Stone believes that Moore was behind these leaks and that they were part of a concerted effort to ensure Stone did not win the SBC presidency. This belief served as the basis for his legal complaint against Moore, as Stone has denied that he had done anything to impeded sexual abuse investigations within the SBC.
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By the time of the 2021 SBC presidential race, Moore had resigned his post at ERLC to join Christianity Today as the director of the Public Theology Project. Moore had also left the SBC personally, making a move to join a nondenominational church.
Stone voluntarily withdrew his complaint against Russell Moore, which he filed on October 18. U.S. District Court Judge William Campbell dismissed the complaint without prejudice on Friday, leaving the door open for Stone to come back to the court with the complaint at a later time, should he choose.
It is not clear what led Stone to withdraw his complaint, or if he intends to revisit the allegations therein at a later date.
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ChurchLeaders has reached out to both Mike Stone and Russell Moore and will update this article in the event of their response.
