An Oklahoma pastor-blogger and other like-minded Baptist bloggers are credited for the surprise election of Frank Page as the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Tuesday the Southern Baptists elected as their president Dr. Frank Page, 53, pastor of First Baptist Church, a megachurch in Taylors, S.C. Page was chosen over two more familiar candidates. The SBC, the second largest Protestant denomination in America with 16 million members, has been holding its annual convention this week in Greensboro, N.C.

Page’s supporters view him as “more inclusive” than the ultra-conservative power-brokers who have been running the denomination in recent years. This year, the Baptists have been arguing over policies regarding speaking in tongues and baptism, and for the first time, such denominational in-fighting spilled over to the blogosphere.

Bloggers are credited with maneuvering Page past the SBC’s powers-that-be and into the presidency, according to several media reports (see “The Bloggers’ Favorite Southern Baptist,” Time Magazine, or “Southern Baptists Pick President,” Nashville Tennessean). Leading the Baptist blogging brigade is Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., and two-time president of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Burleson is a trustee of the SBC’s International Mission Board. The IMB oversees a $282 million annual budget and supports more than 5,000 missionaries around the world.

Recently, the IMB has been embroiled over new policies which would exclude a missionary from IMB support if he admits to using a charismatic prayer language in his private prayer time, even if he does not promote tongues-speaking publicly. Another disputed policy would exclude a missionary who was baptized by a “non-qualified” (translation: non-Baptist) baptizer. Burleson opposes such policies, and he really provoked the ire of his fellow IMB trustees when he made his grievances public on his blog, Grace and Truth To You, which he began publishing last December.

Through his blog, Burleson became a hero of many Baptists nationwide who disagree with policies that are viewed as legalistic and even mean-spirited. Several Baptists encouraged Burleson to seek the convention’s presidency this year. Instead, Burleson persuaded Page to run. Page, hinting at how things may be different under his leadership, called for a “new tone” in the denomination. “I believe in the word of God. I’m just not mad about it,” Page said.

Burleson has no question blogging is what propelled Page to the presidency. Blogging today about the election upset, Burleson wrote (“Today: A Historic Day in the Southern Baptist Convention”):

One of the questions that kept being repeated over and over again is whether or not I believed blogs played a role in this election. I said, “Absolutely.” Baptist bloggers in 2006 may well go down in history as the first time bloggers actually determined the outcome of a national religious/political election

I’m not a Baptist, and you may not be either. Burleson’s blog is a good place to turn for a peek at the fussing that goes on in that denomination. In the inaugural post of his blog, Burleson wrote last December (“The War for the Future of the Southern Baptist Convention”):

I am a Southern Baptist. I will be a Southern Baptist until the day I die. I am a conservative. I will cooperate with other conservative evangelicals until the day I die. I fought one war to rid our convention of liberalism. I am prepared to fight another war to rid our convention of legalism.

You know, what? I’ve often wondered how my life might have gone differently if I had been born to a Baptist family, raised in a Baptist church and schooled at a Baptist seminary. The independent Christian churches I have been a part of since childhood don’t hold a candle to the Baptists so far as educational institutions, infrastructure, church pastorate opportunities, and funding. I admire many things the Baptists do, and I love them as the Christian brothers they are.

But when I hear about their constant squabbling – or, in Burleson’s own words – warring that goes on among them, I think, “Thank God I’m not a Baptist.”

However, as a non-Baptist looking in on the church next door, I also thank God for the Baptist bloggers who have hopefully pointed their churches in a healthier direction, away from the hard-hearted legalism and nitpicking they are increasingly known for. And all the people said, “Thank God for bloggers.”