Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

Southern Baptist leader steps down over moral ‘indiscretion’

NewsBob Allen  |  March 28, 2018

President Frank Page, self-styled “chief encouraging officer” of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, stepped down March 27 over what an official called “a morally inappropriate relationship.”

Page, 65, announced Tuesday morning on social media that he was retiring from his position as president and CEO of the Executive Committee, which he assumed in 2010.

Frank Page

“Many months ago, my daughters shared their deep desire for Dayle and me to retire and move closer to them in South Carolina so that we might spend more time with them and their families — especially our grandchildren,” Page, former pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., said in comments reported by Baptist Press. “After much prayer and conversation, we have chosen to make this decision.”

Later in the day, the official denominational news service overseen by the Executive Committee revealed more to the story.

Executive Committee Chairman Stephen Rummage said after speaking with Page, he “learned that his retirement announcement was precipitated by a morally inappropriate relationship in the recent past.”

“My heart is broken for Dr. Page, his family and everyone affected,” said Rummage, senior pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla. “I believe I speak for the entire Executive Committee in saying that we are committed to provide them the spiritual and emotional support they need in the coming days.”

Page, a past president of the nation’s second-largest faith group after Roman Catholics, said he initially announced his retirement without explanation “out of a desire to protect my family and those I have hurt.”

“However, after further wrestling with my personal indiscretion, it became apparent to me that this situation must be acknowledged in a more forthright manner,” he said. “It is my most earnest desire in the days to come to rebuild the fabric of trust with my wife and daughters, those who know me best and love me most.”

Rummage said the Executive Committee officers “recognize the stewardship we owe Southern Baptists and the watching world to communicate with truth and candor and to honor the Lord in our actions and decisions.”

Details of the relationship were undisclosed. Page called it “a personal failing” that “embarrassed my family, my Lord, myself, and the Kingdom.”

As online reactions shifted from praise and congratulations after the first announcement after the second to surprise, some said it is unimportant.

“I do not know the details, perhaps never will, and it doesn’t matter,” Iowa pastor Dave Miller said on the group blog SBC Voices.

“I cannot imagine what Dr. Page is going through right now — the pain, the humiliation, the sorrow, the regret,” Miller said. “Would you join me right now in praying for him? For his wife and family? For our convention and the effects this may have on us?”

“As awful and inexcusable as this sin is,” Miller said, “I am glad to see that he is dealing with it the right way.”

Ed Stetzer, former head of LifeWay Christian Research and now executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, said in a statement to Christianity Today magazine that the initial accolades “really expressed how Southern Baptists felt about Frank.”

“He is widely loved and appreciated, and seen as a person of great character,” Stetzer said. “So this is a shock to many of us.”

Others volunteering comments included Spiritual Sounding Board, a share-and-support blog for persons affected by “spiritual abuse,” cautioning that in generic calls to prayer for “everyone involved” after the fall of a moral leader due to adultery, the person who often gets lost is the other woman.

“As I have covered several stories and dealt behind the scenes with many women who have been spiritually and sexually harmed by Christian leaders, I am struck by what women might feel as they read the words that apply to them: ‘those I have hurt’ and ‘everyone involved,’” said blogger Julie Anne Smith.

“Do they realize that she, too, has a family?” she continued. “Do they realize that most likely the leader has used his position of power and influence to gain his own sexual pleasure? Do they realize that it’s very likely that the woman involved was in a position of vulnerability, perhaps originally reaching out for help? This is the story that I typically hear when speaking with women who have been harmed by the sexual misconduct of pastors or Christian leaders.”

“I don’t want the woman involved in Frank Page’s immorality crisis to be lost in the shuffle,” the blogger wrote. “I would like to ask that we collectively pray for this woman and her family — that she will have good support around her, safe people to talk to, and that she can begin her journey of healing.”

Pulpit & Pen, a self-described theology, polemics and discernment blog, observed, “It seems that pressure was put on Page throughout the day to be forthright and to make a public statement, which doesn’t speak well of his supposed repentance.”

“We hope and pray that Dr. Page is brought to repentance, and that his marriage can overcome this hardship,” said a blog post March 27. “We pray for his wife and children. We also pray for the other person involved, and we hope that they receive the help they need as well.”

Page, a graduate of Gardner-Webb University with both the master of divinity and Ph.D. degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was relatively unknown at the national level of Southern Baptist politics when he won a three-way race for SBC president in 2006.

