The Beth Moore Controversy
Truth over people or people over truth? Beth Moore took to Twitter a couple days ago and created something of a firestorm by calling out men who hold to the complimentarian view of women not being Pastors as clearly laid out by Paul in 1st Timothy 2 and 1st Corinthians 14. Beth accused the men that she said she once thought of as trying to follow the Bible as actually just being sinful, misogynistic, sexist, and interpreting scripture in a wrong way for the purpose of lording their power over those under them.
Obviously there are always men who will place truth over people, and with their words, actions, and authority as a Pastor, they will actually abandon Biblical truth and use it to injure those they’ve been commanded to shepherd with love, gentleness, and grace (1st Peter 5). For those men who do step out of bounds and misuse their power and utilize the text to justify their actions, the truth is this: That behavior does not reflect the text itself in any way. Somebody’s misuse or abuse of the Bible is not the Bible’s fault, it’s simply, only the person who misused or abused it, and the Bible indeed judges those people.
The core argument used by those who hold the egalitarian view, the view that there are no God-directed gender distinctions in certain leadership roles in ministry, seems to be that since the text has been used to justify all kinds of horrible actions, it can therefore be ignored in certain areas. Now, they won’t come out and directly say that the text should be ignored, in fact, they’ll claim they’re following it to the letter, but in effect, they are pointing out the seeming unreasonableness of certain parts and subverting them. They have to because their position is quickly obliterated by scripture itself upon just a reading of the text, so they add all kinds of cultural bias, the fact that it was Paul and not Christ, and other reasons to dismantle the authority of Holy Spirit inspired scripture. Because of the people they’ve seen hurt by those who have misused the text, they approach ministry in a people-over-truth kind of way.
So, which approach is best? Truth over people or people over truth? I would say, and I think this is clearly reflected in the teaching of the Bible that it’s neither of those. I believe the true, Biblical mentality is truth FOR people. It’s a beautiful, Christlike mixture of never compromising on truth, but understanding that it’s for people to hear, so we must be salty and grace-filled in our approach while saying hard things most people won’t like. Obviously there will always be people who disagree with the truth and won’t accept it, but that doesn’t change our unwavering dedication to both truth and love. Lose either one of those, we lose everything.
So, why does it even matter? Because it matters to God. He made men and women different, and on purpose. He has different roles and responsibilities for each, no matter what our culture or sensibilities tell us. If we’re truly beholden to scripture, there may be things we don’t necessarily understand or even like, but at some point, either we submit because God’s ways are higher, or we disobey and try and make it say what we want while retaining the favorable stuff like eternal life and forgiveness for ourselves. Many I’ve talked with in the last two days take an approach like this: “The core message is about Christ. Everything else is secondary” which is a great way to purge Biblical commands you don’t like, which, Christ Himself wouldn’t affirm that handling at all. What many in the egalitarian view fail to understand is that difference in role does not equate to a difference in value, despite the fact that our political culture is bleeding into our theology in that way. Men and women are equally valued in God's eyes and women are not inferior to men, which is abundantly clear in scripture.
Because God holds in high regard the differences between men and women that He created, He assigns different roles to them in His church and within the home. Many see being the head of the household or lead Pastor in the church as just a privilege not extended to women as some form of negative block, but it’s actually a legitimate, God-given, weighty responsibility to where each man will stand before God and give an account. If we are doing things truly God’s way, with unwavering truth in love with people in mind, it will always be better. I’m the husband to a strong, vibrant, worship-leader wife and son to a strong, gifted, women’s-director mother, and I’m so grateful to serve with them, for the role they play in my life in how they sharpen me, and for the Biblical fidelity they both passionately pursue. They don’t submit to men for the men’s sake, they submit to God, so therefore they place themselves under the leadership of the men God has placed in their lives whether it always feels awesome and natural or not.
Is the egalitarian view heresy? No, I don’t believe so. I’m personal friends with several women who were called as Pastors in their churches, and I hope they can hear my heart and conviction as we disagree on this position. I love them. I love their talent and passion but I just don’t affirm their title Biblically. I personally take more issue with the men who appointed them, but I can still absolutely call them brother and sister. I will say though, while I believe it’s not elevated to the level of heresy, it is error which still has consequences. Often times, error is birthed out of a denial of certain scriptural mandates, which leads to more of the same, which can absolutely, inevitably, indeed lead to heresy. Liberalism leads to more liberalism. What Beth Moore and others in her camp are causing with this issue in one word: Division.
