Richard Land Apologizes Again For Trayvon Martin Comments After Meeting Black Southern Baptists

FILE - In this July 14, 2010 file photo, Richard Land, president, Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law hearing on the ethical imperative for reform of our immigration system. Land condemns the response of many black leaders to the Trayvon Martin case as “shameful.” Some black pastors within the natio

By Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

(RNS) Southern Baptist leader Richard Land has issued a lengthy public apology for his racially charged comments about the Trayvon Martin case, and said he has sent a personal letter to President Obama seeking forgiveness.

Land, who leads the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, issued the two-page apology Wednesday (May 9), a week after a five-hour meeting with African-American leaders and other Southern Baptist officials.

Because of that meeting, "I have come to understand in sharper relief how damaging my words were," he wrote in the statement released through his denomination's news service.

Land had previously apologized for his comments, which charged Democrats and civil rights leaders with exploiting the killing of the unarmed Florida teen. He also has apologized for failing to attribute the material he used when discussing the case on his radio show.

The latest apology included references to his "insensitivity" towards Martin's family, and a clarification that "racial profiling is a heinous injustice" and that he does not believe U.S. racism is a myth.

Land also confessed that he "impugned the motives" of President Obama and civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

"It was unchristian and unwise for me to have done so," he wrote, adding that he sent them letters of apology asking for forgiveness. "God alone is the searcher of men's hearts. I cannot know what motivated them in their comments in this case."

An investigatory committee is looking into charges that some of Land's comments may have been plagiarized. In a Wednesday statement, Steve Faith, chairman of the ERLC's trustees, said ERLC leaders expect to make a public statement about the probe by June 1.

"The trustees are aware of their responsibility to the Convention and to the watching world," Faith said.

The meeting with Land included Fred Luter, the New Orleans pastor expected to be elected in June as the SBC's first African-American president; leaders of black Southern Baptist groups and two former SBC presidents, Frank Page and Paige Patterson.

Ed Stetzer, a researcher for the Southern Baptist Convention who criticized Land's comments, said he was grateful that black Southern Baptist leaders confronted Land, and wished more white leaders had spoken up.

"I am very glad that Dr. Land listened to them and apologized," Stetzer wrote Wednesday on his blog.

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Comments

[doctorw2]

12:37 PM on 06/04/2012

when Christ comes back a lot of so called christians are going to fry.

[mark051956]

08:59 AM on 05/31/2012

There is no place for bigotry and racism, especially among a supposedly Christian faith group. If the Southern baptist group is serious about this issue, Richard land should be removed from his position to send a strong signal this kind of behavior simply will not be accepted in todays world. It won't happen, of course.

[Christian Cantwell]

08:58 PM on 05/28/2012

The apology was as superficial as a bandaid over a deep and festering wound. This man is not truly sorry,just sorry his comment drew a firestorm of criticism. But nothing surprises me about evil rhetoric done in the name of God. Even slavemasters claimed to be men of God, raping, torturing, and denying basic human rights to those in captivity. Early pilgrims to America claimed to men of religion,eventually inflicting unspeakable evil acts upon the Indians. There has always been evil done in the name of God. The Bible even speaks of false "prophets" in the last days. Desmond Tutu once stated " They taught the slave Christianity, and when he kneeled to pray, he arose in shackles."

[jsgaetano]

02:05 PM on 05/24/2012

Southerner's can't help it. They've been indoctrinated into racism since they were born. This guy should know, he's done a lot of indoctrinating himself over the years.

[blackhawaiian]

03:40 PM on 05/20/2012

The leader of the Southern Baptist Conference is a racist, who would have guessed it? The Baptist Church, is a racist institution. The question is, why are African Americans, members of the Baptist religion?

[The Man on the street]

01:49 AM on 05/22/2012

For the same reason many worship a blonde blue-eyed Jesus... Stockholm Syndrome...

[chykim1]

05:51 PM on 05/18/2012

heard u the first two times...one more apology, and i wont forgive u!

[homer winslow]

03:47 PM on 05/18/2012

That actually sounded like a sincere apology instead of the usual "I'm sorry if my comments offended anyone" B.S.

[SBUSH]

11:03 AM on 05/18/2012

APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE AFTER SAYING THIS CRAP AN APOLOGY MAKES IT OK?
GIVE ME A BREAK---IF YOU SAID YOU MEANT IT.

[Gregor53]

12:26 AM on 05/18/2012

And this time he really means it. Na, just still feeling the fallout from the first 1000 apologies that were pretty weak. You said it and that is enough. Can not change a bigot overnight.

[DrJon]

12:08 AM on 05/18/2012

Too late. Go eat a Big Mac.

[Draton]

10:24 PM on 05/17/2012

This just goes to show how deep ones personel hatred can be not even sitting in a church and reading the Bible can soften this man's heart he can't get past skin color how pathetic no where in the Bible does it say act this way he is with Satan not God, he is letting his light shine before men, so they can see his work and glorify who? Satan

[wilddogg]

05:58 PM on 05/17/2012

another fool on the pulpit, no real integrity here... why believe a lier?

[R clinton]

03:37 PM on 05/17/2012

How can we expect anything less from these people.....http://buildbackwards.blogspot.com/2012/03/is-political-climate-fueling-treyvon.html

[HP Grindel]

02:16 PM on 05/17/2012

So much for the 1995 renunciation of the SBC's racist, slaveholder origins I guess.

[greenlass]

11:43 AM on 05/17/2012

I wonder: could this man sit down in the Martin's living room - WITHOUT camera - and express remorse directly to the parents of Trayvon?

Face to face, real to real. That's accountability. That's where making amends begins.