Springfield, Ill. (ABP)—In a rare move, trustees of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board voted Nov. 6 to censure one of their own and effectively bar him from carrying out the duties of his office.

However, Oklahoma Baptist pastor Wade Burleson, a prominent Southern Baptist blogger, has vowed to continue doing the job to which his fellow Southern Baptists elected him. And he defended his right to dissent, saying he will continue to critique some IMB policies.

IMB trustees, in a closed session during a regularly scheduled meeting in Springfield, Ill., voted to censure Burleson. The trustees reported the move in a public session the morning of Nov. 7.

The resolution of censure also banned Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., from “active participation” in the board’s work “for at least the next four” trustee meetings, which are held every other month. The board said Burleson violated two recently adopted policies barring individual trustees from criticizing actions of the board or reporting on any private conversations between trustees about IMB business.

“In the beginning, I tried to abide by those policies,” Burleson said. “But what I found is those policies prohibiting dissent are the worst policies that have been published in the history of any Southern Baptist convention agency.”

The board cannot fully eject Burleson from its membership—only messengers to an SBC annual meeting can do that. Two years ago, a majority of IMB trustees voted to ask messengers to do just that but later rescinded the action.

Burleson rose to prominence across the SBC for his critique—spread mainly through his online blog—of board policies he believes are unjustifiably tightening the parameters of who may be appointed as SBC missionaries, such as the IMB guideline that rejects candidates who practice a private prayer language, a variation of speaking in tongues.

In a blog post published shortly after the board announced his censure, Burleson said he would continue serving.

“The bylaws of the Southern Baptist Convention state that I am elected by the Southern Baptist Convention,” he wrote. “Though I had initially intended to cease blogging about IMB and SBC issues, I will now continue blogging for the indefinite future. My wife and I will pay for my own way to the trustee meetings, and I will be present and voting at all plenary and executive session board meetings.”

The censure resolution said Burleson has violated the policies because he has “repeatedly used his blog to share private communications with fellow trustees with persons who are neither trustees nor senior (IMB) staff, in violation of the Trustee Standards of Conduct” and has also used his blog and other public forums to speak “in terms that are not positive and supportive of the board when interpreting and reporting on actions by the board.”

The resolution also accused Burleson of speaking “in disparaging terms about fellow trustees,” and said that Burleson declined to apologize for any of his violations of the new trustee rules except for speaking in a way about fellow trustees that they found disparaging.

In a telephone interview Nov. 7, Burleson confirmed that account.

However, he added that he continues to disagree with the policies prohibiting any public critique of board actions and barring discussions of any private conversations with fellow board members.

“I voted against it on the basis they were stifling dissent. I have intentionally continued to dissent,” he said. “That’s the Baptist way, if I disagree. But I’ll always be supportive of our mission and our cause. And so what they wanted me to apologize for is saying that the guidelines were leading to the narrowing of the doctrinal parameters in the SBC.”

IMB trustee chairman John Floyd said he was saddened by the series of events.

“Wade Burleson has shared private conversations with fellow trustees on his blog and with others who are not trustees,” Floyd said in a prepared statement. “He has spoken in disparaging terms of his fellow trustees and has persisted in public criticism of board policies for missionary qualifications, adopted by the board in 2005 and reaffirmed by the board in 2007, instead of supporting our policies or, if he has nothing good to say about them, simply remaining silent on the issue.”

The action to censure Burleson was taken shortly after one of his most outspoken critics on the board sent fellow trustees a 153-page treatise accusing Burleson of what he called “gross and habitual sin.”

Jerry Corbaley, an associational director of missions from California, is a supporter of the policies that Burleson has criticized.

He claimed Burleson was “an unrepentant slanderer and an unrepentant gossip. He continues to initiate slander and gossip.”

Some of Burleson’s supporters have asked whether Floyd or other IMB trustee leaders will recommend censuring Corbaley for violating the trustee conduct code which bans trustees from speaking disparagingly about fellow board members.

With additional reporting by Baptist Press