Press Release  ERLC Announcements/News

SBC’s Richard Land comments on the passing of Foy Valentine

Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, commented on the recent passing of Dr. Foy Valentine, former president of the Christian Life Commission.

“The trustees and staff of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission extend our deepest sympathy to Dr. Foy Valentine’s family and friends as they mourn his passing. His loved ones will be in our prayers during this difficult time of loss.

“Dr. Valentine gave 27 years of faithful service to Southern Baptists as president of what was then known as the Christian Life Commission (now the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission). While Dr. Valentine and I had significant differences of opinion on many issues, all Southern Baptists will be forever in his debt for his courageous and prophetic stance on racial reconciliation and racial equality in the turbulent middle third of the 20th century.

“Personally, it was extremely important to me as a teenager in the 1960s that Dr. Valentine and the commission were on the right side of the race issue, when there were too many institutions and individuals in American life and Southern Baptist life who were on the wrong side.

“Dr. Valentine’s eloquent witness to the biblical truth that racism is a sinful rebellion against the biblical teaching of the equality of all men before the cross, regardless of their race, has earned him a significant place in the history of our denomination.”

The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest non-Catholic denomination with more than 16.3 million members in over 43,500 churches nationwide. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is the SBC’s ethics, religious liberty and public policy agency with offices in Nashville, Tenn., and Washington, D.C.



Related Content

supreme court

ERLC Files U.S. Supreme Court Legal Brief To Stop Gender Transition Surgeries for Minors

United States v. Skrmetti

NASHVILLE, Tenn., October 15, 2024 —The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern...

Read More

SBC President, ERLC Send Letters to Biden, Congress Urging Support for Israel Amid Escalating Conflict

Church Leaders

Read the full Church Leaders article here. Amid escalating military conflict between Israel and...

Read More
Baptist Press photo

Pressley, Leatherwood send letters to Biden, Congress in support of Israel

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE (BP) – Ethics & Religious Liberty President Brent Leatherwood and Southern Baptist Convention...

Read More
Support of Israel

Southern Baptist Leaders Urge President, Congress To Continue Support of Israel 

NASHVILLE, Tenn., October 2, 2024 —Brent Leatherwood, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty...

Read More

ERLC partners with Southern Baptist State Conventions on Abortion Ballot Initiative Resources Prior to 2024 Election

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 30, 2024 —The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern...

Read More

Trustees affirm Leatherwood, ERLC staff toward ‘greater sense of understanding’

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE (BP) — Ethics & Religious Liberty trustees issued a statement Sept. 10 affirming...

Read More