For over two years an SBC minister who is a consummate politician and  lightning rod for the fighting in the Southern Baptist Convention has done some amazing blogging. He has attracted some of the worst venom I’ve ever seen from SBC leaders who wanted him silenced and pulverized and used every means at their disposal to shut him up.

It didn’t work. Instead Burleson’s work and the attacks made national news. His blog has been a window into the infighting, tactics, insularity and power struggles this beleaguered denomination engages in. The stronger the attacks, the more Burleson shone, always responding with his main weapons. Truth, spoken with grace.

Not smarmy southern politeness, the kind of truth and grace that comes from mature faith.

Burleson is hanging up his blog Grace and Truth to You for a six month hiatus; he’s ambitious, busy with his church, writing 3 books and he needs to step away from the power struggles. True leaders inspire and empower others instead of demanding their conformity, I think this Oklahoma minister has worked hard to do that.

His blogging will be missed. Always patient, he could have spilled the beans on some of the top conservative power brokers in the denomination and made good money doing so. He didn’t, which is a credit to his maturity. Too bad fundamentalist leaders in control throughout the conservative resurgance and fawning fanboys who attacked him lacked that maturity. Perhaps his opponents and perceived opponents gained some social empathy and emotional I.Q. growth interacting at the blog. Burleson has been an informative and spiritually useful read. I wish him well.