The past week has seen several notable statements of support for Dr. Moore’s continued leadership at the ERLC. We’ve covered most of them in individual posts but I thought it might be helpful to compile some of the most important here together.
- Yesterday morning, Matt Chandler tweeted a strong word of support: “
@drmoore was 1 of the reasons@villagechurchtx re engaged in Southern Baptist life. Hope they don’t now force out a man we love”. Chandler is another leader many younger Southern Baptists hold in high esteem and I haven’t known him to make many public statements about this kind of thing.
- Thursday Byron Day, president of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention expressed strong support for Dr. Moore. Day’s statement focused on the importance of unity for the SBC but also admiration for Dr. Moore. Day said: “Russell Moore has done nothing worthy of discipline or firing. He… has been outstanding as president of the ERLC… he has also addressed social injustices such as racism which have been long overlooked.”
- On Monday, Dwight McKissic’s post in support of Russell Moore went viral. By tomorrow night Dwight’s post will be the most-read post ever here at SBC Voices. McKissic explained how the current pressure being exerted through “escrowed” giving and Executive Committee actions to study the current situation made for an environment where black and other minority Southern Baptists were seriously reconsidering their involvement in SBC life – not directly because of Moore, but because of the political shift he perceives this pressure represents.
- Outside the SBC several Christian leaders have expressed support for Russell Moore recently, for example this piece by Kaitlyn Schiess titled “American Evangelicals Need Leaders Like Russell Moore“
- There are too many individual social media posts expressing support to individually reproduce here, but back in December, for example, Moore was coming under criticism and those expressing support through the hashtag #IStandWithMoore that Christianity Today reported on the situation with over 1,200 expressing their support over a couple of days on Twitter.
These are just some notable examples over the past week. I’ve had people ask me how they can show support for Dr. Moore. I wish we had some official way of doing so because I believe the response would be overwhelming. People just aren’t sure what would be effective—and to some extent they are trusting the system to deal effectively and diffuse the vocal critics who do not speak for so many of us.
I’m convinced that Dr. Moore remaining at the ERLC at this time is incredibly important for a number of reasons, but these recent examples highlight the pivotal role he plays in keeping the younger generation and ethnic minorities engaged in convention life. These are areas I think we’ve seen good (not perfect) progress over the past 10 years. And any direction other than onward would be the wrong choice for the SBC.
