Yesterday I listened to men whom I greatly admire engage in banter on stage. It was a word association game. I will say a word, said one, and then the three of you will give a one-word, pithy response to the word. Are you ready? I could practically feel the audience in the room lean forward in anticipation to see what sort of fun this would be.
Beth Moore. He dropped her name lightly into the room, which was already poised to get the joke. Laughter broke out all over.
The first man who was asked to respond is one of my heroes. He and the moderator kidded back and forth for a moment before this great man of God paused, considering his sister in Christ, and responded simply, Go home.
The reaction in the room was electric. Laughter, hoots and hollers of delight, and applause broke out in unison, and the moderator was obviously thrilled by how this had all turned out, entertaining and truthful and a little bit mean. It wasn’t necessarily designed to be a serious conversation, but this was especially sensational, and he and the crowd seemed to be loving it.
As I listened to all of this happen, my heart sank a little. I wondered at the kind of environment we have created in this opinion-saturated culture, where men of great faith and character and wisdom will sit on a stage and turn their concerns about their sister into a joke.
My brothers, speak the truth. You should. Guide and shepherd within your realm of influence. God has called you to it. Rightly divide the word of truth. We need you to. But when dealing with your sisters in Christ, no matter the circumstance, be gentle. Show the world that they can know us by our love for one another.
As your sisters, we sometimes have a difficult time knowing where our gifts fit into the biblical structure of the church. Like you, we don’t always know what to do with our strong opinions or our not-so-gentle ways. Let us all acknowledge that while God has certainly called women to do good work within our homes, He also calls us to do good work outside of them. “Go home” is an especially difficult pill to swallow in light of how many churches would likely collapse if all of those faithful, godly women who do a huge bulk of the teaching, training, planning, ideating, and plain old working in our churches simply went home.
Now, I know they weren’t speaking about all women. They were speaking about one. One who has faithfully studied and taught God’s word for decades. One who doesn’t always say or tweet exactly the right thing. One who has issues just like the rest of us. But, she is a child of God. She is a joint heir with Christ just like the men on that stage. And that should count for something.
So, in the days to come, as debates continue to rage over what women should and shouldn’t be doing, I pray that we will all cling to the scripture and see it clearly. But, even when there is disagreement, even when we see godly women standing on platforms where they probably shouldn’t, and even when we hear godly men joking in ways that are unbecoming of trusted leaders, I have hope that through the power of the Holy Spirit we will still be able to abide by Paul’s words in Ephesians 4: Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Thanks for this Melissa! I had heard about this earlier today and was a bit shocked by the response of a man I also deeply respect. It reminded me that we should always speak the truth in love. The world is watching and listening! I greatly appreciate your words.
Thank you for writing this article. Somehow, when we feel we are theologically correct, even if we are, we are in grave danger of being unkind. May we remember, that being theologically correct is not enough, we need both grace AND truth! We will weaken the church if we respond in these ways. I hope that gentleman will find it in his heart to apologize.
Thank you for gentle and truthful response. The banter out there is deafening. You are right, this situation called for humility…instead now we are back to talking misogyny, and not our adherence to the Word.
I’m assuming by your defense of Moore that you are in favor of women preaching to men and you are ok with her partnership with false teachers. That’s very sad since the Bible is very clear on these issues.
I’m married to the writer, I can tell you that your assumption is wrong. I don’t read a full-throated defense of Moore here. I see a call for kindness in the way we deal with each other, even if one is in error, which I believe that neither Dr. MacArthur or Beth Moore are blameless here.
“But, even when there is disagreement, even when we see godly women standing on platforms where they probably shouldn’t, and even when we hear godly men joking in ways that are unbecoming of trusted leaders, I have hope that through the power of the Holy Spirit we will still be able to abide by Paul’s words in Ephesians 4: Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
I love how you stepped in to defend your wife, Chad. I agree with you 100%. I did not take away from Melissa’s article that she is in support of anything besides kindness, love and humility. Interesting how our opinions differ after reading the same words.
When you start out with “I am assuming,” you can pretty much assume from there on out that the point of the post was missed and that you read with an agenda. Let’s focus on men being kind and address these other issues another day. Most of us know enough about Beth Moore to know where her weaknesses are, but that does not mean that asking men to be kind to her excuses her weaknesses.
To be honest, these were some of my first thoughts, too (or the same general idea, at least).
However, I have to say that I am not so certain that we can call her a sister in Christ. She has been teaching error for years, and she has recently doubled down. She has refused to accept rebuke or admonishment. She has refused to clarify and state clearly her thoughts on homosexuality. She has partnered with known false teachers. She has not only “preached” to full churches, she has chosen to flaunt her decision to do so, making a mockery of a clear biblical command.
If all that you have graciously said about her were true, I would agree with you wholeheartedly. However, she has not behaved like a sister in Christ. She has behaved like a prideful false teacher, and one who seems to greatly enjoy poking the church for laughs. False teachers are not to be treated with kid gloves. She has been given the benefit of the doubt for a long time. At this point, all I have left is doubt. And so, while the exercise was probably ill-conceived, I can’t say that I disagree that she should go home. I would hope the same for any wolf.
While I wholeheartedly agree with Melissa’s encouragement for kindness and I understand this article was not a full-acceptance of Moore, I also strongly assert that Beth Moore doesn’t exactly exposit the Bible accurately. I’ve quietly told friends over the years that there are much better Bible studies out there than Beth Moore’s. Perhaps we should actually study the Bible, with hermeneutics principles alongside the Scripture passage, a Bible dictionary, a commentary, and a plan to memorize verses. That would be extremely helpful for a real Bible study instead of completely reading into, for example-one of her studies, the book of Daniel by watching a video of her for one hour and then talking about our fill-in-the-blank inane workbook answers with fellow students. This is a waste of time in my opinion because we’ve completely missed the points of the book of Daniel! Over two hours later each week and we still have no idea what the book is about. I have no idea why Beth Moore’s Bible studies are popular, because I have done several and wish I hadn’t because they are inaccurate and based on her reading-into the text what she prefers it to say. Something is wrong here, and while brothers (and sisters) should be kind, being a critical thinker is not the same as being just mean and critical. There are serious concerns with her teaching that need to be addressed.
MacArthur should have responded in a Godly way, which he did not, but other than the SBC’s strange infatuation with Moore, what evidence is there that you should refer to her as your “sister in Christ”? In addition to her poor hermeneutics and her claims of receiving divine revelations, her popularity is a clue that she is not. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin,b but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ ~ John 15:18-25
I’d encourage you to look more into this “man of God.” His behavior and loss of credit (removed from his own college) over the last several years has shown a man with lots of knowledge, but a severe lack of Jesus like qualities in his life. This was not “a little bit mean,” this was a room of supposed Christ followers looking to, with great anticipation, belittle and relish in the belittling of another Christ follower. This was deplorable.
As you correctly pointed out, the issue here is not about the theology, but the behavior. Those who align with someone who relishes in sinful behavior because their theology matches, but fail to see the unChristlike behavior as an issue should also be held accountable.
When Christians treat other Christians like this we say, there is no holiness. We claim the living Christ, but our behavior is not separate from the world. You cannot behave like your standard twitter troll and then say, “Follow Jesus.”