Local pastor censured

By Robert Barron, Staff Writer

November 30, 2007 12:35 am

— Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, continues to write an online blog, and it continues to get him in hot water with some of his pastoral peers.
Burleson has been censured by trustees of International Mission Board of Southern Baptist Convention for some of the things he has written in his blog, “Grace and Truth to You.”
Burleson said Thursday the action primarily was for speaking out against some trustee actions. The official statement by trustees states Burleson continuously uses his blog to share private communications with fellow trustees with people who are not trustees or on the board staff. That is a violation of trustee standards.
They cited Burleson for speaking in “disparaging” terms about fellow trustees and for speaking in terms not positive and supportive of the board when interpreting and re-porting on actions by the board.
Wendy Norvelle, IMB spokeswoman, said every organization is governed by policies and procedures. If someone doesn’t agree with those policies, she said, there are methods in place to bring recommendations to reconsider or change them. She did not know if Burleson pursued any of those avenues.
The censure will cause Burle-son to miss at least the next four IMB meetings. Norvelle said in 2008 trustees will meet in Janu-ary, March, June and September.
Burleson was asked by trustees to apologize for his actions, and he refused. Burleson said he intentionally chose to make public the private conversations with trustees and to publicly criticize board actions, instead of speaking in “positive and supportive” terms.
His suspension will be re-viewed after four trustee meetings, and the executive committee will make a determination whether the suspension should be lifted.
Burleson, who became a trustee in 2005, said the suspension is basically over criticizing trustee decisions.
“It’s simply a disagreement over whether or not decisions can be publicly criticized. That’s the issue,” Burleson said.
Until last year Burleson said trustees had the freedom to publicly dissent from board approved actions. That freedom existed for 162 years.
“That’s part of who we are as Baptists. We believe people should have the freedom to disagree,” he said.
Burleson said he has “graciously and with civility” publicly dissented against at least three new board policies. Those policies are:
• Trustees may not publicly dissent.
• Missionaries have to be baptized in a Southern Baptist church. Burleson believes baptism is a Christian ordinance and when a person follows Christ and is baptized according to Scripture, it doesn’t have to be in a Southern Baptist church.
• When missionary candidates are asked if they pray in a private prayer language (tongues), and they honestly respond affirmative, they cannot be missionaries.
“My position is don’t ask. It’s their private prayer life,” he said.
Burleson said he worked for six months within the system to reverse the board actions, before beginning what he calls a “civil” public dissent.
“This is what has bothered them. I suggested a simple resolution — ignore me. Dissent that has no basis eventually goes away,” he said.
But the trustees did not ignore him. The news release from IMB trustees said Burleson was censured for multiple violations of code of conduct.
“Chairman John Floyd was deeply saddened by the course of events. Dr. Floyd said he attempted to make every effort to restore him (Burleson) to service. With sorrow those were not met with success,” Norvelle said.
Burleson said IMB trustees may be worried because people are taking notice of what he said on his blog.
“This is possibly a fear the SBC may be listening to what I’m saying. In essence what I’m saying is this: Southern Baptists should focus on our mission of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far reaches of the world. All these other things are secondary to our mission. We should not be making them the focus,” he said.