The George Soros-linked Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) is pushing mass amnesty under the cloak of evangelicalism instead of representing the interests of Southern Baptist Churches who fund its existence.
In a letter sent to Congress, the ERLC claimed that the recently re-introduced DIGNITY Act is “necessary reform” to “protect our communities.” The DIGNITY Act would provide mass amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who broke the law by placing them in a twilight-legal status after they’ve paid a certain fee.
It’s terrible legislation — to say the least — but perhaps it is not surprising that ERLC would try to champion it.
The ERLC — the Southern Baptist churches’ policy and lobbying arm — was involved in the creation of the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT), which bills itself as “a national movement of Christians committed to learning more about what the Bible says about ‘welcoming the stranger,’ and living out these biblical principles.” The EIT previously backed an immigration bill in 2013 that, according to a report from the Heritage Foundation, would have “granted amnesty to some 11 million illegal immigrants.”
Currently, the EIT opposes mass deportations and has advocated for granting “a pathway to Legal Permanent Residency” for illegal aliens as long as they pay a fine and acknowledge they broke the law, as reported by The Federalist’s Elle Purnell.
EIT is also reportedly affiliated with the National Immigration Forum (NIF), a leftist-aligned 501(c)(3) bankrolled by Soros’ Open Society Foundations. In fact, The Soros group bragged in 2015 that “In the course of our work, we were able to generate engagement by … some conservative voices, such as evangelical Christians and Southern Baptists through grantee National Immigration Forum.”
As pointed out by reporter Megan Basham, EIT is merely “a front group for the secular, open borders lobbyist” NIF.
And, increasingly, ERLC has drawn the ire of religious leaders for its uselessness and divisiveness.
Just recently, former Southern Baptist Church President Jack Graham expressed support for defunding the ERLC, calling the organization “the single most divisive entity of the SBC since the days of [former ERLC President] Russell Moore.”
The SBC Executive Committee established a task force to evaluate the ERLC’s effectiveness. The task force found in 2021 that the ERLC is “a source of significant distraction from the Great Commission work of Southern Baptists.” Two main criticisms lodged at the ERLC, according to Purnell, are that it is “useless and ineffective on the right political issues, and that it actively devotes resources to the wrong ones.”
And just nine months ago, as pointed out by columnist and attorney Jon Whitehead, the ERLC promised that they would conduct an “Advocacy Assessment” questionnaire before taking any policy action.
According to the Advocacy Assessment, the ERLC considers factors such as whether they “have a biblical basis to speak,” whether “advocacy on this issue [will] upset certain segments of the SBC” and, “if yes, is it still necessary to take a position/say something?”
Other assessment questions include “What has been the historic position of the ERLC/CLC since the Conservative Resurgence” and whether the ERLC’s advocacy has “a chance to meaningfully advance issues of importance to the Southern Baptist Convention.”
And yet apparently the ERLC went through these questions and still determined that backing the DIGNITY Act is the right thing to do.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2