Misogyny, Beth Moore, and what it finally took to unite us.
This shouldn't have come as a surprise to me, honestly. There are few names in modern American Christianity that maintain the balance of appealing to both the fundamentalist conservatives and the Christian mystics, but the one who has held her own for decades is Beth Moore. Growing up, the ladies in my childhood church did Beth Moore studies and attending her conferences faithfully. I never participated, so it wasn't until fairly recently that I even paid much attention to Beth's actual influence on the Church.
The day that a progressive Christian music artist reposted a Beth Moore devotional tweet thread...that was the day I finally paid attention. I clicked and I scrolled for a while that day, playing catch up on Beth's Internet presence with growing surprise and excitement. Southern hospitality and promises of prayer for fellow believers were just the surface of her tweets. Digging deeper, I found loving interactions between her and Christian artists and speakers with varying backgrounds, ethnicities, beliefs, and sexualities. As the months have gone by, Beth's account has remained one of my favorite parts of Twitter, and really of the Internet in general. As a recovering cynic and (still) a critic of more charismatic Christian writers and speakers, I found myself looking for new tweets from Beth because they restored small parts of my trust in the evangelical church, an establishment that has certainly failed to make me feel safe and welcome to be myself in more recent years. Ultimately her character and unapologetic love for people of all walks of life is what has caused me to stick around and listen.
I will most certainly not share the video of John MacArthur's cruel and unnecessary speech and behavior that surfaced recently. His attack on Beth brought to light what many people in the Church had been able to ignore for quite some time: misogyny. In terms of my stance on women in the Church...well, I've already written a pretty clear post about that this year. I wouldn't say I lost any respect for MacArthur, because I didn't pay attention to his work in the first place. But his true colors did indeed show with that display of hatred for another human being.
Now, let me pause and reiterate what my goal with this blog has been since I returned to writing: to build bridges with my words and create a safe place for conversations between people with differing views to start. While I will not apologize for or back down from certain stances and beliefs I hold, there is still an underlying determination to listen and offer grace and empathy to everyone.
The reason so many Christians across the board are up in arms defending Beth Moore is simple: the misogynists came for a bridge builder, and people decided to pay attention. Beth has made so many people feel safe and suddenly someone who has never been without safety is telling her he doesn't want her to experience the same security. That's not just rotten, it's without feeling and is fully lacking Christlike love.
The Church is still divided. There are still so many issues we need to address as the family of God. Our house must be united or it will not stand. With all that being said, surely we can examine the reaction from people across the faith spectrum this week and take note for the future. We must stand with the people being told they are not welcome. Loving every person is the foundation of our faith calling. Let's learn from our defense of Beth Moore.
The day that a progressive Christian music artist reposted a Beth Moore devotional tweet thread...that was the day I finally paid attention. I clicked and I scrolled for a while that day, playing catch up on Beth's Internet presence with growing surprise and excitement. Southern hospitality and promises of prayer for fellow believers were just the surface of her tweets. Digging deeper, I found loving interactions between her and Christian artists and speakers with varying backgrounds, ethnicities, beliefs, and sexualities. As the months have gone by, Beth's account has remained one of my favorite parts of Twitter, and really of the Internet in general. As a recovering cynic and (still) a critic of more charismatic Christian writers and speakers, I found myself looking for new tweets from Beth because they restored small parts of my trust in the evangelical church, an establishment that has certainly failed to make me feel safe and welcome to be myself in more recent years. Ultimately her character and unapologetic love for people of all walks of life is what has caused me to stick around and listen.
I will most certainly not share the video of John MacArthur's cruel and unnecessary speech and behavior that surfaced recently. His attack on Beth brought to light what many people in the Church had been able to ignore for quite some time: misogyny. In terms of my stance on women in the Church...well, I've already written a pretty clear post about that this year. I wouldn't say I lost any respect for MacArthur, because I didn't pay attention to his work in the first place. But his true colors did indeed show with that display of hatred for another human being.
Now, let me pause and reiterate what my goal with this blog has been since I returned to writing: to build bridges with my words and create a safe place for conversations between people with differing views to start. While I will not apologize for or back down from certain stances and beliefs I hold, there is still an underlying determination to listen and offer grace and empathy to everyone.
The reason so many Christians across the board are up in arms defending Beth Moore is simple: the misogynists came for a bridge builder, and people decided to pay attention. Beth has made so many people feel safe and suddenly someone who has never been without safety is telling her he doesn't want her to experience the same security. That's not just rotten, it's without feeling and is fully lacking Christlike love.
The Church is still divided. There are still so many issues we need to address as the family of God. Our house must be united or it will not stand. With all that being said, surely we can examine the reaction from people across the faith spectrum this week and take note for the future. We must stand with the people being told they are not welcome. Loving every person is the foundation of our faith calling. Let's learn from our defense of Beth Moore.
Comments
Post a Comment