Russell Moore Exiting the Southern Baptist Convention

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“The issue at hand here is, first and foremost, sexual abuse,” Moore wrote. “This Executive Committee, through their Bylaws Working Group, has ‘acquitted’ churches, at an immediate meeting, of serious charges of covering up sexual assault.”

At the ERLC National Convention in 2019, Moore interviewed Rachel Denhalander, a former gymnast who was the first woman to publicly accuse Larry Nassar, an American gymnastics doctor, of sexual assault. (Nassar was the culprit in the biggest sexual assault scandal in sports history and will spend the rest of his life in prison.) In the interview, Dunhlander criticized the Executive Committee for how it handled the case of Jennifer Lyell, who accused a Southern Baptist seminary professor of abuse.

Moore wrote: “The story told by Rachel is accurate, and [my wife] And I know it because we were, even during that very meeting, serving alongside others to that young woman who had been abused.”

Moore, in a letter she wrote to the outgoing chief of SBC just over a week ago, said that Lille “has tried to tell her story of abuse, through Executive Committee channels, and her words have been changed by Executive Committee staff to make it sound as if these The horrific experience was a consensual relationship.” Lill, a former vice president of SBC’s publishing arm, Lifeway Christian Resources, told The Washington Post that she lost her job, her reputation and her health due to mistreatment by the SBC executive committee, and confirmed Moore’s account of it. Bullying and intimidation. The Post also reported that three SBC employees, and one former employee, corroborated many of the factual details of Moore’s letter. Denhalander endorsed Lyell’s account. “It shows the level of corruption and despicable behavior that comes from the leaders of the SBC, those who really hold the power,” she told the newspaper.

He wrote that Moore allowed Denhollander to tell Lil’s story on stage “outraging some of the leadership of members of the Executive Committee’s Board of Trustees,” he wrote in his letter to the ERLC Board of Trustees. He went on to say that the Executive Committee was particularly upset, as it contributed money to the Caring Well Conference, co-sponsored by ERLC, which was intended to address sexual abuse in the church. “I came out of these conversations with a distinct feeling that I was told…” You have a nice little commission there; It would be a shame if something happened,” Moore continued. “I told Maria about it at the time. It was, and still is, chilling—especially seeing what they’re thinking of doing under the cover of darkness.”

The following passage of the letter is written in bold italics:

I am trying to say this as clearly as possible to you, brothers and sisters: These are the methods that have been used to create a culture in which countless children have been torn to shreds, where women have been raped and then “crushed.”

But confronting sexual assault wasn’t the only issue that separated Moore from the SBC executive committee. “Another completely draining and relentless issue is the issue of racial reconciliation,” Moore wrote. My family and I have faced constant threats from white nationalists and white supremacists, including within our convention. Some of them have been involved in New Confederate activities years ago. Some of them are involved in groups financed by white nationalist nationalist organizations. Some of them just expressed harsh racist feelings, behind closed doors.”

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