SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (ABP) — In a rare move, trustees of a Southern Baptist Convention agency voted Nov. 6 to censure one of their own and effectively bar him from carrying out the duties of his office.
However, reform-minded Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson has vowed to continue doing the job to which his fellow Southern Baptists elected him. And he defended his right to dissent, saying he will continue to offer a respectful critique of some International Mission Board policies.
IMB trustees, in a closed session during a regularly scheduled meeting in Springfield, Ill., voted to censure Burleson. The trustees reported the move in a public session the morning of Nov. 7.
Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., said there were no tallies available for the voice vote. By press time, an IMB spokesman had not returned an Associated Baptist Press reporter's telephone message requesting more information on the vote.
The resolution of censure also banned Burleson from “active participation” in the board's work “for at least the next four” trustee meetings, which take place every other month. The board said Burleson violated two recently adopted policies barring individual trustees from criticizing actions of the board or reporting on any private conversations between trustees about IMB business.
The board cannot fully eject Burleson from its membership — only messengers to an SBC annual meeting can do that. Two years ago, a majority of IMB trustees voted to ask messengers to do just that but later rescinded the action.
Burleson rose to prominence across the SBC for his critique — spread mainly through his blog, “Grace and Truth to You” (kerussocharis.blogspot. com) — of board policies he believes are unjustifiably tightening the parameters of who may be appointed as SBC missionaries, such as the IMB guideline that rejects candidates who practice a “private prayer language,” a variation of speaking in tongues.
In a blog post published shortly after the board announced his censure, Burleson said he would continue serving.
“The bylaws of the Southern Baptist Convention state that I am elected by the Southern Baptist Convention,” he wrote. “Though I had initially intended to cease blogging about IMB and SBC issues, I will now continue blogging for the indefinite future. My wife and I will pay for my own way to the trustee meetings, and I will be present and voting at all plenary and executive session board meetings. I will continue to be courteous and kind to all my fellow trustees and will blog about those issues I believe to be of an essential nature to the future of the SBC.”
The censure resolution said Burleson has violated the policies because he has “repeatedly used his blog to share private communications with fellow trustees with persons who are neither trustees nor senior [IMB] staff, in violation of the Trustee Standards of Conduct” and has also used his blog and other public forums to speak “in terms that are not positive and supportive of the board when interpreting and reporting on actions by the board.”
The resolution also accused Burleson of speaking “in disparaging terms about fellow trustees,” and said that Burleson declined to apologize for any of his violations of the new trustee rules except for speaking in a way about fellow trustees that they found disparaging. The resolution said he offered to apologize for any offense other trustees may have taken at his words, but not for the other violations.
In a telephone interview Nov. 7, Burleson confirmed that account.
“In any place or portion, people I have spoken of disparagingly, all they have to do is tell me and I will immediately correct it and seek their forgiveness, because that is not my desire,” Burleson said.
However, he added, he continues to disagree with the policies prohibiting any public critique of board actions and barring discussions of any private conversations with fellow board members.
Burleson said he would continue to attempt to participate in IMB meetings — although he would not be disruptive “in any form or fashion” — unless and until the full SBC takes action to remove him from the board.
“I'm going to be there, I'm going to vote. Whether they count the vote or not … I can't control that,” he said. “I believe I represent Southern Baptists; I don't represent my fellow trustees.”
Burleson said he attempted to make a statement to the trustees to inform them of that intention after the board's action was announced Nov. 7, but trustee chairman John Floyd refused to recognize him to speak. Floyd is a former top administrator at the agency, and has been linked to the missionary-appointment policies that Burleson has criticized.
Floyd did not immediately return a reporter's telephone message left at his hotel room.
The action to censure Burleson was taken shortly after one of his most outspoken critics on the board sent fellow trustees a 153-page treatise accusing the Oklahoman of what he called “gross and habitual sin.” Jerry Corbaley, an associational director of missions from California, said Burleson was “an unrepentant slanderer and an unrepentant gossip. He continues to initiate slander and gossip against the trustees of the International Mission Board.”
Corbaley is also a supporter of the policies that Burleson has criticized. He did not immediately return a telephone message left by a reporter Nov. 7.