Southern Baptist leader Richard Land to retire after ethics probe

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 Tuesday (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.
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