By Staff, Baptist Message
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — David Hankins and Steve Lemke are among the 34 scholars and professionals who have been appointed as research fellows for the new Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s Research Institute.
This new Research Institute and its fellows will assist the ERLC in its mission by producing a variety of materials to equip Southern Baptists and churches to engage ethical and cultural issues of the day.
Hankins, the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Executive Director, and Lemke, Provost and a professor of philosophy at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, were appointed to the Institute by Russell Moore, president of the ERLC.
The newly named fellows come from all six Southern Baptist seminaries, several Baptist colleges, private and public universities and other prominent institutions such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Center for Law and Justice.
“The aim of the Research Institute is to be a catalyst to connect the agenda of the gospel to the complex questions of the day,” said Moore, speaking about the launch and addition of the new fellows, “and to do so at the highest levels of academic scholarship for the good of local congregations.
“I am thrilled to get to work together with an exceptionally gifted band of scholars and leaders as well seek to be a persuasive, prophetic witness engaging the academy and equipping the church,” Moore continued.
Barrett Duke, the ERLC vice president for public policy and research, will direct the Research Institute while Andrew Walker, the ERLC director of policy studies, will serve as associate director.
The Research Institute will hold its annual meeting in conjunction with the ERLC National Conference at the Opryland Hotel October 27-29.