Discernment: Women on the ‘Speaking circuit’- example, Jackie Hill Perry

By Elizabeth Prata

Jackie Hill Perry Partnering with Bill Johnson at Bethel Music School

Woman are biblically urged to be at home, tend to their home, abide in their home, and perform duties oriented to the home. Are you getting the idea? The Proverbs 31 woman did all she did FOR the home, which is biblically her sphere.

1 Timothy 5:14, Titus 2:5, Proverbs 14:1 are just a few of the verses that outline a woman’s sphere.

That’s not to say that the husband and the wife may make other decisions based on certain circumstances. That’s not to say that at certain times it may require a woman to be away from the home for work or other reasons. I am not setting a mandate.

The Bible however, does make some clear statements that a wife’s primary orientation circulates around the home- especially when she has children. It should be her priority. This isn’t a popular statement these days.

In 2016 at the height of popularity for Joanna Gaines of Magnolia Enterprises, I wrote that she was a hypocrite and a liar. Joanna constantly claimed in interviews and on her TV program “Fixer Upper” that she was a mom first and her children were her priority. I showed with facts that this was not true. Her orientation was for herself according to her own “testimony”, her enterprises, her books, her speaking, her TV program, her bakery, her furniture store, her design products, her book tour, and so on. I received a LOT of heat for saying this. But I mean, you could even SEE it on the TV show. Facts are facts.

Don’t only listen to what they say. Watch what they do. Both must match up.

I took heat for saying that Beth Moore was also a hypocrite and a liar for the same reason- not there for her kids. Beth’s public speaking engagements, IRS tax return statements of working 50 hours a week as President of her corporation, her own admissions in her blog writing of travels for writing, book tours, and television taping added up to a busy career women. Her lifestyle contradicted her claim that she was at home for her kids. Eventually, a few years later when her two daughters were grown they admitted in an interview that mom was gone a lot, dad picked up the slack, and they “ate a lot of takeout.” The interviewer also said of Moore, ‘Her days are tightly scheduled and obsessively focused on writing. She spends hours alone in an office…”

She is boisterous and rebellious, Her feet do not dwell at home; (Proverbs 7:11)

Speaking of hypocrites, when Diana Stone was writing for She Reads Truth, we read in Diana Stone’s bio that, “You can find her in the mornings with a cup of coffee and her Bible flung open, preparing for the day ahead.” And “With a sweet daughter in tow, Diana clings to God’s Word daily.” It turns out that Mrs Stone relaxes with the Bible “flung open” … after she drops her daughter to daycare. At the time of that writing, in 2014, the couple had employed a part time nanny care for their daughter in their home so Mrs Stone could work as a freelance writer. After bumping along with several nannies, they put their child in daycare so Mrs Stone could continue to write at home. So yes, she was at home…while a day care worker took care of her kid.

Don’t only listen to what they say. Watch what they do. It must match up.

Mr Jerry Shirer “does his share of housework and child care so that Priscilla can study and write. He travels with his wife everywhere. Whenever possible, they take their sons along on her speaking trips, but they often deposit the boys with Jerry’s mother.” Quote

It is impossible for a woman to claim undivided attention for the children at home AND have an outside the house career, especially when it’s evident by reading their blogs, seeing their speaking schedules, and just having common sense to see their lifestyle.

When a woman has a full-time “ministry,” AKA career, it means the children will suffer a lack of attention from the mom. Which brings us to another career woman, Jackie Hill Perry. One of the main indicators of whether a woman is genuinely converted and submitted to the word of God is seeing her home life. Where is her attention? If she is a mother, do her children come first? Did she submit to the word of God as per her role and let go other entanglements? Or is she using the word “ministry” as a synonym for career and living a lifestyle at odds with the word of God?

In Jackie’s case, she has four children under the age of 10. To the best of my research, her kids are currently 9, 6, 3, and 2. Unlike Joanna, Beth, and Diana, Jackie hasn’t to my knowledge claimed to be an at-home mom. She is proud of her kids and writes of them often, but doesn’t try to maintain a fiction of being a SAHM.

At Jackie’s website her speaking engagements for 2023 were listed. It looked like a busy year of travel away from her children for this mom of four.

2023:
March 10-11. New Orleans, LA.
March 17-18. Atlanta (Decatur), GA.
April 14-15. Kansas City, MO.
April 21-22. Philadelphia, PA.
August 18-19. Greensboro, NC.
September 8-9. Grand Rapids (Wyoming), MI.
September 22-23. Dallas, TX.
September 29-30. Sacramento, CA
October 27-28. Knoxville TN

I wrote yesterday about JHP’s trajectory away from orthodoxy and that in many people’s estimation (mine included) partnering with heretic Bill Johnson AT Bethel to teach at their music school crossed the line.

Jackie Hill Perry claims to hear directly from God, basks with heretics, refuses wise counsel, rejects correction, and calls setting doctrinal boundaries ‘tribalism.’ But add to the cadre of items to be reviewed when assessing an influencer or teacher, is her home life.

I think it is QUITE telling when a mom of children gallivants all around the country for speaking engagements, leaving the care of her children to someone else (OR dragging them with her like Shirer did) in order to curate her own career. Oh, they call it “ministry”, they call it “using their God-given gifts”, but it’s a career. When you have kids, according to God, your ministry IS the kids. A woman’s priority according to the word of God, should be at home with them, raising them, keeping the home.

If a wife/mom won’t submit to the priority of God in this instance, what else of God does she rebel against?

Jackie Hill Perry is false. Avoid her.