NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP)—Richard Land, Southern Baptists’ top public-policy spokesman, announced July 31 that he will retire next year. Land, 65, plans to step down Oct. 23, 2013, from the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, 25 years to the day after he took over the moral concerns agency.
Land charted a conservative course, embracing issues like opposition to abortion and homosexual rights, but also worked to repair Southern Baptists’ checkered reputation with regard to race, joining others to draft a landmark 1995 SBC resolution apologizing to African-Americans for past racism and vowing to eradicate all forms of racial prejudice from Southern Baptist life.
Land’s record on that front received a blemish in March, when he angered black Southern Baptists with comments on his weekly radio show defending George Zimmerman, later charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in an incident widely viewed as racial profiling. The ERLC trustee executive committee publicly reprimanded Land for “hurtful, irresponsible and racially charged words” and for failing to give proper on-air attribution for remarks read on his program that were written by others.
Land, in a letter published by Baptist Press, said while retiring from denominational work, he will continue to be involved in public policy advocacy.