You're fired! Well, on second thought
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In a terse statement on Monday night, the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm announced a sudden, surprising personnel change.
Brent Leatherwood, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission president, had been "removed" from the position, an essential firing that came less than 24 hours after he made statements applauding President Joe Biden's decision not to seek reelection.
By Tuesday morning, everything had changed.
Leatherwood wasn't going anywhere, the ERLC's executive committee said, retracting its statement that the president had ever been terminated.
By the time the retraction went public, Kevin Smith had resigned as the ERLC's executive committee chair and from its board. In a since-deleted social media statement, Smith apologized for making a "consequential procedural mistake."
"There was no vote taken," the ERLC said in a statement. "His decision to unilaterally act was outside of his authority as board chair. As such, the termination was illegitimate, and thus there was not, as has been reported, a ‘reinstatement’ of Brent Leatherwood as president. He was never terminated."
Leatherwood praised Biden not for his liberal politics, which Leatherwood has consistently criticized, but for the decision not to seek reelection and effectively walk away from power. Leatherwood called that a "rare" and "selfless" act rarely seen in a political sphere rife with personal ambition.
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Wrestle with pigs…
