For more than two decades, Richard Land has been one of the titans of the religious right from his post as president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. But today, his tenure is very much on thin ice after the ERLC's executive committee announced his radio show, Richard Land Live!, will be canceled as soon as its contract with Salem Radio allows. In a scathing rebuke, the executive committee concluded that Land's hateful comments about the Trayvon Martin case, as well as evidence that he engaged in blatant plagiarism, meant that his show was "not congruent with the mission of the ERLC."
For those who missed it, back on March 31 Land claimed that the Obama administration was using the Martin case to "gin up the black vote." He got slammed up and down for this, and several black SBC pastors were among the critics. They were particularly upset considering the SBC's less-than-sterling history with race relations.
A few days later, a new wrinkle appeared. Baptist blogger Aaron Weaver discovered Land's screed was lifted practically verbatim from a Washington Times column that had run two days earlier. Weaver eventually found that Land had also plagiarized material from the Washington Examiner and Investor's Business Daily. The ERLC did pretty much the only thing it could do--it launched an internal investigation and scrubbed the entire archive of Land's past broadcasts.
The executive committee released the results of its internal probe earlier today. In unusually harsh terms, it rebuked Land for his "hurtful, irresponsible, insensitive, and racially charged words" about the Martin case, and issued an unreserved apology to his family. It also slammed Land for exhibiting "carelessness and poor judgment" in lifting material from other sources without attribution.
From my perspective, it's hard to see how Land survives this. Journalists and broadcasters have been fired for plagiarism less egregious than what was revealed here. Plus, for the ERLC to take the extreme step of canceling his show is an obvious indication that there was no way to repair the damage. Indeed, it seems the only reason Land still has a job now is because the committee found no evidence of plagiarism in his written material.
As I mentioned back in April, bringing down Land for plagiarism would be a lot like Al Capone being taken down for tax evasion. But if it were to happen, it would be long overdue.