Burleson's 'Big Tent' meets Molly's 'Large Room'

Wade Burleson has often declared that the Southern Baptist Convention is a BIG TENT. Time and time again, Burleson has expressed his desire to see this BIG TENT kept wide open and not zipped shut.

In a May 19th post, Burleson wrote...

We must broaden the base of service in the SBC to include more than just a few who are recycled in their appointments. This broadening of the tent of service will insure that the SBC will remain broad in cooperation, grasssroots in the authority structure, and viable for the next generation of Southern Baptists.

However, Burleson is not the first person to argue for a more inclusive Southern Baptist Convention. He's just the last.

14 years ago, Rev. Dr. Molly Marshall, Associate Professor of Theology at SBTS, contributed a chapter to Robison B. James & David Dockery's book, Beyond The Impasse? Scripture, Interpretation & Theology in Baptist Life. The title of Dr. Marshall's chapter was - "Setting Our Feet in a Large Room." A few excerpts follow...

Psalm 31:8 offers this assurance of God's covenantal faithfulness: "you have set my feet in a broad place" (NRSV). The psalmist is speaking not only of God's enduring care, but of the spacious freedom the faithful people of God enjoy. Perhaps the image of a "large room" can help us in these days of heightened animosity among competing parties in our denomination, each attempting to lay claim to the true Baptist "room." Moving beyond the impasse may be possible only through a renewed acknowledgment and commitment to the anchor of our faith, the love of God expressed to us through Jesus Christ. This common confession provides our entrance into the broad place which, we might discover, is more expansive than our current climate might suggest. It matters greatly that we attempt to strengthen our bonds as Christians in the one body of Christ during this time of rapid fragmentation. (p. 169)

"Entering a Large Room"

More than a few among us are concerned that Southern Baptists have been captured more by the "theology of glory" than by the "theology of the cross." Our denominational successes have contributed to an imperious attitude toward other Christian traditions, toward Christian brother and sisters within our denomination and, we confess, toward the scandalous cross on which our faith depends. Because the denominational "product" sold so well for so long, we have had little patience with those for whom faith was a "dimly burning wick" (Isa. 42:3). Weakness and hiddenness, the garb of the cross and the means of God's disclosure, were expendable parts of the commodious gospel regnant among us. (p. 179) We must "return to the image of the 'large room' as the place all can enter through the common confession of the crucified, buried, and risen Saviour."

We must "first of all, examine the cross of Christ which allows us to enter our true 'home" through our reconciliation with God; second, examine how Scripture bears witness to this chief disclosure of God and thereby points the way for us; and third, examine the manner in which gospel and Scripture enable us to extend the glad welcome into God's spacious salvation." (p. 179)

Getting beyond our present impasse will require humility, repentance, and the will for "convictional cooperation," as Mohler winsomely calls it. Only the providential grace of our God can bring about a new spirit of cooperation only the wisdom borne of God's Spirit can instruct a way forward together." (p. 188)

Ironically, Burleson's image of a "Big Tent" is a wee-bit-bigger than Dr. Marshall's "Large Room."

Though Wade has been accused of being a liberal, he remains a SBC International Mission Board trustee. Also falsely accused of being a liberal (i.e. universalist), Dr. Molly Marshall was forced to resign by SBTS President Al Mohler in 1994 - merely two years after advocating for a "Large Room."