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    Baptist Leader Richard Land to Retire After Ethics Probe

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    Baptist Leader Richard Land to Retire After Ethics Probe Empty Baptist Leader Richard Land to Retire After Ethics Probe

    Post by Revealer August 23rd 2012, 6:06 am

    The Adventist Review shares the following world news from Religion News Service as a service to readers. Opinions expressed in these reports do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Review or the Seventh-day Adventist Church. -- Editors

    Baptist Leader Richard Land
    to Retire After Ethics Probe

    BY ADELLE M. BANKS ©2012 Religion News Service

    Richard Land, the man who became the public face of the Southern Baptist Convention on ethical and political issues for nearly 25 years, has announced plans to retire in 2013 after a rough-and-tumble spring.

    The decision comes months after Land, president of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, made controversial comments about the Trayvon Martin case that resulted in a reprimand and the loss of his radio talk show for the racial tension they caused.

    Land, 65, said in a July 31 letter announcing his retirement that he has no intention of ending his role as a culture warrior.

    "I believe the 'culture war' is a titanic spiritual struggle for our nation's soul and as a minister of Christ's Gospel, I have no right to retire from that struggle," Land wrote in a two-page letter to the acting chairman of his commission.

    The Rev. Fred Luter, who was elected in June as the SBC's first African-American president, said he doesn't believe Land was forced out by church leaders. "If there was a time they wanted to force him out, it would have been when they made their decision," Luter said Wednesday, referring to the June reprimand by the commission's executive committee.

    Rather, Luter considers the Martin remarks a "low moment" that should not diminish Land's commitment to racial reconciliation, especially the 1995 SBC resolution the two men worked on apologizing for Southern Baptists' support of slavery during the Civil War era.

    "Richard was very passionate in those meetings about the fact that we do not just want this to be a piece of paper, a resolution; we want it to mean something," Luter recalled of their work together. "I will always remember him as a man who was a major voice in our convention desiring that people would be treated fairly regardless of their race."

    Critics suspect that Land's departure was expedited by his controversial comments about the case involving the unarmed Florida teen who was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer.

    "Despite Land's best efforts to spin his retirement, he's not going out on top," wrote Josh Glasstetter on People for the American Way's "Right Wing Watch" blog. "After two decades of pushing divisive, hard-right politics and making inflammatory remarks, he finally went too far."

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