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Southern Baptist Leader Richard Land Loses Radio Show Over Trayvon Martin Comments

  • Religion Today Religious persecution, missions, Christianity around the world
  • Updated Jun 04, 2012

Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leader Richard Land, who was accused of plagiarism in a radio segment in which he said civil rights leaders and President Obama had used the Trayvon Martin case to stir racial tensions and boost the president's reelection chances, received two official reprimands for his comments and will lose his weekly program, Christianity Today reports. Land, the head of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the denomination's top policy spokesman, has apologized twice for his commentary on the controversial shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida. His comments provoked demands by some black Southern Baptist leaders for his censure, but many, including Fred Luter, who is expected to become the denomination's first African-American president this month, have accepted the apologies. The ERLC trustee committee, whose chairman resigned during the investigation, said "damage was done to the state of race relations in the Southern Baptist Convention" by Land's comments. "We must now redouble our efforts to regain lost ground, to heal re-opened wounds, and to realize the dream of a Southern Baptist Convention that is just as diverse as the population of our great nation," a trustee statement said.