Formerly known as the Christian Life Commission (1953-1997), the entity with organizational predecessors dating back to 1907 received its current name in the course of a broad reorganization of multiple Southern Baptist entities in 1997 (Sutton, p 335). The Southern Baptist Convention terminated its participation with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in 1992 (Sutton, p. 300) due to conflicts over separation of church and state and whether Baptist organizations should play a role in partisan politics. It was led by Richard Land from 1988 to 2013. Land announced his intention to retire effective October 23, 2013, after the uproar that ensued from his controversial comments about the Trayvon Martin case that resulted in an official reprimand by the ERLC's executive committee. Russell D. Moore filled the post afterwards. Moore is an outspoken critic of then-Republican Presidential candidate, Donald Trump. His criticism of Trump has been controversial with several Southern Baptist leaders.