Trustee says IMB used press to silence dissent

RICHMOND, Va. — A new staff policy, which gives trustees of the International Mission Board (IMB) power to censor news stories about their work, reportedly was used Jan. 11 to try to persuade a trustee to resign. That’s the picture emerging from the account of Oklahoma trustee Wade Burleson, whom trustees are trying to remove from the board. “If I was asked once, I was asked 15 times to resign after the vote for the recommendation to remove me,” wrote Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Enid, Okla., in his blog Jan. 12. “The carrot that was offered was that there would be no press release that would be damaging to me or the IMB. Some of the appeals were very, very passionate. All of them were phrased in such a way as to save everyone embarrassment.”

Trustee Chairman Thomas Hatley of Rogers, Ark., said the threat of publicity was not part of the trustees’ action on Burleson. “The opportunity to resign offered to Bro. Wade would have allowed the withdrawal of the motion or have rendered the motion mute,” he said. “There was no discussion or ‘deal’ relating to publicity about this that came from the floor. What individual trustees might have said to him I cannot fully address.”