Finally, I am ABSOLUTELY supportive of women in ministry.If you think I’m dismissing women’s experience, I’m actually celebrating these women’s experience and holding them up as a counter-narrative to the Beth Moore phenomenon. Really! However, for those women who do not have a positive experience or are wondering about it, I offer these women’s lived experiences for you. That’s awesome and I celebrate that for you. I am ABSOLUTELY not dismissing women’s lived experience of Beth Moore or the transformations that she has had in their lives.I am saying Beth Moore is appropriate for Baptist women within their theological system and NOT appropriate for Methodists and the Wesleyan system. I am ABSOLUTELY not dismissing Moore’s ministry, faith, perspective, or obvious love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for helping women form a relationship with Christ.Some disclaimers (or pre-emptive strikes, if you will): I’ve categorized them and I’ve done some light editing to proofread/anonymize them but 98% of the quotes is their words. So I don’t know what that is like and I’m hesitant to comment on it…īut luckily for you… I have woman friends! To be more specific, a half-dozen mainline (not crazy liberal and not crazy conservative) United Methodist women who are either clergy or clergy spouses have done at least two full studies and video programs with Beth Moore in their churches and wrote about their concerns to me. I haven’t watched these videos in a woman’s group and been inspired and had the discussions afterward. I have no idea what it feels like to be a woman and see a confident, capable female biblical scholar whose passion about the Bible is infectious. Here’s where I’m on shaky ground: I’m not a woman. So what is a United Methodist clergyperson or church to do with Beth Moore? While Moore is perfectly at peace and in sync with the Baptist tradition (other than being a female teacher in an anti-women-preacher denomination), her brand of theology and way of reading the bible conflicts with the Wesleyan tradition and the United Methodist Church’s doctrine to which it has spread. One of my facebook friends described Beth Moore as Methodist Kudzu: a plant that was taken from its natural habitat and now runs wild causing havok. Therein lies part of the problem of Beth Moore. Also, there’s usually pressure for male United Methodist ministers to allow this dynamic woman into their Sunday Schools or else they get accused of misogyny. It used to be that pastors could prohibit it by saying “We only allow curriculum from Cokesbury” but Cokesbury sells her materials now. She is very popular and is probably the #1 moneymaker for LifeWay Christian Bookstores, a Southern Baptist affiliated chain of bookstores (similar to Methodist’s Cokesbury).īecause she is massively successful, her videos are inspirational, and her events are empowering to women, it is not uncommon to find a Beth Moore bible study in a United Methodist Church in the Bible Belt. “If someone is setting fire to your house, why would you let them in?” The Problem of Beth Moore: Introductionīeth Moore is a Southern Baptist author, teacher, and evangelist, and the founder of Living Proof ministries that offers videos, bible studies, and events for women. The colleague responded with this concise one-liner that we’ll expand on in one of the longest posts ever at Hacking Christianity: A colleague was asked why they wouldn’t allow a Beth Moore bible study to be used by a Sunday School class. One of the more frequent arguments I’ve seen in the church lately is about Beth Moore.
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