Prominent SBC Pastor, Willy Rice, Calls for the Elimination of the ERLC, Compares Them to Adulterers
It’s not every day that a high-profile Southern Baptist pastor calls out the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) for being little more than a sanctimonious public relations firm. But that’s precisely what happened when Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, pulled no punches in his recent interview with the Center for Baptist Leadership.
Rice, a former SBC presidential candidate who has demonstrated himself to be a man of integrity following a scandal that he has said opened his eyes to the reality behind the deep state pulling the strings in the SBC. He now says that the ERLC’s recent attempts at damage control—namely, opposing Planned Parenthood—are as absurd as a cheating husband thinking that flowers from Walgreens will erase years of infidelity and gambling away the family fortune.
In his words: “It kind of reminds me of the guy... who cheats on his wife and he's been caught in three or four affairs and he blew the family inheritance on gambling. And so he thinks he's going to stop at Walgreens and buy flowers on the way home and make it all right. I mean, you just want to go, brother, you're way beyond Walgreens here. You've got a mess and it's got to be cleaned up.”
Ouch. That’s not just criticism—that’s a full-scale indictment. And he’s right.
What the ERLC has become is an exercise in institutional arrogance. For years, they’ve cultivated an air of superiority, looking down their noses at rank-and-file Baptists as if the ERLC’s moral compass spins at a higher altitude. And yet, as Rice rightly points out, the confidence of Southern Baptists in the ERLC is “shook” and “has been lost.”
But don’t worry, the ERLC’s solution is to embark on a PR tour, cozying up to senators and pretending they’re still relevant. A little public opposition to Planned Parenthood here, a scripted statement there—maybe that will make Baptists forget the decade of division they’ve wrought.