In a terse statement on Monday night, the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm announced a sudden, surprising personnel change.
Brent Leatherwood, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission president, had been "removed" from the position, an essential firing that came less than 24 hours after he made statements applauding President Joe Biden's decision not to seek reelection.
By Tuesday morning, everything had changed.
Leatherwood wasn't going anywhere, the ERLC's executive committee said, retracting its statement that the president had ever been removed. There was no "authorized meeting, vote, or action" taken in Leatherwood's now-invalidated ouster.
"Brent Leatherwood remains the President of the ERLC and has our support moving forward," the executive committee said in an early morning statement.
By the time the retraction went public, Kevin Smith had resigned as the ERLC's executive committee chair and from its board. In a since-deleted social media statement, Smith apologized for making a "consequential procedural mistake."
