Let me begin by stating something that I believe to be important: I am not a huge Beth Moore follower. By this I mean three things. First, I do not have anywhere near an exhaustive knowledge of all her teachings (after all, she’s done quite a lot of it), so if I have in any way misrepresented her or missed a piece of valuable clarification/explanation that she has offered regarding a particular issue, I would be happy for anyone to point that out to me and correct me. Second, I do not follow her in the “positive” sense, meaning I am not a super-fan who loves everything about her. Nor am I a personal friend of hers. Third, I do not follow her in the “negative” sense, meaning that I do not wait around for Beth to say anything that could be even mildly wrong just so I can pounce on her and condemn her without mercy.
These three things, I hope, will give me the opportunity to assess Beth and her teachings in a much more unbiased and well-balanced way. Throughout my exposure to Beth Moore’s teachings, I’ve come across plenty that I’ve liked and plenty that I’ve disliked. There have even been numerous times that I’ve been greatly encouraged or strengthened by her ministry. I’ll name just a couple of quick examples here.
A year or two ago Beth began an online ministry in which she encouraged everyone to partner with herself (and thousands of others!) in memorizing the entire book of Galatians. In an age where Bible memorization is lacking, to say the least, this was an absolutely awesome idea! What a blessing to the visible church! If you wanted to check out the promo for this endeavor, you can see the Facebook post here!
Another blessing to my soul came across my Twitter feed a few weeks ago, when I was greatly encouraged to see Beth explain a prayer ministry of which she is a part.
Once again, what an awesome idea that blesses these young women in ways I can only imagine! Prayer, like Scripture memorization, sometimes seems like it’s lacking in our day and age. What a simple yet beautifully divine blessing that remains always within our grasp as a means of serving one another.
Finally, Beth has had plenty of random nuggets such as this one from her book, Praying God’s Word: Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds: “Faith is not believing in my own unshakable belief. Faith is believing an unshakable God when everything in me trembles and quakes”. Or this hard-hitter from her Twitter feed:
Despite these good things Beth Moore has done, and continues to do, for the body of Christ, I have noticed a few very concerning trends in some of her teachings. The purpose of the rest of this post will be my best attempt at explaining these problems I have noticed. The hope is that this will not be seen as an outright condemnation of Beth, and certainly not as a means of spewing hate, but rather that it would give Beth and her supporters an opportunity to clear up, defend, and explain some of these controversial, confusing, and concerning ideas. Some have attempted to offer similar critiques in the past, but it is my desire to offer something that will be much kinder, fairer, and more loving than many of those. I choose to take Beth at her word in the following Tweet she wrote in light of her most recent controversy. That is to say, I fully believe that she is aware of her own failures and lives a life of daily repentance.
If that is indeed the case, the last thing she needs is a bunch of trolls being unkind and unfair. I am further convinced that she has been nothing but a wonderful friend, mother, and even mentor to many who know her. I am not calling into question anything about her personally, but rather stating some concerns I have with her position as a popular evangelical teacher. And so, without further ado, here are my concerns….in love.
First, and perhaps most obviously, are Beth Moore’s views on complementarianism. Shocker, I know. I share the opinion of many, that though there are some grey areas upon which complementarians are free to disagree, one of those grey areas is not who takes the pulpit on Sunday mornings. I won’t spend my time defending that view here, because people much smarter than I have done a much better job than I could do explaining the issue in detail (link, link, link). Beth, evidently, has a much different approach to the issue, taking the pulpit on this most recent Mother’s Day.
My focus here will be less on defending a particular form of complementarianism and more on explaining why I find some of Beth’s comments concerning. If you want to hold a view that is different from that which God’s people within the church have held strongly throughout history, there needs to be a better reason than simply to say we must “grapple with the entire text from Mt 1 to Rev 22 on every matter concerning women” (link). To suggest that no one over the past two thousand years took all of the New Testament, and better yet the entirety of Scripture, into account when considering the roles of men and women in the Church is a rather lofty claim. Many have considered all of the text carefully, and still come to a firm conclusion on the matter. There have, as a result, been numerous biblical explanations for that view, but I have yet to see Beth interact significantly with any of them and explain why she believes those holding the view are wrong.
