GREENSBORO, N.C. - The surprise pick for president of the Southern Baptist Convention says he'll stand up for the denomination's conservative beliefs - but he'll do it with a smile.

The pastor from South Carolina comes from outside the conservative leadership that has held tight control of the nation's largest Protestant denomination for more than a decade. But he said that does not represent a move toward the political middle for a group fervently opposed to abortion and gay sex.

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.

Southern Baptist Convention leaders have often come off as filled with righteous fury in recent years, a carryover from the long, vicious battle for control of the denomination that conservatives and moderates waged in the 1970s and 1980s.

The struggle ended when moderates dropped out of Southern Baptist Convention politics in the early 1990s, but a confrontational tone had been set for a generation of conservative convention leaders.

In 1995, the Southern Baptists adopted a resolution calling for a boycott of The Walt Disney Co. after it decided to offer benefits to partners of gay employees. The boycott lasted for eight years.

Southern Baptist Convention declarations banned women pastors and declared that wives should "submit graciously" to their husbands. On Wednesday, a day after Page's election, the convention's annual meeting adopted a resolution urging that anyone who drinks alcohol be barred from leadership positions.

Wade Burleson, a 44-year-old pastor from Enid, Okla., was one of Page's most outspoken supporters. A conservative like Page, he was nonetheless dismayed at the way Southern Baptist Convention leaders handled dissent within the powerful International Missions Board after he joined the panel.

Burleson was publicly reprimanded by board members for writing about the board's internal debates on his Internet blog and threatened with removal, which stoked his desire for change.

Burleson and other dissenting bloggers were given part of the credit for carrying the little-known Page to victory over Ronnie Floyd, pastor of a northwest Arkansas megachurch, and Jerry Sutton, a prominent conservative who leads one of Nashville's most politically active congregations.

"They had their concerns, and their concerns were the battle for the Bible," Burleson said. "And you know what? I affirm my respect for them over that. But sometimes you win and you've got to move on. ... I think today we've moved on."

"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, which also opposes the SBC leadership. "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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