Beth Moore Says “Let’s Move On”

About John MacArthur, Beth Moore recently said:

If you are on Christian twitter, you probably know this story. John MacArthur was asked to respond to a word association exercise on stage at his church’s Truth Matter’s conference and the host began with “Beth Moore.” MacArthur’s response was “Go home” (at 53 seconds into the clip below). There is audio from YouTube:

He continued to say there was no biblical basis for women to preach. This led to a huge uproar with MacArthur understandably roasted for his callous, dismissive approach to a Christian sister. Grace to You executive director Phil Johnson followed by calling Moore “narcissistic” and criticized her ministry.

Many have commented on this. I once thought women should not preach, and now I believe they may be called to do so. I have changed my perspective on many things over the years. Christians have assorted views on who should and shouldn’t do many things. In other news, water is wet.

What seems plain is that Christians are supposed to get along and love one another. I hope that isn’t controversial. I am pretty sure it isn’t happening as much as it should. That is why I wanted to highlight two tweets from two strong spiritual women.

I led with Moore’s tweet. Look at it. Putting the lie to Phil Johnson’s judgment of narcissism, a narcissist doesn’t call off the dogs. A narcissist rounds them up, calls out reinforcements, and sends them in for the kill. Witness Donald Trump. He wants his Republican troops to ignore what he has done and give up all for his cause. Deny yourself and follow Trump. Attacking those who attack the narcissist is the true test of loyalty. Beth Moore said back off, slander doesn’t honor God.

Then another one that caught my eye comes from Julie Roys:

I am not certain but I bet Julie and I disagree on some things, but I sure agree with her here. Being dismissive and cruel isn’t a fruit of the Spirit.

I hope all the “dudes” (listen to the audio) get that. If we are all right about the afterlife, we all — dudes and dudettes — will be spending a lot of time together on holy and equal ground.

 

20 thoughts on “Beth Moore Says “Let’s Move On””

  2. ” I have changed my perspective on many things over the years. ” – Warren Throckmorton

    ” Well when events change, I change my mind. What do you do?” – Paul Samuelson, attributed to John Maynard Keynes

    The mark of an honest seeker of Truth, not coercing the evidence to make it say what they already know it has to say.

    “What seems plain is that Christians are supposed to get along and love one another”

    Non Christians too. Get along with Christians and non Christians alike, even to the extent of loving those who would see us dead.

    There are a lot of those if one is Trans or Intersex, and they aren’t retiscent about acting on their bloodthirsty desires.

    No one said it was going to be easy. Just that we’re called on to do it.

  3. Thank you for sharing this. I also admire Julie Roy’s reporting of the Harvest Bible Chapel scandal. People hold their pastor’s, teachers, and leaders to a higher standard. With that being said Jmac, John MacArthur; is 200% correct. Beth Moore and the SBC have effectively flushed all the soundness out of the Bible with their bad interpretation. Women are not allowed to preach. Period.

    1. Uhm, then you’d still never know about the Resurrection, Paula. Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene and told her to go to the disciples. I’m thinking that had he really wanted to make it clear that it was only men who could proclaim the good news, he could have worked it out so that some guy saw him first. But no, it was a woman.

      I’d also point out that “soundness of the Bible” really means NOTHING when the Bible is used to oppress people. There were many scholars, such as R.L. Dabney, who were superstars of the Southern Baptists in the Civil War period, but who believed the Bible absolutely taught chattel ownership of Africans. We fought a war over that and slavery is illegal (for the most part, with the exception of the imposed slavery of prison work) in the USA under the 13th Amendment. It’s still in the Bible, but it’s illegal today.

      If we can change our minds on that, we can certainly change our minds on whether Roman family codes should be how we treat women. And, in point of fact, the law *has* changed that. Women are no longer property of fathers, husbands, brothers or sons.

      Jesus did not live among us so people like John MacArthur and you can use the Bible as a tool to oppress half humanity. It’s nonsense like this that makes it for sure that the only time I’ll appear outside of a church is when I’m protesting child sexual abuse or some other outrage covered up by the Evangelical Industrial Complex.

      1. Mirelle, I believe you’ve switched the topic. Mrs.Moore and Mrs. White-Kahn have provenb lo pre chi g, foor H th esworn. pit y y ey ha chef c check lo e for. G Hithe ewoe . M.y spellcheck is wonky. Forgive the mess

          1. lol. Thank you for the concern DoctorDJ. I don’t believe Mr. Stone comes to Washington state. Counting my blessings.

    2. Except that they taught (preached) in home based churches, especially during the early period. Beth Moore’s twitter posts have been a true blessing to thousands of people.