Instead of throwing out this longstanding doctrine on a whim, I would hope that Beth has taken the time to truly consider why that choice should be made. And by why, I do not mean what pragmatic reason she can come up with, but rather that she should be fully convinced that faithful believers both today and in the past got it wrong based on the evidence of Scripture alone. Not personal experience. Not feelings. If Beth has done the work and become convinced by Scripture that her view is the right view, I would like to see a thorough defense from her making the case. The church is not infallible, so it’s certainly possible for believers to have gotten this wrong. However, we should proceed with the utmost of caution when we begin heading down a path that makes that claim. While church history is by no means authoritative on any matter, it is significant, and its claims should be taken seriously.
Issue #1: Shifting views of complementarianism without a clear explanation and biblical defense of those views.
My second concern comes in the form of some unsubstantiated accusations and claims made by Beth Moore. I don’t doubt that some of the things against which Beth rages exist within the church. In fact, I would be shocked if they didn’t. After all, sin still lives within every denomination, organization, local church, church leader, and layperson. Nonetheless, Tweets such as this one are a bit off-putting, confusing, and even frustrating.
Especially, when they are coupled with personal attacks on Christian brothers, such as in this instance.
Owen did, however, follow-up Beth’s reply with much grace, asking for a healthy conversation out of the public eye (link). Obviously, since this would have been a private conversation I have absolutely no idea whether or not it ever took place, though my hope and prayer is that it did. Some sort of apology would be fitting nonetheless, as the personal attack was made on a public platform where thousands of people could see it. And nearly 5,000 people seemingly approved of the remarks, as that’s how many liked her Tweet.
But let me come back to my primary issue here. Misogyny and sexism exist. We can all give a hearty amen to Beth’s Tweet, “There is no such thing as a godly misogynist”. But who exactly is arguing that there is? Anyone who is publicly teaching others that there is such a thing needs to be likewise publicly rebuked (1 Tim. 5:19-21) . In order to do that, we need names. However, Beth has a terrible habit of making blanket and vague accusations without naming names (link). This, in turn, begs the question: who is she talking about? Is it people who need to experience church discipline for sexist teachings, or people like Owen Strachan who are simply convinced by Scripture that women do not take the pulpit on Sunday mornings?
Issue #2: Bold, harsh, vague, and blanket accusations that cause division and breed anger with no clear indication of who or what exactly she is referring to.
My third concern somewhat builds off of the second. It is regarding Beth’s intentional ruffling of feathers as a means of stirring up controversy and causing division, something Scripture does not take lightly (Rom. 16:17-18). She seems to enjoy creating a fire simply to relish in the fact that she upset some people rather than taking her views seriously and articulating them clearly with a biblical defense.
Obviously, that is a huge statement. And it is statement in which I sort of assess the motives and the heart of another person, something that only God can do. I understand that, and thus am open to correction on this point. But my reasoning behind it is simple: Beth essentially admits to this in two of the Tweets I referenced above. She says that she thought about posting a particular tweet just because she was feeling “mischievous” and wanted to “get everybody going”, i.e. she knew it would cause an uproar amongst certain portions of evangelical leaders. She “reluctantly” deleted the tweet, but then proceeded to still post exactly the thing she had thought about posting initially, that is, that one of her “bucket list” goals was to teach “a men’s Sunday School class at a church full of Calvinists”.
It seems clear that Beth, at times, knows what she’s doing in ruffling the feathers. Apparently, she is tempted to sometimes say things simply to “get everybody going”. If that is indeed the case, I would like to plead with her to please stop. The last thing we need right now is more division in the church. Feeling mischievous is not a good reason to post a controversial and undefended belief in the public sphere. Instead, we should strive to be peacemakers (Matt. 5:9, Rom. 12:16-18, Rom. 14:19, 1 Thess. 4:11-12) and seek unity within the Body (Ps. 133:1, 1 Cor. 1:10, Eph. 4:3). If she is convinced by Scripture and conscience that her view is correct, and that there are false teachings that need correction, then by all means she should state her view clearly and give a biblical defense. But the motivation should be the truth of Scripture and a desire to correct error within the visible body, not to cause an uproar.
