Beth Moore has let the Twitterverse know that she is going through an “existential crisis.”
Want to try to share something that ends positively but starts negatively so persevere. Been slogging through a bit of an existential crisis for the last 18 months that I let become more obvious than I meant to. One person called it woke but it felt a lot more like ticked to me.
— Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) March 29, 2018
One might hope that she has finally come to a point where she realizes that she is not, in fact, a skilled Bible teacher and author called to the gospel ministry but rather a nonsense merchant whose biblical insights and direct revelations from the Almighty are bogus and whose “ministry” is detrimental to the very people it is intended to serve (or sell to as the case may be). One might be encouraged by Beth Moore’s candid admission that evangelicalism is “in humiliating need of reform.”
Evangelicalism is in humiliating need of reform but the thing is, it’s possible. In OUR lifetimes. All that stands between us & an astonishing work of the Holy Spirit is repentance. Quit being scared of rocking a boat that has run aground on an island of compromise.Walk on water.
— Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) March 27, 2018
The best evidence for Moore’s claim is ironically the many book displays at LifeWay Christian Resources which market the very writings of Moore and her contemporaries. The increasingly charismatic and scripturally vapid products made popular by Moore and her ilk over the last two decades demonstrate the tragic shallowness of American evangelism. Women have been lapping up Moore’s offerings as if they were living water while their husbands (and live-in-boyfriends) couldn’t be troubled to concern themselves with the purity of the well. Evangelical music is becoming ever more feminized and superficial as men abandon the church. Is Moore finally realizing the problem?
Not quite.
Lord, I repent of being complicit in & contributing to racism & white supremacy in the church by profiting off a system that was unjust to people of color. Forgive me for thinking it was enough to simple say & believe it to be true, “I’m not racist.” Forgive me for my passivity.
— Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) March 27, 2018
Rather, coinciding with her appearance at the ERLC’s MLK50 Conference, Moore is publicly repenting of being complicit in and contributing to “racism, white supremacy, misogyny, and sexism” in the church. She also seeks forgiveness for not “having the guts to call out grievous sexual misconduct.” It seems that Moore has found the #MeToo movement just in time for the progressive Southern Baptist social revolution. Toot toot! All aboard the racial reconciliation train; first stop LifeWay, where a variety of products that white people don’t buy as much of anymore (because white people don’t go to church as much anymore) will be made available to the SBC’s new minority friends. It’s no small coincidence that matters of “social justice” are becoming of greater concern to Southern Baptist luminaries now that the SBC’s traditionally white base is disappearing into graveyards adjacent to old, dying predominately white churches. The attendance numbers are holding at predominately minority churches where social issues and political activism have been all the rage since LBJ’s Great Society. There’s gold in them there pews and if Southern Baptists can “reconcile” with nonwhite churchgoers then that gold might just fill the flagging coffers of the SBC’s Cooperative Program treasury. It will just take a little compromise to get it…such as naming conferences after an unregenerate philanderer and passing virtue-signaling resolutions against old, southern pieces of cloth. It will also take adopting the corporate, communitarian culture which prevails among people of color. In such a culture, Beth Moore and the ERLC must repent for corporate, institutional racism and not their own individual actions. They must apologize for the system. It looks like the SBC is having an existential crisis, too.
Good grief, haven’t white Southern Baptists done enough to black people? First, there was Slavery. Then, there was Jim Crow. After that was the economy and family crippling “Great Society” programs that contributed to the ravaging of the black family and the politicization of the black church. Now the Southern Baptist Convention wants people of color to shop at LifeWay, too, buying the same spiritual poison that they’ve sold their white brothers and sisters in Christ for years. My hope for evangelical reform starts at the church level. Repentance precedes reform and, let’s face it, “isms” can’t repent. Individual Christians can. They can encourage their churches to abandon the nonsense pedaled by LifeWay and the ERLC and get back to supporting worthwhile denominational efforts that make a difference: evangelism and education. Close down Lifeway. Close down the ERLC. Close down what has become American evangelicalism. It’s a mess. Fixing it starts with you.
Take me for example. I’m not just a blogging “keyboard warrior.” This December I snatched a copy of Jesus Calling out of a black woman’s hand at LifeWay. Take that as my heartfelt effort at racial reconciliation. I don’t want my dear sisters of any color to poison their mind with blatant heresy. Husbands, snatch your wives’ Beth Moore books out of their hands. Go to your pastor and demand your church stop financially supporting the ERLC, lest your church stop being financially supported by you. Most of all share the gospel of Jesus Christ with somebody. Remember that song you sang in VBS?
A – Admit that you’re a sinner and repent.
B – Believe that Jesus is God’s own Son.
C – Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord
That’s the gospel; share it. You might be surprised how little you need Beth Moore, the ERLC, and the evangelical industrial complex to share Christ and disciple other believers to maturity. If you don’t think doing those two things are integral to your Christian walk, may I suggest that you have an existential crisis?
[Contributed by Seth Dunn]
*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.
