I mentioned before I have a fascination with Southern Baptists. They fight. They take their fighting seriously and heaven help anyone who steps into it. 

The SBCOupost, which joined up a few good Southern Baptist bloggers and had high hopes of being a civil place of disagreement has had two leadership endorsements pulled.
It’s a group blog, men only, but that is what the SBC believes.
Going into the comment section of most SBC blogs is hazardous to your mental health, and while the endless debates rage, they are best read in small doses. 
I understand the concept behind the SBCOupost, and the desire to stop ripping each other to shreds.  It was set up and retooled recently, obstensively as an opportunity for seminary students, low level ministers, workers and lay people to speak.
But, it isn’t turning out any differently than any other SBC site or blog.
Just offers more to fight about. 

You can have good writers, but if commenters can’t show self-respect and other respect, you’re left with what most of us think and see, abusive, toxic communication. Winning is everything, because everything is at stake. The divisions in the denomination run very deep.

Leadership pulling endorsements doesn’t lessen the quality of the writers.
The last 30 years for the SBC have not been good ones. 
The Baptist Press already does the bidding of the big guys, so perhaps a distancing of fundamentalist  leadership isn’t a bad thing in the blog world. It isn’t going to stop the fighting though.

By leaders, we’re talking the President of the Convention, Frank Page, and the International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin. Rankin:

Church conflict is rampant. Seldom does a day go by that I do not receive a call for help from either a church, a pastor or staff member. Recently I received three in one day. And, there seems to be a new way to deal with church conflict. These days, increasing numbers of church members launch websites detailing allegations, accusations and complaints. I ask church members this question: Do you think lost people see this? 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? For Christ’s sake, for the sake of the lost, stop!

Personal attacks are on the rise. I recently removed my endorsement (as did David Dockery, Thom Rainer and others) when a hoped-for and needed place for dialogue on the Internet degenerated quickly into a place of personal attack against denominational leaders as well as those who are advocating reform. For Christ’s sake, stop!

Phone calls, e-mails, and hallway conversations continue to take place with the bottom line being character assassination. For Christ’s sake, stop!

Rankin is spitting into the wind. Page:

As a leader of a Southern Baptist entity, I find there is no lack of those who have disagreements with the work of the International Mission Board and issues with me personally or my leadership.

I welcome direct communication that is intended to result in understanding or corrective actions. But discussion of such issues publicly without making every effort to deal with me or the individual involved is inappropriate and unbiblical. There can never be justification for communicating, even areas of serious concern, without grace, respect and a Christ-like spirit.

I regret that SBCOutpost.com, which I and others earlier endorsed, has not fulfilled its intended purpose. This had the potential of being a forum for an objective interchange of ideas and opinions that would contribute in a constructive way to the Southern Baptist Convention. While I continue to endorse and advocate the value of open communication and understanding that comes from a free exchange of ideas, I am retracting my endorsement of SBCOutpost as the place for that to happen.

The retractions by Jenkins and Page were put in the SBC in-house organ, The Baptist Press.
Blogging has met with suspicion, derision and hostility by SBC leadership in the past.
I’m not sure leadership welcomes much of anything except people willing to do their bidding. 
The SBCOutpost duly posted the retractions and left the comment section open for discussion and disagreement.