Issue #3 Knowingly and unashamedly making public statements that she is aware will cause division and controversy.
Fourth, and finally, I think Beth has shown a tendency throughout her ministry to elevate emotionalism and personal experience over the text of Scripture. Much of this, I suspect, could also be traced back to her more charismatic beliefs and her claims to hear from God directly through visions (link).
It is not necessarily my contention that Beth consciously and proudly holds to the explicit belief that what she has experienced and what she feels is more important than what the Bible says. I believe her when she says that she “loves the Scriptures” (link). So do I, and so do all Christians throughout history! But, our love for the Scriptures does not necessarily give us a full-proof defense against the weapons of sin. Sin still resides within each of us on this side of heaven (1 Jn. 1:8, Rom. 7).
Every single one of us, including Beth Moore, has this tendency to view the Scriptures through the lens of our own personal biases, experiences, and feelings. This is why we have a strict and thorough hermeneutic process for interpreting Scripture, in order that we might defend against these internal tendencies.
Unfortunately, even within Beth’s genuine love for Christ and His Word I think that she has at times given way to her experiences and feelings as a means of interpreting Scripture and determining church practice over and above the process of hermeneutics.
For example, much of Beth’s reasoning for pushing women leadership within the church, preaching on Sunday morning for Mother’s Day, and taking the platform she has taken appears to be her own past experiences with misogyny and sexism. While her experience may be true, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the answer is for her to take a larger leadership role, or even to preach to the gathering of the saints during Sunday morning worship. We don’t shift our theological views based on pragmatism, but on the truth of Scripture.
When Paul was faced with the accusation that his gospel of grace alone gave warrant to live a life of sin, he did not change his gospel in order to defend against that practice (Rom 6:1,15). Instead, he doubled down on the gospel of grace and delved deeper into the theological framework of that gospel, explaining why that sort of attitude was wrong (Rom 6:2-14, 16-23). If people still chose to abuse the truth that we are saved by grace alone, then so be it. The truth of the matter will not change.
Similarly, we do not get to change biblical teaching on the roles of men and women within the church simply because of our personal experiences with those who have chosen to abuse the teaching. That is not reason enough to change our beliefs. Misogyny must be defended against, but the answer is not to change the biblical understanding of the roles of men and women in the local church. There is much truth in what Spurgeon said, “I cannot help what wicked men do with truth, but I shall state it all the same” (Christ’s Words from the Cross, p. 37). Wicked men may abuse the truth of complementarianism, but that is all the more damnation that will be heaped on them on Judgment Day.
Again, her tendency to replace biblical commands with her own emotions was evident last year on Mother’s Day (2018).
We can all agree with the obvious here. Missing church on Mother’s Day will not cause you to lose your salvation. There’s absolutely no place for shaming or accusation if a mother did choose to stay home. And of course, perhaps most importantly, we as a church must do a better job of weeping with those who weep (Rom. 12:15) and offering comfort and a hug to those who need it, as Beth herself longs to do for those who suffer each Mother’s Day (link).
Despite all of these important reminders, for Beth to publicly recommend that someone skip church, something which God has clearly commanded us all to do (Heb. 10:24-25), simply because of how they feel is not a biblical stance to take. Even when we hurt, we are still to obey God’s commands. More than that, this particular command of God is actually intended for our benefit (Col. 3:16)! Where else would someone want to go when they are in pain, if not to gather together with our brothers and sisters to fix our eyes solely on the God who loves us and has set us apart for Himself! Praising God together with the local body, even when difficult, is infinitely good.
