October 2, 2026
DALLAS — Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said his entity had two defunding questions on its plate as he delivered ERLC’s report on Wednesday to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Dallas.
The first was lawmakers’ pending decision on the defunding of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the nation. The second was Southern Baptists’ own motion to defund the ERLC itself, which was ultimately defeated.
Leatherwood said federal lawmakers were wrestling “even at this very hour” over “a long-held priority of the Southern Baptist Convention — the defunding of that destructive organization known as Planned Parenthood."
In June 2022, Southern Baptists celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a landmark court case that had allowed nationwide abortion rights for nearly 50 years. Leatherwood said now “the opportunity is at hand for the next great pro-life achievement — stopping Planned Parenthood.”
“In those 40 years of Southern Baptist advocacy in this area, it is your ERLC that has been carrying the light on the hill for this righteous cause,” he said.
The ERLC has “worked to amplify our efforts in the best spirit of Baptist cooperation” by enlisting local pastors from across the country to be a part of the entity’s meetings with key leaders in Washington.
“With this, they will understand it is not just a priority of this organization but one that comes directly from the pulpits and the pews and has been repeatedly affirmed by you, the messengers,” Leatherwood said.
But he said even as they work to that end, the motion was brought yesterday to SBC messengers to defund and abolish the ERLC.
“I lament that once more this is before our convention,” Leatherwood said, referring to similar motions that have been filed at the past three annual meetings.
He said over the past year, he has felt the weight of guiding the organization, and it “has only deepened my appreciation that this is not my entity but yours.”
During his four years as ERLC president, more than 98 percent of the entity’s funding has come from Cooperative Program giving, with the other 1.5 percent coming from state conventions, churches, and individuals.
“As a result, we are closer to the churches now than we’ve ever been, and we champion the CP because we are powered by the CP,” Leatherwood said.
He said he knows the ERLC isn’t perfect; they “work in a contentious environment oftentimes negotiating with officials who have shifting objectives and are often presented with less-than-ideal options.”
But even so, he said he considers it a “mighty privilege” to go into that square as a messenger from the SBC.
Leatherwood said that advocacy would go away if messengers voted to abolish the ERLC, along with the resources they have produced.
“It would put an end to our legal efforts on some of the most consequential cases for our churches,” he said. “It means the defense of religious freedom abroad and a stalwart supporter of Israel would go quiet. It would result in those who have no advocate, the preborn, the vulnerable, the marginalized losing an ally for their dignity.”
Leatherwood said it also “means the public square would be abandoned by the SBC, losing a powerful voice for the truth of the gospel and in effect rewarding secular efforts to push religion out.”
He thanked messengers for the grace and prayers offered to them in these efforts and said that despite the motion to abolish the ERLC, he did not believe Southern Baptists wanted to end their ministry and advocacy.
“We stand at the cusp of a generational victory in America, one that has been ushered forward by this convention through this commission,” Leatherwood said. “Let us strive on to continue that good work, the good work you stirred up when you created this entity over 100 years ago. Let it continue onward for 100 more.”
At the conclusion of his report, Jonathan Whitehead, a messenger from Abundant Life Church in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, raised a question about a letter sent from the ERLC to congressional leaders in April 2024 communicating Southern Baptists’ position that leaders had wavered on supplying defense funds to Ukraine.
Whitehead said the body of messengers “did not adopt that position” and asked if the ERLC could be trusted to communicate on churches’ behalf.
Leatherwood said the entity had published its internal decision matrix in fall 2024.
“It ensures that the public positions we take are first and foremost rooted in Scripture, reflective of the Baptist Faith & Message and responsive to you, the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention,” he said. “We believe that following this course of action in the decisions that we take will better align everything we do with the will of our churches.”
Leatherwood described some of the “heinous” crimes perpetrated in Ukraine by Russian forces, including the kidnapping of children and killing of Baptists there.
“When I went and met with Speaker Mike Johnson, a fellow Southern Baptist, he pointed out that he had no other choice than to support the funding for Ukraine because the Baptist brothers and sisters needed that help,” Leatherwood said. “You, as a body, passed a resolution in 2022 calling for this convention to take a stand against that illegal Russian invasion. And just like we do with all those other resolutions, we turn them into action as best we can.”
Later in the session, messengers spoke in favor of and against abolishing the ERLC before taking it to a ballot vote. Abolishing an entity requires two consecutive years of affirmative votes.
Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, spoke to his motion before the vote, saying that abolishing the ERLC “is how we save it.”
The two-year vote process would give the ERLC “time to hear the concerns of the churches, pursue meaningful reform and return with a renewed mission, and that’s what we hope for,” Rice said. “But make no mistake, this motion is a wake-up call.”
He claimed the ERLC had caused “division and confusion” and accepted financial support from “outside progressive advocacy groups.”
Others spoke to the matter on both sides, including Richard Land, who served as ERLC president for 25 years. He urged messengers that this was a critical time to affirm the entity and let it continue its work.
Steve Willis, senior pastor of One Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, shared how his wife’s work in a crisis pregnancy center had been enhanced by the gift of an ultrasound machine from the ERLC’s Psalm 139 Project and mentioned that many other centers had as well.
“As someone who spent years working on legislation in the United States’ Congress as well as guest chaplain for the United States House of Representatives and state legislators, I can most assuredly share with all of you, my fellow Southern Baptists, that there is no other entity that has stood for a child’s right to life more than the ERLC,” Willis said.
Scott Foshie, chairman of the ERLC board of trustees, shared with media following the vote: “We would like to thank the messengers for their careful consideration of the work of the ERLC. We hear the voices of those who have concerns. We are committed to listening well to pastors and lay leaders, both those who support and those who question, as we work together to best serve Southern Baptists and advocate for their priorities in the public square.”
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This story appeared in The Baptist Press.
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