He attributed his win, in part, to the rise of Southern Baptist blogs, at the time a new way of reaching a mass audience, saying bloggers “played a role beyond their number, perhaps an inordinate amount of influence given their number,” in building support for his campaign.

After two terms as president, Page left the pastorate to become vice president of evangelization for the SBC North American Mission Board. His 2010 election as president and CEO of the Executive Committee took place in executive session.

Behind closed doors, Page reportedly answered questions about his involvement as a member of a Great Commission Task Force appointed by SBC President Johnny Hunt in 2009. Page’s predecessor, Morris Chapman, had criticized the study.

In his role as head of the agency that oversees day-to-day operations between SBC annual meetings, Page sought to build bridges between Calvinists and non-Calvinists and to increase participation in SBC life among African Americans, other ethnic minorities and leaders of women’s ministries. He became an advocate for suicide prevention after one of his daughters took her own life in 2009.

In 2008 he was part of a group of prominent Southern Baptists introducing a moderate statement on environmental stewardship at a time when the denominational establishment was skeptical of the impact of humans on climate change.

Page publicly supported a Baptist Faith and Message amendment limiting the role of senior pastor to men, but in his 1980 doctoral dissertation argued that women should be eligible for any role in the church. He described the paper as the work of an “immature theologian” and compared his change of opinion to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler, who as a student advocated for Baptist Women in Ministry but as president refused to hire faculty supportive of women’s ordination.

Page also defended a rare Executive Committee resolution in 2013 urging the Boy Scouts of America not to open membership to boys who identify as gay, because “sexuality is expressed most nobly and appropriately as a monogamous marital relationship between one man and one woman for life.”

Meeting privately with then Secretary of State nominee and former Boy Scout president Rex Tillerson, Page reportedly said he could not support the change because “God’s truth is abiding” and “principles should not be subject to the changing tide of human opinion.”

As SBC president Page appeared in a story on ABC’s “20/20” about loopholes in SBC policy making it easy for sexual predators to move from church to church without detection. He later called the program “yellow journalism” and a “slice-and-dice” piece to make it appear Southern Baptists were not doing enough to protect children.

Page said he did not believe abuse was a “large and systemic” problem in the SBC and warned that some groups claiming to advocate on behalf of victims were “opportunists motivated by personal gain” and “nothing more than lawyer groups, looking to raise their caseload level.”

“Though many will speak of the good that Frank Page did, his legacy is also notable for how he disparaged and dismissed those who tried to bring to light clergy sex crimes against children,” said Christa Brown, an abuse survivor and longtime victims’ advocate.

“For many clergy sex abuse survivors, that hateful slur is what we will most remember about Frank Page — that and the fact that, on his watch, no one in SBC leadership would help us in seeking to warn others about abusive ministers,” she said.

In 2009, Page was named to an advisory council for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In 2015 he accused President Obama of both “ignorance” and “arrogance” for suggesting that evangelical Christians seem to care more for the unborn than the poor.

In 2008 Page said Southern Baptists were sitting the New Baptist Covenant movement spearheaded by former President Jimmy Carter, calling the upcoming Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant a “smokescreen leftwing liberal agenda that seeks to deny the greatest need in our world, that being that the lost be shown the way to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

Following the election of President Donald Trump, Page commented, “Millions of Baptists went to the polls and voted out of principles and also out of pragmatism” for “a candidate that might support cherished principles among believers.”

“Ignoring the condescending verbiage from the moral elites, Baptists voted and voted in droves,” Page wrote. “You can listen to what the moral elites tell us, but Christians still make a difference! Southern Baptists have not gone by the wayside when it comes to exercising our civic responsibility and our belief that some things still matter.”

Page said he had met Trump twice and would continue to encourage the president, among other things, to “protect marriage as being between a man and a woman.”

Page has been serving on weekends since Feb. 4 as interim lead pastor at Hebron Baptist Church in Dacula, Ga. On Tuesday church leaders announced March 25 was Page’s last day.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
Tags:Celebration of a New Baptist Covenantsuicide preventionDonald TrumpSexual AbuseNew Baptist CovenantFrank Page
More by
Bob Allen
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • Tom Brady may be the NFL’s “GOAT,” but he’s a lousy theologian

      Opinion

    • “What’s the one book I should read on anti-racism?’