One final remark, regarding emotionalism and personal experience. I’ve only given two examples here, but if someone were to take some time to go through Beth’s Twitter feed, written articles, speeches, and books it’s a tendency that will continue to pop up. I don’t have the resources (or the space) to continue listing specific citations and examples, and so I encourage everyone to do their own research and come to their own conclusions.
Let me make it clear, however, that this emphasis on emotion not always necessarily a bad thing. In fact, for someone like me who struggles on the emotional scale it can actually be rather helpful. Our emotions and experiences matter deeply to our gracious Heavenly Father. But, we must remember that our intellect matters along with our emotions (I wrote much more about this topic here). And even more importantly, we must remember that our emotions and personal experiences must not be the lens through which we interpret Scripture. Instead, it is Scripture that should be determining the way we experience our emotions. The temptation to place eisegesis over exegesis exists for us all, and it is something that I would caution Beth Moore against as she continues to work through many of these theological issues, especially considering the platform and influence she currently holds.
Issue #4 Emotionalism and personal experiences taking precedent in the hermeneutical process over precise and careful exegesis.
Let me close in the same way that I began. I do not view Beth as a heretic. I do not hate Beth or desire in any way to attack, demean, or disparage her. She is a sister in Christ, and one who I am sure has dealt with an unbelievable number of hate-filled messages, critiques, and “hit-pieces”. She is not deserving of slander. Nor do I think it’s healthy to start throwing out the “heretic” label.
I think Beth’s own words, in a blog post from 2015 (link) are actually rather helpful here:
“Disagreement is not a qualification for declaring someone a heretic. Even vehement disagreement.”
I, along with many others, do disagree deeply with Beth Moore on a fair number of issues. But that isn’t grounds for throwing out the heretic label.
However, we must also remember that when a person holds a teaching platform as large as hers, there is a certain standard to which she must be held. After all, the larger the platform the larger the influence. Poor teaching from her is a much bigger deal than poor teaching from, well, a nobody like me I suppose 🙂
And so, I do believe that some critique is necessary. Our disagreements and concerns should be stated. Unfortunately, most of the critiques have been uncharitable, but I hope that mine has been the opposite. At the very least, I hope that Beth can come out and make some of her precise views much clearer, and walk each of us through a more thorough biblical defense of why she believes the things she believes.
Beth makes my very point clear in the same blog post referenced earlier:
“Of course there are false teachers! Of course there are heretics! Of course they must be questioned! Of course, people should be warned! Of course teachers of the Scriptures must be held accountable for what they’re teaching! My concern today is the disturbing trend of throwing dangerous labels around because of what we’ve heard and not what we’ve investigated fairly and properly.”
We agree wholeheartedly here, Beth! In what I’m sure has been both a blessing and a curse, you’ve been given a gigantic and influential platform. Because of that, it is so important, as you stated, that you be held accountable for your teaching. Even the teachings that might not be quite in the realm of heresy. I know there’s been an onslaught of personal attacks, but there are a lot of people like myself out there who are not interested in a witch-hunt, but rather are hoping that you will heed your own advice and take seriously your teachings. We have some legitimate concerns, and for the more tenderhearted among us, those concerns truly do come out of love. And so we hope that you will consider our concerns humbly, and measure them against the teachings of Scripture.
I’d like to finish with one last point. Perhaps the saddest thing about this entire scenario surrounding Beth Moore is the continued drawing up of lines within the evangelical church at large. In the midst of the social justice topic, in particular, it seems as if many of my well-respected “heroes of the faith” have simply built up a wall and began launching grenades across it to the other side. When this Beth Moore controversy heated up a few weeks ago, it was depressingly sad how easily I could have picked out who would give her blanket condemnations and who would give her blanket support. Unfortunately, it feels as if Christians, and even Christian leaders, have become more concerned with loyalty to their own tribes, positions, friends, and organizations than with loyalty to Christ and His infallible Word. Hopefully, as various disagreements continue to rise up, we will all take a much more patient, understanding, and self-reflective attitude moving forward.
Patrick Fore
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