Southern Baptists get a new face on public policy

In a generational changing of the guard, Southern Baptists are gaining a new advocate for their values in Washington and around the country as Russell Moore, a media-savvy theologian, takes the helm of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. The ERLC is the public policy arm for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Moore is taking over from Richard Land, who has headed the ERLC since 1988 and used it as a platform to rally social conservatives in the nation’s culture wars. Like Land, Moore is an abortion opponent, a believer in an errorless Bible and a fan of Coke Zero.

It’s clear that Moore, age 41, is part of a new era. While Land, now 66, has been computer-averse, Moore is a frequent blogger and sometimes tweets more than a dozen times a day. Moore, a Mississippi native, is a fan of country music and Christian hip-hop; Land, a sixth-generation Texan, favors Elvis and the Beatles.