After key Baptist leader applauds Biden’s withdrawal, agency retracts announcement of his firing

In under 48 hours, the head of the staunchly conservative public-policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention rankled fellow Baptists by applauding President Biden’s “selfless act” of withdrawing his candidacy for reelection.

Then his agency reported he was fired — and now it has reaffirmed his leadership.

The head-spinning series of events started Sunday, but by Tuesday morning, the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission announced that leader Brent Leatherwood wasn’t fired. Rather, he has the full support of his top board members — though its chairman resigned amid the agency’s retraction.

On Monday, the commission issued a statement that the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s executive committee had removed Mr. Leatherwood in accordance with its bylaws.

But on Tuesday, it said, “There was not an authorized meeting, vote, or action taken by the Executive Committee. Kevin Smith has resigned as Chair of the Executive Committee.”

Mr. Leatherwood “has our support moving forward,” the executive committee statement said.

Mr. Leatherwood posted on X Tuesday morning: “I deeply appreciate everyone who has reached out, especially our trustees who were absolutely bewildered at what took place yesterday and jumped in to set the record straight.”

Mr. Leatherwood had led the embattled agency through three years as the policy spokesman for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, but he had not joined in the increasingly public support among many Southern Baptists for former President Donald Trump.

After Mr. Biden’s announcement Sunday that he would not seek reelection, Mr. Leatherwood called it a “selfless act.”

“We should all express our appreciation that President Biden has put the needs of the nation above his personal ambition,” Mr. Leatherwood said.

Mr. Leatherwood’s statement prompted fierce blowback on social media from some within the denomination who had already targeted his agency for criticism amid a larger battle to pull the already conservative denomination even further to the right.

Clint Pressley, the newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, joined in the criticism of the idea that Mr. Biden acted on principle.

“Sounds right,” Mr. Pressley posted on X in response to a post by a Southern Baptist professor. That professor, Andrew Walker, said Mr. Biden’s withdrawal was not an “act of valor” but rather a case of “ultra-powerful” Democrats forcing him out.

Mr. Leatherwood came to his job three years ago with conservative credentials. He was a former executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party. He was also a director of communications and policy strategy in the Tennessee General Assembly and worked for several years on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Mr. Leatherwood is the father of three children who were at the Covenant School in Nashville, last year when it was attacked by a gun-wielding assailant who killed three adults and three other children. Mr. Leatherwood joined some other Covenant parents in an unsuccessful effort to advocate for legislation that would keep firearms away from people who could harm themselves or others.

Mr. Leatherwood also denounced the publication in some news media of documents attributed to the killer, saying that it only worsened the trauma to families of the schoolchildren. He was also the driving force behind a group of Covenant parents who went to court to keep the shooter’s writings from being released to media and other groups that had filed public records requests. A judge recently blocked the release of the writings.

Mr. Leatherwood and his agency had advocated staunchly conservative stances in areas such as opposing abortion, in keeping with official Southern Baptist stances, though he resisted calls by some to advocate legal penalties for women who seek abortions.

At this year’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, hundreds attended an unofficial event featuring a video-recorded address by Trump.

But Mr. Leatherwood hosted a separate event, also attended by hundreds, in which he interviewed former Vice President Mike Pence, another staunch conservative who received the wrath of Mr. Trump and many of the former president’s followers after he refused to use his role to block certification of Mr. Biden’s 2020 election victory.