Baptist leader ends support for blogs
Page says they show dark side of church politics

No church blogs: Southern Baptist president and Taylors First Baptist pastor Frank Page said churches need to deal with their issues in a more private manner.

August 27, 2007

By Ron Barnett
STAFF WRITER, THE GREENVILLE NEWS
rbarnett@greenvillenews.com

"For Christ's sake, stop!"

That's the headline, and constant refrain of a statement released by Southern Baptist president and Taylors First Baptist pastor Frank Page announcing that he is withdrawing his support of a blog about issues within the denomination.

SBCOutpost.com, established about two months ago as an independent forum for "honest dialogue and debate" quickly became a hotspot on the Internet for the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

It also quickly became a place that shows the world a dark side of church politics that violates the spirit of Christ's teachings on how his followers should relate to each other, Page told The Greenville News.

"Almost immediately in my opinion, the blog degenerated quickly into a personal attack place," he said. "And so several of us including myself withdrew our endorsement.

"Sad, because we need a place like that," he added. "But we cannot endorse a place that is continually filled with character assassination."

The bigger issue, Page said, is that members of local churches have taken to using blogs to carry on bitter debates about problems within their own congregations.

"It just presents a very poor and very public airing of the dirty laundry in church business," he said. "I'm trying to tell churches, please, let's deal with our problems in a more civil and, yes, more private fashion."

Benjamin Cole, a pastor from Enid, Okla., who is one of the bloggers responsible for SBCOutpost.com, said the blog "reflects rather than directs the tone and temper" of the debate within the denomination.

Bloggers on SBCOutpost.com cover a range of topics, from theological differences over such issues as "private prayer languages" and Calvinism to criticism of denominational agencies and their leaders.

"Blogging has merely shouted from the housetops what has often been whispered in secret," Cole said in an e-mail to The News. "To publicly rebuke bloggers for having addressed directly and passionately the questionable actions of some convention leaders and to refuse to rebuke those same leaders whose actions have precipitated the blogging dissent is unbalanced."

Cole called Page "an honorable man" but said he "is guilty as well" of "unchaste speech."

Page, who was elected president of the 16 million-member denomination after a blogging campaign by young pastors, acknowledged that he has used SBCOutpost.com to take issue with "at least one person."

But he said, "I will not be a part of attacking" anyone.

"Certainly there's always been vitriolic language going on amongst any group," he said. "But I think now the Internet has given a much broader audience to it."

The Rev. Mike Moody, president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and pastor of Honea Path First Baptist, said he doesn't know of any blogging wars in the churches, but he thinks people should be careful or they may say things on the Internet that they wouldn't say in person.

"I think it's a way that people can take cheap shots," he said. "I'm not real sure that that's the biblical way to do something.

"If I have a problem with you ... I think the Bible would mandate that I sit down with you face to face and we try to resolve our problems."

Page's greatest concern is that all the "internecine conflict" expressed on SBCOutpost.com gives a picture of Baptists that will turn non-Christians away.

"When newspaper reporters are called and church conflict becomes known in the newspaper, either locally or nationally, what do you think this does when lost people read it?" Page wrote in his statement. "For Christ's sake, for the sake of the lost, stop!

Bloggers responded to Page's withdrawal of his endorsement by accusing him of trying to squelch the free exchange of ideas -- a charge Page denies.

"Do they expect us to just set on our hands and say nothing when things are falling apart?" RHagaman wrote.

"Sometimes it takes a long time for a ship to sink ... this one (SBC) seems to be going down by the head and taking all on board with it ... especially those who have truly been its substance, the members of all the cooperating churches," Preacherboy57 wrote. "God Help Us All!"

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