      Opinion

    • Study finds racial and ethnic identity plays a role in mental health of Gen Z

      News

    • How a medical emergency during worship showed love in action

      Opinion


    Curated

    • Salman Rushdie Says He’s Grateful, ‘Can’t Regret’ His Life After Stabbing

      Salman Rushdie Says He’s Grateful, ‘Can’t Regret’ His Life After Stabbing

    • Why Chinese Immigrant Pastors Avoid Preaching on the News

      Why Chinese Immigrant Pastors Avoid Preaching on the News

    • Joe Rogan: ‘The idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous’

      Joe Rogan: ‘The idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous’

    • California senator announces bill to protect religious practices of incarcerated individuals

      California senator announces bill to protect religious practices of incarcerated individuals

    Read Next:

    The historical significance of ETBU acquiring B.H. Carroll Institute

    AnalysisMark Wingfield

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • Spurred on by conservatives’ fears, Tennessee turns down federal funds to fight HIV/AIDS

      AnalysisKristen Thomason

    • Tom Brady may be the NFL’s “GOAT,” but he’s a lousy theologian

      OpinionMarv Knox

    • “What’s the one book I should read on anti-racism?’

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • Study finds racial and ethnic identity plays a role in mental health of Gen Z

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • How a medical emergency during worship showed love in action

      OpinionZach W. Lambert

    • U.N. World Harmony Week is only seven days but must last all year, speakers say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The historical significance of ETBU acquiring B.H. Carroll Institute

      AnalysisMark Wingfield

    • Three images to remember Tyre Nichols

      OpinionJulia Goldie Day

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • The state murder of Tyre Nichols

      OpinionLisa Sharon Harper and David Gushee

    • Armie Hammer links his sexual excesses as an adult to his abuse by a youth pastor when he was 13

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • ‘I remember repeating to myself: “I have the right to be here.”’

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Lyell asks Alabama court to dismiss Sills lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • PC(USA) committee lambasted for choosing a ‘text of terror’ for ordination exam

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • BCMD executive director, also a NAMB vice president, resigns due to ‘moral failure’

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • Title 42, congregations and the sojourner

      OpinionSean Powell

    • SBC Executive Committee member once again criticized for sexually crude social media posts

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • The truth about police brutality

      OpinionJames Ellis III

    • In Ukraine: ‘We cannot just preach like we did before the war’

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • TikTok trends and three questions you and your church should ask this year about rest

      AnalysisLaura Ellis

    • Two churches ‘under inquiry’ by SBC Credentials Committee for platforming Johnny Hunt

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Biblical orthodoxy 2023: Sign or get ‘churched’

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • Zimbabwean pastors flee ministry to join more lucrative care work in the UK

      NewsRay Mwareya

    • Jesus and Buddha are talking with me about loving and blessing my enemies

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • Biden administration urged to remove Cuba from list of state sponsors of terrorism

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Study finds racial and ethnic identity plays a role in mental health of Gen Z

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • U.N. World Harmony Week is only seven days but must last all year, speakers say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Armie Hammer links his sexual excesses as an adult to his abuse by a youth pastor when he was 13

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • ‘I remember repeating to myself: “I have the right to be here.”’

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Lyell asks Alabama court to dismiss Sills lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • PC(USA) committee lambasted for choosing a ‘text of terror’ for ordination exam

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • BCMD executive director, also a NAMB vice president, resigns due to ‘moral failure’

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • SBC Executive Committee member once again criticized for sexually crude social media posts

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • In Ukraine: ‘We cannot just preach like we did before the war’

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Two churches ‘under inquiry’ by SBC Credentials Committee for platforming Johnny Hunt

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Zimbabwean pastors flee ministry to join more lucrative care work in the UK

      NewsRay Mwareya

    • Biden administration urged to remove Cuba from list of state sponsors of terrorism

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Transitions for the week of 2-3-23

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • ‘Can you imagine looting the religious artifacts that help strengthen the Christian faith from the Vatican?’

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Panelists discuss how the Hamline University controversy could have been handled better in a diverse culture

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Pope Francis arrives in Africa on a two-nation tour seeking peace amid decades of conflict

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Museum of the Bible to host Wednesday morning event to pray for God’s judgment on America, and breakfast is not included

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • National Prayer Breakfast gets new sponsorship but still looks like government-sponsored religion, BJC leaders say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Zimbabwe Theological Seminary names new principal

      NewsBNG staff

    • What happens when church and state merge? Look to Nazi Germany for answers

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Southwestern Seminary student arrested for alleged ‘felony sexual assault’

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Trial date set for Patterson and Southwestern versus Jane Roe

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Faith groups must fight online hate, Interfaith Alliance urges

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Tom Brady may be the NFL’s “GOAT,” but he’s a lousy theologian

      OpinionMarv Knox

    • “What’s the one book I should read on anti-racism?’

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • How a medical emergency during worship showed love in action

      OpinionZach W. Lambert

    • Three images to remember Tyre Nichols

      OpinionJulia Goldie Day

    • The state murder of Tyre Nichols

      OpinionLisa Sharon Harper and David Gushee

    • Title 42, congregations and the sojourner

      OpinionSean Powell

    • The truth about police brutality

      OpinionJames Ellis III

    • Biblical orthodoxy 2023: Sign or get ‘churched’

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • Jesus and Buddha are talking with me about loving and blessing my enemies

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • Letter to the Editor: Kudos all around for Baptist News Global

      OpinionLetters to the Editor

    • Letter to the Editor: Jesus expects us to follow him; Trump expects us to follow him

      OpinionLetters to the Editor

    • Humor and hope mark the dark journey taken by a creative and brave photojournalist

      OpinionKathy Manis Findley

    • One year of sobriety

      OpinionGlen Schmucker

    • Men’s ministry needs more than, eggs, bacon and football

      OpinionMaina Mwaura

    • The church must show the world a more excellent way of nonviolence

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • Church historian Richard Hughes reflects on a lifetime of ‘Troublesome Questions’

      OpinionTed Parks

    • What churches could learn from the Pub Choir phenomenon

      OpinionMike Frost

    • Living into lament: A white response to the killing of Tyre Nichols by police

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • Of church cemeteries, pulpit committees, crafts and sweet potato casserole

      OpinionChris Ayers

    • Of Margie, mountains and ‘El Shaddai’

      OpinionBert Montgomery

    • What I learned from meeting Martin Luther King in Louisville and Josie in Hopkinsville

      OpinionBill Thurman

    • On the baptism of our firstborn

      OpinionEmily Hull McGee

    • Has virtual worship actually harmed Christianity?

      OpinionSara Robb-Scott

    • ‘What can we forgive?’: An interview with Matthew Ichihashi Potts on Forgiveness

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • My father’s faith

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • Salman Rushdie Says He’s Grateful, ‘Can’t Regret’ His Life After Stabbing

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Why Chinese Immigrant Pastors Avoid Preaching on the News

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Joe Rogan: ‘The idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • California senator announces bill to protect religious practices of incarcerated individuals

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Via jokes, ChatGPT chooses which religious traditions and figures deserve respect — and therefore what counts as ‘religion’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A brief history of the Black church’s diversity, and its vital role in American political history

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • “Left Behind: Rise Of The Antichrist” Is The Latest Installment In The Apocalyptic Thriller Franchise. It’s Nothing More Than Evangelical Make-Believe

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Antisemitic flyers could spur action on proposed Georgia law

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A brief history of the Black church’s diversity, and its vital role in American political history

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • New effort surveys Sikh students about bullying and school climate in the US

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Civil rights legislation sparked powerful backlash that’s still shaping American politics

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Church of England submits blessings for same-sex couples to fierce debate in Synod

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • GOP Rep. Who Spoke At Pro-Hitler Event Goes After Ilhan Omar Because Of ‘Anti-Semitism’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Psychedelic churches in US pushing boundaries of religion

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Prominent Jewish leaders add to drumbeat of criticism of Israel’s new government

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • At Tyre Nichols’ funeral, VP Harris and Sharpton among those praying and promising reform

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Marvin Olasky Still Wants to Make Journalism Biblically Objective

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Progressive National Baptists to deploy $1 million grant to boost ‘compelling preaching’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Church of England sheds light on ‘shameful’ slave trade ties

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Chinese Christians remain in Thailand fearing deportation

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Black police officers aren’t colorblind – they’re infected by the same anti-Black bias as American society and police in general

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Ohio is investigating a Nazi homeschooling network that teaches children to love Hitler

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Omar says some Republicans don’t want a Muslim in Congress: ‘These people are OK with Islamophobia’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Tyre Nichols police beating video prompts faith leaders to react with grief, goals

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS