All Comments for: Critic Censured | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2008 > January

Christianity Today, January, 2008 |

Critic Censured

Trustee suspended from mission board for airing closed-door activities.

Ken Walker | posted 12/13/2007 09:01AM

For the first time, trustees of the International Mission Board (IMB), the overseas mission wing of the Southern Baptist Convention, have censured a fellow trustee. Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson has been ...

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Rate and Comment on this article

Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 comments.

Page: 1

Show All

Beeg	Posted: December 17, 2007 12:53 PM

For clarification, the IMB does not require missionaries to have been baptized in an SBC church, contrary to the report here. They do require that one's baptism have been in a church where the believer's security in Christ was taught. This includes several options, including most Bible churches and several other groups. This contention shows the downside of blogging. Mostly, it has not helped the kingdom and it allows most dialogue to degenerate quickly.

Mark Begemann

Posted: December 14, 2007 5:38 PM


This article appears lacking and possibly impartial. A quote/example of "airing closed door activities" (and source) seems a big oversight. If it's on his blog, is it really that hard to dig up? Fair disclosure: I'm a member of a Southern Baptist church and am concerned about the same issues Wade is, but don't read his blog and don't know much about him.

Pastor GL

Posted: December 14, 2007 1:39 PM

From an onlooker outside the SBC world, I thought the article was adequate to inform, without reflecting a bias. I appreciate Burleson's concern about Fundamentalism within the SBC. Again, from an outsiders perspective it seems to me that the Southern Baptists and their Seminary in Dallas have intentionally narrowed the standards of orthodoxy, creating an "us" and "them" culture within the Evangelical world. Does it really make sense to have missionaries competing for converts, rather than working together to accomplish the Commission?

Slidicus

Posted: December 14, 2007 8:05 AM


More SBC infighting, bickering and controversy...big suprise there. Why can't the children play nice?

Wade Burleson

Posted: December 13, 2007 10:39 PM

I enjoy Christianity Today and appreciate the excellent reporting. This article is below par in accuracy, particularly in the byline "Trustee suspended from mission board for airing closed-door activities." Having served as the chairman of three major secular boards, President of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, and currently serving as Parliamentarian for the BGCO, I understand Roberts Rules of Order and decorum involving closed door Executive Sessions. There has never once been even the remotest suggestion that I have aired closed-door activities on my blog. The internal policies that I have broken were adopted March 22, 2006, after my blog began to make Southern Baptists aware of the new policies. The new standard of conduct for trustees, adopted AFTER I became a trustee, specifically states that trustees "must publicly support Board approved actions even if they do not privately support them." My conscience won't allow me to be a hypocrite or liar.

Trierr

Posted: December 13, 2007 3:44 PM

This article is surprising weighted against Burleson and is missing a HUGE story. Here you have SBC leaders saying that it is divisive to criticize leaders. Do they not remember their own tactics during the so-called conservative take-over? By disallowing criticism of centralized authority, they are denying some of the distinctives of being Baptist. They are removing the possibility of prophetic correction and assuming that they are absolutely correct. Lord Acten was right about power..

Gary	Posted: December 13, 2007 2:02 PM

As I read the story it never occurred to me that Burleson was the bad guy unless he signed an agreement to be silent about policy matters. I thought Baptists had a rather democratic form of government that encouraged open discussion not censorship of ideas. Second, Baptists have always said only their local congregations have any authority to approve or disapprove of theological matters. How can a committed now usurp the authority of a local church and a local pastor. The SBC is acting more like the Catholics and Episcopalians than Baptists.

James Gibson

Posted: December 13, 2007 1:25 PM


This article is not very balanced, in that it casts Burleson in a negative light while ignoring the well-known shortcomings of some of his opponents.

Chris

Posted: December 13, 2007 12:35 PM

From the article: "Many trustees were also angered by Burleson's harsh criticism of policies enacted in 2005 that require missionary candidates to be baptized in an SBC church and forbid them from speaking in tongues." This isn't wholly true. Missionary candidates are to be baptized by immersion by a recognized authority is the wording. This can be interpreted to mean, in a baptist church, in a Southern Baptist church, or by a certain type of pastor, etc. I'm not defending the policy, just correcting your article. That being said, I disagree with the policy. I was baptized by immersion in an independent Baptist, but am now in a SBC. As far as the tongues goes, it specified a "private prayer language". Public speaking in tongues was already prohibited, I believe. Your article is only seeking to spread gossip and slander about Burleson, as it seems to sow the seed that Burleson may run for president of the convention. I doubt that, as I have seen him try to reconcile.

Page: 1

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment