Will Les Puryear explain his attempt to get profs fired?

[William Thornton]

OK, I'm being provocative in my subject title, but the more I think about it the worse this looks.

Les, you have made some effort, with commendable success, in being seen as a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention. You sent a letter to a seminary, to the supervisors of some of our profs who do not teach in accord with your views. You were quoted as writing:

3) "I am completely shocked and surprised that in the years following the Conservative Resurgence, (school name) would employ a professor who teaches that tithing is not necessary."

4) "… do you think it is helpful to the SBC to keep this professor on the faculty of (school name)?" --

YOu haven't denied these words. Presumably, the quotes are accurate.

Rather than complain about your private email being made public, how about explaining yourself? When you appear to go after people in our common institutions you owe Southern Baptists an explanation.

For the record, I don't care if you will not allow someone who doesn't believe storehouse tithing to sweep the floors in your church. That's your business and your church's. I do care about what pressure you bring to bear on the good and decent people who teach in our schools.

[Big Daddy Weaver]

Note Les' most recent blog post:

""I assure you that I kept completely confidential our phone conversation and email correspondence. I also assure you there is not even a possibility of a leak from my office."

Dr. Danny Akin, email to me, 2/10/10 (reprinted with author's permission)
Posted by Les Puryear at 2/11/2010 02:00:00 PM

Don't think he's going to get around to explaining. He's obviously HOT that his e-mail was posted.

[Stephen Fox]

William, in your CP dollars supported seminaries, place of learning and academic exploration, is it okay to discuss Jesus in the manner of this Christian Century article linked below.

http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=8164

[William Thornton]

OK. Fine. We will see what Les says tomorrow, his "final word."

Stephen, start a topic on that. Not here, please.

[William Thornton]

Will Les Puryear explain his attempt to get profs fired? You bet. He's still explaining it...long after he said he had said his last word about it. In fact, Les treats us all to a 700+ word blog today explaining why he doesn't care about what Wade Burelson thinks and, in doing so, mentions Burleson's name about a dozen times. Guess he talks about him so much because he doesn't care what he thinks...right, Les. Got it.

Burleson, according to Les, is the one using "bullying" tactics. Yeah? Then, please publish Burleson's email that he sent to your deacons asking if they think you should keep your job? Oh, no email like that?

Then who is the bully here, Les? I nominate the person who wrote to an SBC seminary president to say that he was "completely shocked and surprised" that an SBC seminary would employ a prof who doesn't teach his view of storehouse tithing. How about the person who asked if the seminary prez thought it was "helpful to the SBC to keep this professor on the faculty"?

That person is the bully.

That person is Les Puryear who ought to spend at least one long blog post demonstrating that he is ashamed of his behavior on this.

Burleson is not the problem here. Les Puryear, a good and decent pastor by all accounts, is the problem. I'm sorry to see that...and I'm sorry to say that.

William [who would have put this on Puryear's blog but seems not to be approved as a "team member" to do so]

[Jonathan]

This thing reminds me of the way that David Flick was treated years ago. In reading the comments on Les' blog, I suppose that I am most saddened by Jon Estes' comment (long time bl.com participants will remember him....I remember him as a friend).

[Tom Parker]

Les P. says on his blog on 2-12-2010:

"Since my integrity is being impugned by Wade Burleson over my email to SEBTS and Liberty University, as well as my response to his questions about my email, I felt it prudent to make a public statement on this matter. This will be my final public statement regarding this incident. I will not allow comments on this specific post as I do not feel like arguing about this anymore. If you wish to discuss this topic and assign motive as you see fit, then go ahead and do so on your blog or public forum. It is a free country and you have a right to your opinion. I will not comment publicly any further beyond this post. "

But how is this not commenting publicly on 2-18-2010 he has a blog titled One more point of Clarification.

Someone help me as to how this is not publicly commenting again? How can this be called being truthful on his part.

It appears to me that Les is keeping this alive.

[Ed Pettibone]

Les P. says on his blog on 2-12-2010:

"Since my integrity is being impugned by Wade Burleson over my email to SEBTS and Liberty University, as well as my response to his questions about my email, I felt it prudent to make a public statement on this matter. This will be my final public statement regarding this incident. I will not allow comments on this specific post as I do not feel like arguing about this anymore. If you wish to discuss this topic and assign motive as you see fit, then go ahead and do so on your blog or public forum. It is a free country and you have a right to your opinion. I will not comment publicly any further beyond this post. "

But how is this not commenting publicly on 2-18-2010 he has a blog titled One more point of Clarification.

Someone help me as to how this is not publicly commenting again? How can this be called being truthful on his part.

It appears to me that Les is keeping this alive.

Ed; Back in my SBC days I often heard preachers say "and finally", before preaching for another 5 to 15 Min.