Russell Moore’s disdain for Robert E. Lee is not surprising. While the former ERLC president rightly condemned expressions of white supremacy, he went out of his way to criticize President Trump, and to criticize Christians for supporting him. Many might not know that Dr. Moore has been a professional Democrat. He was an aide to Congressman Gene Taylor (D-Miss), before he entered the ministry. Numerous observers, Jon Harris among them, believe Moore’s ties to the Democrat party and its policies have remained strong and evident, even though they obviously haven’t been as overt.
Robert A. J. Gagnon, a professor of theology at Houston Baptist University, has strongly criticized Moore for opposing Trump and failing to see the big picture, including the very real dangers to American freedom and liberty posed by Democrats. Gagnon said,
The real threat to the Republic and to its Constitution is coming from the Dem Party but Moore is too blind, for whatever reason, to see it. He has done his best to insure that the Party that poses the greatest threat to religious liberty by far would get elected. That’s why he shouldn’t be President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
On February 1 of this year, a task force charged with studying the effect of the ERLC on churches’ gifts to the Cooperative Program released a report indicating the organization was a major reason some churches have withheld or reduced their giving. (Dr. Moore led the ERLC from 2013 until shortly before the SBC met in Nashville, Tennessee in June of 2021.) The report cited numerous complaints directed at Moore and the ERLC, including the commission’s being “critical of protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol but not of Black Lives Matter protests.”
This page is part of a larger article at Word Foundations.