A Reformed Southern Baptist Church in Millington, Tennessee, has called on Ed Litton to resign in a statement released by the elders of the church condemning him for his unrepentant plagiarism.

In June 2021, Ed Litton was narrowly elected to serve as the Southern Baptist Convention’s president on the basis that he would oversee an investigation into the alleged covering up of sex abuse among the denomination’s entities–specifically, the Executive Committee. The investigation became a primary issue among Southern Baptist messengers at the annual meeting after former ERLC head, Russell Moore, dropped questionable, at best, accusations against the denomination. Almost a year later, the investigation has produced absolutely nothing.

On the other hand, within a few days of Litton’s election to the presidency, an investigation by Reformation Charlotte, Capstone Report, and several others produced a multitude of evidence of sinful and doctrinally aberrant behavior by Ed Litton stemming back multiple years. Breaking the story of Litton’s years-long plagiarism scandal was a report by Reformation Charlotte that found Litton had “borrowed” a phrase from JD Greear while preaching in Romans 1 claiming that the Bible only “whispers” about homosexuality compared to its “shouts” about other sins.

From there, several joined Reformation Charlotte in uncovering a years-long scandal of plagiarism by Ed Litton. Since then, several Southern Baptist pastors and churches have called on Litton to resign which has landed on deaf ears. The latest to join the increasing calls for Litton’s resignation is a Unity Baptist Church, a Reformed church in Millington, TN.

Below is a the statement released by the elders of Unity—which is pastored by Louis Brenton and Mark Driver—which can also be found on their website at this link:

February 24, 2022

Dr. Ed Litton is the pastor of Redemption Church in Mobile, Alabama.  In June of 2021 he was elected as the 63^rd President of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Within weeks of his election, videos began appearing on YouTube that demonstrated with certainty that Dr. Litton participated in a long ongoing pattern of plagiarism of other men’s sermons.  Links to evidence about this behavior and discussion regarding it may be found here.  Since these initial revelations, Redemption Church has pulled down more than 100 videos from their sermon archive.  Dr. Litton has consistently refused to take ownership of the magnitude of this sin or to truly confess the scope of this sin and express repentance of it.

Plagiarism is the act of stealing other people’s work and then presenting it as your own.  It includes the sins of theft and dishonesty.  In addition, it shows that Dr. Litton has not been faithful in fulfilling his pastoral duties at his church. 

Dr. Litton’s behavior brings reproach to Redemption Church.  In addition, he brings reproach to the Southern Baptist Convention, as he is the chief public representative of our convention.  Lastly and most importantly, Dr. Litton’s behavior brings reproach to the reputation of our great Savior. 

This is the kind of sin that even non-believers know is wrong.  Dr. Litton’s behavior has been widely reported upon by secular news networks, so that the name of Christ and His church is being derided.  Dr. Litton should clearly be considered disqualified to hold his office as a local pastor.  Even more so, he should not be considered qualified to represent the entire Southern Baptist Convention. 

In light of these facts, the Elders of Unity Baptist Church issue these public callings:

1.We call upon Dr. Ed Litton to take public ownership of the full scale of these offenses, confess them, repent of them, and resign immediately from his office as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

2.We call upon our nearest local Baptist Associations (Mid-South Baptist Association & Big Hatchie Baptist Association) to publicly denounce Dr. Litton and to call for his immediate resignation.  We further extend this call to all local Baptist Associations.

3. We call upon our state association, the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, to publicly denounce Dr. Litton and to call for his immediate resignation.  We further extend this call to all state associations. 

4. We call upon the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention to publicly denounce Dr. Litton and to call for his immediate resignation. 

5. We call upon the Presidents of each of the Southern Baptist Seminaries and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary to publicly denounce Dr. Litton and to call for his immediate resignation.

In the meantime, we pledge to pray for Dr. Litton’s repentance and for the good of his church and call upon our fellow Southern Baptists to do likewise.

–The Elders of Unity Baptist Church