    3. Thanks for illustrating (once again) why closed-minded, fundamentalist, evangelical Christian dogma is fading into irrelevance.

      Can’t happen soon enough!

  4. This JMac is just another white-washed septic tank preaching things that he refuses to do, serving Mammon in the place of the real Jesus, and being just as evil as the Pharisees. Many like him because they cannot discern good from evil and prefer leaders like JMac who have personality disorders of one of the Dark Triad list. There is a huge difference between real humility and the fake kind. Making things all about yourself just makes you a jerk, regardless of what kind of theology you hold to.

  5. I’ve always found MacArthur to be ironic. He lambasts mega church pastors for their self centered narcissism, while displaying a gigantic ego of his own. Neither is edifying to God or believers.
    The whole issue of “women preaching ” needs a step back to look at how worship works, how it’s intended to work, and how it could be improved. That should come before any discussion about who’s preaching. We need to take a hard look at how and why we need a 45 minute sermon every Sunday, to be called “worshipping. The human attention span is about 20 minutes. Why is a sermon the set piece? Why not a 20 minute sermon with 40 minutes of worship, prayer and congregational sharing?. If the sermon stops becoming the “point”, isn’t also even slightly less important who delivers it. Is a worthless 40 minute sermon by an idiot like Marc Driscoll filled with empty clichés and shameless self promotion more useful, edifying or helpful than a grounded biblical sermon that is delivered by a woman, just because she’s a woman? Please!
    My own church had a pastor who’s only goal was to build a mega church. To that end he hired an “associate pastor” who was an architect in real life. Eventually this guy had to preach, and to say it was painful, may be the largest understatement in church history. And he NEVER got better. His wife, however, was a lifelong teacher who was asked to do a “talk”, not a sermon, about infertility and adoption. One of the best “talks” I’ve ever heard, and I’ve used many parts of it over the years working with infertile couples..

  6. When I joined a C&MA church in the 90s, they did not ordain women. One of my best friends in high school had attended a church with his family that was Charismatic and had a female pastor, so I personally never thought much of it in terms of being controversial. When I learned that the C&MA’s own A.B. Simpson ordained and recognized women as pastors, I wrote to the denominational HQ and received a position paper on the subject, none of which addressed the reasons for the previous stance. It simply asserted the biblical reasons for the current policy. Shortly afterward, I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic to build a church, and it turned out to be for a female church planter who would preach in various places with financial support from her unbelieving husband, who was preoccupied with business. So we couldn’t have female pastors in our U.S. church, but we could cross the border and build a church for one. Doesn’t sound like a genuine doctrinal concern to me.

    Various places in the Bible seems to make it pretty plain that women can be placed in whatever role God decides to put them in. I think it’s very dangerous (to self) and foolish to diminish the works of God and the ministry of godly women who are preaching a rock solid gospel in every way.

    1. Like so many other problems, it comes from a literal reading of the scriptures. Instead of dismissing this restriction as a product of the social mores of the day, it is made into a rigid commandment. Unfortunately, many people want black and white thinking like that because it does not require as much thinking, i.e. “just following orders.”

      1. Worse, it is a literal reading of selected scriptures. What some would purport to be a “literal” reading of the most restrictive passage is contradicted within the very same letter of Paul!

  7. Perhaps MacArthur will be hesitant to set foot in Heaven. There will be so many of us he does not approve of there.

  8. So many of these heated issues would dissolve if Christians would simply accept that there is no reason to view the Official Holy Documents of their religion as anything more than the advisory opinions of powerful ancient men.

  9. I followed Julie Roy’s reporting of the Harvest Bible Chapel scandal, and while I have almost nothing in common with her politically or religiously (she’s a rock-solid conservative evangelical, I am a liberal atheist), when it comes to reporting on the scandalous behavior within her own faith community, I cannot praise her highly enough. She has been tenacious and fair-minded throughout, even as she came under attack from those she was investigating and their supporters.

    1. I also admire Julie Roy’s dedication to speaking truth to patriarchal power, even if I have little in common with her theology, which she very well may have been born into.

      A passage in Roy’s tweet doesn’t quite work, the one in reference to John MacArthur’s defenders: “pharisees had perfect theology too…” I would have preferred if Roy had written some variation of “religious elites during Jesus’ time thought they had perfect theology too.”

      MacArthur’s authoritarian theology of White-Nationalist Male Patriarchy is hardly “perfect theology,” and in fact MacArthur’s theology is in direct opposition to the actual teachings of Jesus, a dark-skinned Palestinian Jewish laborer crossing borders without citizenship, without birth certification, without White-Nationalism, and without Patriarchy. No slander here, Beth Moore. Just facts that are outrageously unpopular to White-Nationalist, Self-Serving Patriarchs.

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