An Open Letter To Governor Bill Lee

Governor Lee,

I hope this finds you and your loved ones well. I’m writing to you today to encourage you to ignore all of the manipulative rhetoric on gun legislation aimed at you from Brent Leatherwood, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Convention.

I was compelled to write after reading Leatherwood pretend that he represented the considerable number of Southern Baptists among the population of our state and country. The reality is that the regularly-attending members of Southern Baptist churches not only dislike but even openly despise Leatherwood and the subversive element he represents within Southern Baptist life. I have been a member of Southern Baptist churches in Tennessee for multiple decades, in various parts of the state, since my conversion as a child. I can tell you in full confidence that the vast, vast majority of Southern Baptists I personally know and speak with regularly have no confidence in Leatherwood or the ERLC. Southern Baptists who pay attention to the events of our Convention view Leatherwood as an enemy, both to sincere Christian faith and the good of our neighbors. Those Southern Baptists I know who do not share this opinion of Leatherwood and the ERLC are almost exclusively direct beneficiaries, most often financially, of the funding pool that pays Leatherwood’s salary and evidence strong incentive to agree with whatever it is he says at any given moment.

I would strongly encourage you to join the countless church-going Southern Baptists who see through Leatherwood’s posturing and manipulative rhetoric to the craven operative he functions as and reject his so-called leadership as soon as it is put on offer. Leatherwood’s class of career evangelicals function to subvert Christian institutions built by men and women who love Christ and want to see His goodness distributed broadly. Leatherwood is a disciple of, and appears to largely take his instructions from, Russell Moore who is himself no friend to Christianity as it has been understood historically by the faithful. My hope is that you would view Leatherwood and the ERLC with, at minimum, great skepticism when they attempt to leverage a relationship they do not actually have with the church-going population of our state.

All my best to you and you are in our church’s prayers regularly.

Jeff Wright
Pastor