The Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has broken ties with the Evangelical Immigration Table.
The national group’s mission is “to encourage distinctly biblical thinking about issues of immigration” and advocate for “public policies consistent with biblical values.”
Other major players in EIT include World Relief, World Vision and National Association of Evangelicals.
The group defines “evangelicals” as “people who take the Bible seriously and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.” The group’s coalition consists primarily of middle-of-the-road evangelical groups that see legal immigration as a biblical mandate, apart from the anti-immigration philosophy of the Trump administration.
The ERLC shift comes as former President Brent Leatherwood was forced out by the most conservative wing of the SBC — as was his predecessor, Russell Moore.
Miles Mullin
The group was founded in 2012 with support from former ERLC President Richard Land. Its statement of principles has been signed by former SBC Presidents Jack Graham, Ronnie Floyd, Bobby Welch, J.D. Greear and Bryant Wright.
But ERLC Acting President Miles Mullin told trustees this week his executive leadership team decided to break ties because “we feel we need to take a more independent posture on our immigration-related work.”
EIT has been targeted by ultra-conservatives for its alleged ties to billionaire George Soros. The Center for Baptist Leadership, led by William Wolfe, has been among those accusing the ERLC of being influenced by Soros through the EIT. That group has relentlessly hounded the ERLC and accused its staff of being liberals.
EIT and ERLC both have denied ties to Soros, whose name has become a parasite among the American far-right. CNN recently reported that Soros “has been the go-to bogeyman for the American right — and right-wing leaders around the world — for years.”
The ERLC website attempts to answer this charge in its FAQ section: “The ERLC has never taken any funding from George Soros or Soros-related entities. In addition, the ERLC has never received any money from the EIT or given money to the EIT. There are no financial ties whatsoever between the ERLC and EIT.”
Gary Hollingsworth
By going its own way, ERLC said they were responding to a motion adopted by messengers at this summer’s SBC annual meeting in Dallas. That motion called for the ERLC to “appoint a special task force to study the immigration situation currently affecting our country and to provide a biblical stand on immigration.”
Also at this week’s meeting, trustees named a new interim president, 67-year-old Gary Hollingsworth of South Carolina. Hollingsworth is the retired executive director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. He previously served as pastor of First Baptist Church in Trussville, S.C., and Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark. He also had a stint working as senior director of cultural evangelism for the SBC North American Mission Board.
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