. They write:
In light of existential questions posed anew by the emergent technology of artificial intelligence (AI), we affirm that God has given us wisdom to approach these issues in light of Scripture and the gospel message. Christians must not fear the future or any technological development because we know that God is, above all, sovereign over history, and that nothing will ever supplant the image of God in which human beings are created. We recognize that AI will allow us to achieve unprecendented possibilities, while acknowledging the potential risks posed by AI if used without wisdom and care.
I kid you not. This is the kind of fear-mongering nonsense I hear on the Intellectual Dark Web. The AI scare is like a conversation you might hear on the Joe Rogan podcast, minus the marijuana and swearing. But, this is how Southern Baptists are spending millions of dollars each year.
They’re worried about robots. Geniuses.
But what about babies in Tennessee?
The Tennessee Heartbeat Bill has been reported on extensively by Pulpit & Pen. The Tennessee Senate rejected the bill, but certain Republicans have been trying hard to resurrect it. The bill was passed by the Tennessee House in March and was slated to be one of the strictest bans in the nation. The ERLC has largely been silent on the issue, choosing to instead focus on the preventing SkyNet from taking over the SBC headquarters, worrying about the displacement of workers when the robots take our burger-flipping jobs (prediction: this AI talk from the ERLC will lead to their promotion of Universal Basic Income in the next 18 months), and the use of Austin Powers-level sexbots.
While AI may present some challenges down the road and #LearntoCode won’t solve everything, one wonders why the Democrat-led ERLC is focusing on such trivial (or at best, far-reaching) matters unless it is as a distraction from focusing on the immediate abortion blood-letting that’s happening right now at this very moment. It’s hard to be a crusader against abortion and a leftist at the same time, and so it seems that Russell Moore has chosen one over the other.
Pulpit & Pen reached out to Matthew Nowlin, who is actively engaged in trying to support the Tennessee Heartbeat bill and end abortion in the Volunteer State. Nowlin was behind the Facebook comment (above), expressing dissatisfaction with the ERLC’s refusal to more fully address this issue.
Nowlin said, “Their VP of Communications, Daniel Darling, and I have talked – and I feel him to be a nice guy – but he lives on Twitter and he has not responded to the tweet I directed to him and the ERLC asking if they have a position on the Hearbeat Bill.”
He continued, “Churches are aware of [the ERLC ignoring the abortion issue]. Southern Baptist Churches, conservative ones, when I ask them to contact the ERLC about abortion ask ‘what’s the point?’ and instead just direct their own members.”
Nowlin said support from the ERLC has been notwithstanding.
“I contacted Daniel Darling because he’s their VP of Communications and he’s supposed to, you know, communicate,” said Nowlin. He continued, “He has thus far not gotten back. He wrote a book, The Human Dignity Revolution, and I’d say this is a human dignity issue.”
