(Greensboro, North Carolina) Thesurprise pick for president of the Southern Baptist Convention says he'll standup 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 cautions that does not represent a move toward the political middle for a group fervently opposed to abortion and homosexuality.

In his campaign, and again after winning Tuesday over two better-known SBC leaders, Page was quick to proclaim his credentials as a conservative and a believer that the Bible is the unerring Word of God. But he also was blunt about his determination to perform cosmetic surgery on the face that the SBC presents to the nation.

SBC leaders have often come off as filled with righteous fury in recent years, a carry-over 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 SBC politics in the early 1990s, but a confrontational tone had been set for a generation of conservative SBC leaders.

In 1997, 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. Citing changes that included more family-friendly entertainment, the SBC ended the boycott eight years later, even though the company had not changed its gay policy.

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

"Page's narrow election may give false hope to many," said Robert Parham of Nashville's Baptist Center for Ethics, which 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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