Chicago-style politics has been a term used to describe the corrupt nature of the machine politics that has plagued the city of Chicago for decades and driven the once-thriving city into complete despair. This form of politics, motivated by self-interest with the purpose of advancing an agenda, is natural to the animal-like instincts of the unregenerate, God-hating world.

But what happens when this perversion invades the Church?

Reformation Charlotte has covered for years–dating back to at least 2013 even prior to when Reformation Charlotte existed–the far-left political agenda of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) head, Russell Moore. Moore, a former Democratic staffer, took office at the ERLC in 2013 after Richard Land was ousted for not being woke enough.

Since Moore took office, it has become increasingly clear that his Democrat politics was his driving motivation for the advancement of his ideology in the Southern Baptist Convention. Whether it be Moore’s breaking bread with the gay community, his softening tone on homosexuality, referring to Jesus as an “illegal alien,” promotion and teaching of inherent “white guilt” by sole virtue of skin color, yoking with Democrat and socialist groups, serving as an editor for a Catholic magazine, coddling the transgender community, partnering with animal rights groups and referring to animal rights as a “gospel issue,” fighting for the right to build an Islamic mosque, accepting donations from billionaire leftists like George Soros to advance open-borders and amnesty, publishing articles claiming that the Bible affirms gender fluidity, or making the absolutely asinine claim that Western culture is demonic, one thing is for certain, Russell Moore‘s agenda wasn’t just social justice, but overtly progressive; Russell Moore is a Democrat acting like a Democrat.

As you’re already aware, the far-left political and theological activist, Russell Moore, the most influential leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, resigned from his post to join the apostate ranks of Billy Graham’s magazine, Christianity Today. Accusing his critics of being “child molesters” and “racial bigots,” Moore attempted to pin his resignation on the denomination’s lack of action against “rampant sex abuse” rather than the growing disdain against him for his far-left political activism.

In a leaked letter from Moore to the ERLC Board of Trustees, Moore bashed the denomination and accused his critics of wanting to fire him because of his work in the denomination against sexual abuse. “The lazy journalistic assessment would be that this is about the President of the United States,” Moore writes. “This has nothing to do with that.”

He then goes on to let the board know what it is really about, writing that the “presenting issue here is that, first and foremost, of sexual abuse.” He continued, “This Executive Committee, through their bylaws workgroup, ‘exonerated’ churches, in a spur-of-the-moment meeting, from serious charges of sexual abuse cover-up.”

After bashing several churches and leaders throughout several paragraphs of this letter, he then summarized his reason for leaving as not wanting to provide cover for these people.

When God called me to himself in Jesus, and when he called me to serve him in ministry, he called me to stand for the truth, to point the way to the kingdom, to die to self, and to carry the cross. He did not call me to provide cover for racial bigotry and child molestation. I will not do that. I love the Southern Baptist Convention, and am a faithful son of the Southern Baptist Convention. I do not believe the people of the Southern Baptist Convention want me to do that, at least that’s not how they have acted in their votes when they are assembled together in national convention. But a small group in the shadows do want me to do that. They want me to be afraid of them. They want you to be afraid of them.

Now, serious allegations against Russell Moore from an ERLC trustee, Jonathan Whitehead–also a licensed and practicing attorney–for corruption have come to light. Whitehead, who is considered to be the whistleblower in this scandal, alleged in his own 12-page letter to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee (EC) that Moore’s action in leaking this (Moore’s) letter was nothing more than a political hit job.

Moore’s “leaked letter” was revealed just prior to the SBC annual meeting where the current SBC president, Ed Litton–who is now overseeing the scam that is the “sex abuse cover-up investigation”–ran against a staunch Russell Moore critic who also happened to be on the board at the Executive Committee (which had conducted an investigation into Russell Moore), Mike Stone.

Whitehead’s (the whistleblower) letter reads, “Dr. Russell Moore and Dr. David Prince (the ERLC Board Chair) consciously concealed the claims in Dr. Moore’s February 2020 letter from the ERLC Trustees, until it was leaked by an ERLC trustee to the media in May 2021.”

The whistleblower’s letter alleges that Russell Moore concealed multiple claims about alleged sex abuse from the Executive Committee because he didn’t really care about–or actually believe any of it–until it became politically expedient for him to do so. Once Moore realized that there was growing pressure for him to resign, he retaliated by having one of his trustees leak this letter with alleged claims of child molestation cover-ups in an effort to retaliate against Mike Stone.

“What I am opposed to is sitting on allegations of abuse for political ends, and then deceiving legal authorities who should know about them – apparently out of a mix of pride and revenge,” Whitehead continued.

“Dr. Prince recently told me the February 2020 letter was withheld from the full board because Dr. Moore had written it in the heat of the moment,” Whitehead claims. “Dr. Moore ‘got over it’ in a few days or weeks and Prince believed ERLC’s Trustees didn’t need to know about the letter or act on it in September 2020 – or at any point after.”

Whitehead alleges then that Russell Moore and ERLC chairman, David Prince, deceptively withheld Moore’s “leaked letter” with the allegations of sex abuse and child molestation intentionally for the purpose of aggravating the alleged situation and putting the messengers at the annual meeting in a tight spot.

“Who could read about allegations about a culture of “cover for racial bigotry and child molestation” and fail to act?” Whitehead contends. “But instead of acting on the facts, the claims were hidden from the ERLC’s full board.”

“The blatant deception admitted by this response leads me to conclude that the letters were not designed for action by the ERLC Board; they were written and leaked to shake messenger trust and confidence at an SBC annual meeting,” Whitehead asserts. “The leak avoided disclosure to fiduciaries and a dispassionate investigation, because the goal was to deprive the Convention of confidence in its entire fiduciary system.”

Whitehead further alleged that the “ERLC itself was resistant to sexual abuse reform initiatives” and that the staff believed that the SBC and ERLC would be unable to satisfy the demands of some of the victims. “But Rachel Denhollander they viewed as a kind of compromise advocate whom they could work with,” he wrote.

If the allegations made against Russell Moore, David Prince, and his other cohorts are true–and based on reputation, there is no reason to believe otherwise–this should raise serious concerns about the continuance and productivity of the Southern Baptist Convention. Churches should seriously consider whether or not it’s worth it to continue to partake in such a corrupt organization from top to bottom.

This is the kind of politics that landed Rod Blagojevich in prison. And even though Russell Moore is no longer part of the Southern Baptist Convention, the culture he created thrives and his legacy lives on.