GREENSBORO, N.C. - Frank Page is an outsider among the conservative leadership that has held tight control over the Southern Baptist Convention for more than a decade.

But the pastor from South Carolina cautions that his surprise election this week to the presidency of America's largest Protestant denomination does not represent a move toward the political middle for a group known for fervent opposition to abortion and gay sex.

After winning election Tuesday over two better-known members of the SBC leadership, Page was quick to proclaim his credentials as a conservative. But he also was blunt about his determination to perform cosmetic surgery on the face that the denomination presents to the rest of the nation.

Asked how he would determine who would have a voice in Southern Baptist leadership under his presidency, Page cited "a sweet spirit" as the first requirement. "I believe in the word of God," he said. "I'm just not mad about it."

SBC leaders have often come off as filled with righteous fury in recent years, a carry-over from the vicious battle for control of the denomination that conservatives and moderates waged in the 1970s and 1980s.

Many within the SBC see the 53-year-old Page's victory as the start of a new era. But Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University's School of Divinity and a frequent critic of SBC leadership, is less sure the Southern Baptists are at a turning point.

"Whether it becomes a 'kinder, gentler' denomination, publicly, depends on how much the traditional leadership — especially certain seminary presidents — respond," Leonard said in an e-mail interview.

"Page's narrow election may give false hope to many," said Robert Parham of Nashville's Baptist Center for Ethics. "Even if Page wants to pursue a reformation, he can't overturn decades of fundamentalist control and organizations stocked with fundamentalist employees."

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