Barrett Duke, Ph.D.
Barrett Duke is Vice President for Public Policy and Research and Director of the Research Institute of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the Southern Baptist Convention’s agency for “applied Christianity” (social and moral concerns). He has been with the agency since 1997.
As Vice President for Public Policy and Research, Barrett directs the work of the ERLC’s advocacy arm in Washington, DC. In this capacity he communicates Southern Baptist convictions to elected and public officials in order to influence the development of sound public policy. Barrett participates in numerous coalitions in D.C., and he chaired the National Coalition for Religious Freedom and Human Rights, a group of ideologically diverse organizations working to influence domestic and foreign policy practices to bring relief to persecuted and exploited people around the world. The coalition has focused on human trafficking in the United States, U.S. asylum legislation, persecution of minority faith groups around the world, sex trafficking, and attempts to legalize prostitution. As Director of the Commission’s Research Institute, Barrett oversees the Commission’s research and the collection of data on a broad range of moral and religious liberty subjects. Barrett is a Founding Fellow of the Research Institute and works with a group of distinguished Fellows who gather twice a year to share research on today’s crucial moral and religious liberty issues. Under Barrett’s leadership, the group has produced material on such issues as stem cell research, same-sex marriage, global warming, and religious liberty.
Barrett has worked with legislators and various government agencies on many legislative and public policy issues, including abortion, euthanasia, gambling, global warming, homosexuality, judicial nominations, pornography, public education, religious liberty, sex trafficking, stem cell research, and substance abuse. He speaks regularly on the sanctity of human life, gambling, homosexuality, capital punishment, public education, religious freedom, separation of church and state, and other issues in many religious and civic settings. He is also co-Chairman of the Cornwall Stewardship Agenda Task Force, organized within the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, to help translate the broad principles of the Cornwall Declaration on the environment into specific public policy recommendations.
Barrett also has an active writing ministry. His pamphlets on casino and lottery gambling have sold over 100,000 copies. His articles on gambling and the environment have appeared in the Commission’s publication, Light. He is the author of the article “Capital Punishment” in the Holman Bible Dictionary. He is co-author with Dr. Richard Land of “Fatherhood in the Evangelical Tradition” in The Faith Factor in Fatherhood. His article “The Prolife High Ground: Effective Responses to Prochoice Arguments,” appeared in the Fall 2002 edition of the Single Adult Learner Guide published by Lifeway Christian Resources. He is author of “The Christian Doctrine of Religious Liberty” in the volume First Freedom: The Baptist Perspective on Religious Liberty and “Being Salt and Light in a Post-Christian Culture” in the volume The Mission of Today’s Church. He also translated several Old Testament books for the Holman Christian Standard Bible and contributed notes for the Broadman and Holman Apologetics Study Bible.
Barrett has participated in church denominational life in numerous capacities. He was President of the Denver Association Pastor’s Conference from 1992 to 1993. He served on the Board of Trustees of the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in San Francisco from 1991 to 1996. Barrett also served on the Seminary Extension Task Force for Colorado, which established a permanent satellite school of the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado. Prior to moving to the Washington, DC area, he was an adjunct professor of Old Testament for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s extension school in Nashville. He also taught Old Testament and Hebrew at the Denver Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary for four years, and he has been a guest lecturer in ethics at numerous Southern Baptist seminaries and colleges.
Barrett received the BA degree, with a major in Bible (summa cum laude), in 1982 from the Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. During his years at the Criswell College, he served as Student Body Vice President and President. He received the MA degree, with honors, in Old Testament Studies in 1985 from Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary in Denver, Colorado. While at Denver Seminary, he participated in a 3 week study tour of Israel at the Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem, Israel. In 1999, he received the Ph.D. in Religious and Theological Studies from the joint doctoral program of the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver.
Prior to his current position, Barrett was the founding pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, from 1984 to 1996. During this time, he led a small home Bible study group of 13 people to organize as a church of nearly 200. In addition, he led the congregation to purchase 8 acres of land and build a first phase church building.
Barrett grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been married to the former Denise Irene Young since 1982. They have 3 children: Grace, 21; Barrett, 19; and Robert, 16. They are active members of Weems Creek Baptist Church in Annapolis, MD, where Barrett and Denise both teach Bible classes and serve in numerous ways.