CHRISTIAN OR IDEOLOGUE?:

While the original reports about her departure accurately note that Beth faced angry resistance within the SBC when she opposed Trump, attacked Christian nationalism and white supremacy, and stood with victims of sexual abuse within the church (and even note that her ministry lost $1.8 million between 2017 and 2019), it's hard to fully capture the sheer, relentless cruelty, mockery, and malice she has endured for years.

You can go down entire YouTube rabbit holes featuring video after video of Christian critics attacking her in sneering and condescending terms. The online abuse has been astounding. Critics dissected her public statements syllable by syllable, and fired missile after missile from their theological and ideological citadels. The message was simple--Beth Moore is wrong. The gloves are off. 

In evaluating the reality of the last five years, what has been more salient and relevant to the daily lives of so many American Christians, the fact of disagreement with brothers and sisters or the manner of disagreement with brothers and sisters? 

There is a tremendous, yawning difference between humble and kind members of competing Evangelical factions and cruel and self-righteous gladiators in the public square. It's not merely or mainly the ideological differences that tear apart friendships, it's the knowledge--as my friend Russell Moore (no relation to Beth) wrote recently--that every word from your mouth "will lead to psychological warfare."

And make no mistake, while Beth has experienced an avalanche of rage and hate from the right, there is no single church faction or ideological side that has a monopoly on cruelty. The spirit of the age declares that if you get the "big" things correct (your political ideology, your complementarian or egalitarian theology) then cruelty and self-righteousness in the pursuit of those goals are either minor flaws ("bad manners") or outright virtues (after all, didn't Jesus drive the money-changers from the temple with a whip?)

But it's past time to acknowledge that we're often turning our priorities upside-down. It's past time to acknowledge that cruelty is its own form of apostasy. Cruelty is disobedience. 

The biblical evidence is everywhere. In Matthew 7, Jesus warned his disciples against "false prophets," declaring "You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit."

In Galatians 5, Paul says, "[T]he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Reflecting on the primacy of issues or ideology, consider the first verses of 1 Corinthians 13:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

And what is love?

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

I can keep going and going. I will keep going. Recently a friend asked me to go back and reread the Westminster Catechism's explanation of the Sixth Commandment. "It's convicting," he said. And so it is:

Q134: Which is the sixth commandment?

A134: The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.

Q135: What are the duties required in the sixth commandment?

A135: The duties required in the sixth commandment are, all careful studies, and lawful endeavors, to preserve the life of ourselves  and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any; by just defense thereof against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit; a sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labor, and recreations; by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness; peaceable, mild and courteous speeches and behavior; forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil; comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent.

I wonder, does Beth Moore leave the SBC if the daily reality of her engagement with critics had been  characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness? Does this moment in the church feel so fraught if our disagreements are characterized by "compassion" and "patient bearing"? 

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