The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) is, at this point, nothing more than a self-righteous speed bump on the road to actual justice. And at the helm of this sputtering, compromised machine sits Brent Leatherwood, the kind of soft-handed bureaucrat who would rather offer moral platitudes than wield the sword of justice.

This is the man who, time and time again, has worked to kneecap real anti-abortion efforts under the guise of “strategy.” The man who, rather than pushing for an uncompromising end to child murder, has instead spent his time crafting open letters to politicians and advocating for “nuance”—which in this case, is just another word for cowardice.

The ERLC, an entity ostensibly meant to defend biblical ethics, has devolved into a tepid think tank of moral pragmatists who lack the spine to do what’s necessary to effect any real change. If abortion is murder—and it is—then murder demands justice.

But that is precisely what the ERLC refuses to seek. Instead, they operate on the same rhetorical treadmill that the Democratic Party ran on for decades—offering meaningless social programs in exchange for keeping babies alive, while fundamentally opposing actual legal penalties for those who seek to kill them.

And while their verbose justifications for their compromised abortion policies are steeped in sophistry and casuistry, the logical conclusion of their position essentially boils down to the same tired refrain: “safe, legal, and rare.”

Now, in their latest exercise in moral evasion, the ERLC has released Created in the Image of God: A Practical Guide to Building a Culture of Life—a title as hollow as the content within it. If you were expecting a blueprint for abolishing abortion, you’d be sorely mistaken. Instead, this guide is little more than a limp-wristed attempt to manage abortion rather than eradicate it.

Here’s a snippet of Q&A #2:

The ERLC’s approach to abortion is the equivalent of “harm reduction”—a little bit of regulation here, a little bit of funding for pregnancy centers there—without ever taking the obvious step of criminalizing child murder. But perhaps the most grotesque, soul-rotting argument in this entire document is this jaw-dropping display of moral illogic:

“Criminalization laws may pose problems for the real-world volunteers who serve in pregnancy resource centers, requiring them to be mandatory reporters if someone discloses that they are considering an abortion. If that were to occur, then PRCs would likely be less able to serve these women because they would be viewed with suspicion.”

Let’s translate that into plain English: If we actually treated abortion like murder, pregnancy resource centers might not be as “welcoming” to women considering killing their children. That’s the concern. Not the butchered infants. Not the millions of lives snuffed out in sanitized clinics. No, the ERLC is worried that PRCs might have to—gasp!—report a woman plotting to kill her child.

Would they ever make this argument in any other context? Would the ERLC dare to say, “Well, if we criminalize the murder of two-year-olds, then crisis intervention centers might have to report parents who say they want to kill their toddler, and that might make those parents less likely to seek counseling!”

Of course not!

Because everyone still has at least a sliver of moral clarity when it comes to born children. But when it comes to the unborn? Suddenly, justice must take a back seat to “outreach.”

The ERLC is no different than the corporate “pro-life” industry that thrives on perpetual compromise. The reality is this, if abortion were abolished tomorrow—if it were prosecuted as murder—thousands of pro-life organizations, lobbyists, and politicians would be out of a job.

Millions, if not billions, of dollars flow through this industry, and nothing threatens that cash cow more than actually winning the fight.

It’s a sick irony—the very people who claim to be fighting abortion have every incentive not to see it abolished. If abortion were truly treated as homicide, the entire pro-life industrial complex would collapse overnight. No more expensive galas. No more DC lobbying firms raking in donations. No more ERLC guides offering endless discussions about abortion while opposing anything that would actually end it.

What the ERLC has produced here is not a guide to “building a culture of life.” It is a prolongation strategy—a way to keep abortion going just long enough to justify the continued existence of pro-life organizations, without ever taking the one step that would actually make abortion unthinkable … criminalizing it.

The cowardice is staggering. The hypocrisy is nauseating. The deception is obvious to anyone with eyes to see.

Abolitionists aren’t asking for the moon. We are simply asking that the unborn be given the same legal protections as born children. That’s it. But even that is too much for the ERLC, because real justice would interfere with their political calculations.

This guide is not a strategy for ending abortion. It is a roadmap for managing its continued existence. And any pastor, church, or organization that clings to it as a “biblical” approach should ask themselves:

Would I be making this same argument if the victims were born children?

If the answer is no, then the position is indefensible. Period.

There is no middle ground. Either abortion is murder, or it isn’t. Either we abolish it, or we don’t. The ERLC has made its choice and has chosen compromise over conviction, cowardice over courage, and politics over principle. And for that, it deserves nothing but contempt.