Other Christian Leaders Offer Support for the ERLC
Alan Rogers, pastor of New Salem Baptist Church in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, offered his take on the issue. In a thread on X earlier this month, he wrote:
I’m just about [as] average an SBC pastor as there is. I serve a normative-size church in a small Southern town. But I’ve followed the ERLC for years, & I was part of the group invited to D.C. recently for an up-close look. What I saw amazed me… We’re told the ERLC is irrelevant & ineffective. Yet I found myself in meetings with some of Congress’ most influential people. Their relationships with ERLC staff appeared genuine. Only the most fevered conspiracist would believe that these meetings were fake.…
Though we are told that the ERLC does not work well with other Christian groups in D.C., we met with both a Focus on the Family VP and an Ethics & Public Policy Center scholar who praised the ERLC as a valued partner. From what I’ve observed & overheard…I could believe in the past the ERLC may have neglected its D.C. relationships in favor of other priorities. But that time is not now.
As a former Capitol Hill staffer, Brent Leatherwood is uniquely suited to guide the ERLC in restoring those relationships. Understand that…the ERLC was intended for advocacy, not activism. The more I hear from its critics, the more I conclude their criticism is intended to subvert the ERLC or remove it as a roadblock to other agendas. I pray the messengers in Dallas see this attack for what it is & vote it down.
Tim Goeglein, vice president of external and government relations for Focus on the Family, also praised the ERLC. “In this dynamic and fluid time in the public square in Washington,” he said, “working with the ERLC and other comrades and allies who share our worldview in support of marriage, family, parenting, and human life has never been more timely or relevant.”
 is “a mess” that has “lost the confidence of Southern Baptists” and “alienated lots of people.”){kind=link}