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Dr. Richard Land announces retirement as head of Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

Aug 2, 2012

By Dave Andrusko

Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

In the hustle and bustle of a busy news day, I entirely missed the announcement that Dr. Richard Land will be retiring as president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention effective Oct. 23, 2013.

In a two-page letter to Richard Piles, acting chairman of the ERLC trustees, Land said he was announcing his retirement nearly 15 months in advance “so there will be plenty of time for an orderly transition for both the Commission and myself to the next phase of our respective future ministries.”

Dr. Land, a hugely popular and widely read author (he authored or co-authored eight books while ERLC president), has spoken at several National Right to Life conventions. It’s been my privilege to interview this man of towering intellect whose “has acted as an outspoken advocate among Southern Baptists for biblical positions on such issues as the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, marriage and race relations,” according to Tom Strode of Baptist Press. In 2005 Time Magazine named him as one of America’s 25 most influential evangelicals.

Dr. Land received a doctor of philosophy degree from Oxford University in England, a master of theology from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and a bachelor of arts from Princeton University.

I am linking to an article Dr. Land wrote on the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (Southern Baptists and Roe v. Wade: 30 Years Later). The Southern Baptist Convention is now so solidly pro-life, if you are not of a certain age you couldn’t image that “during the early years of the post-Roe era, some of those then in leadership positions within the denomination endorsed and furthered the ‘pro-choice’ abortion rights agenda,”  Land wrote, referring to language in a 2003 pro-life resolution.

Strode’s fine article (which can be read at www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=38392&ref=BPNews-RSSFeed0731) reminds the reader of what a leading role Dr. Land has played as a leading voice for Southern Baptists and other evangelicals not only on  various  life issues but in support of such positions as the accommodation of religious exercise in the public square and combating overseas religious persecution.

Amidst the sadness that Dr. Land will be retiring 25 years to the day he assumed the presidency of the ERLC is his assurance that, if anything, he may be busier.

He wrote that he “had received numerous inquires over the years about other places and means of service including public policy and media opportunities as well as  ministry and academic fields.” He added, “Until now, I have not felt freedom to consider such opportunities. God has now given me that freedom,” wrote Land.

Categories: Religious