Remembering 2019: Beth Moore, Mother’s Day, and women preaching
By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
I state in this essay that women preaching is a significant rebellion against God’s standards. I emphasize that such behavior undermines the church and God’s commands, regardless of societal trends.
On April 27, 2019 self-identified obnoxious and mischievous false teacher Beth Moore asked her sycophants to list ‘what they would do if you could still do what you do but had the margin to pursue other stuff just for fun’? Moore listed her 5 things, and then commented on others’ lists they had shared in reply.
Moore is a loudmouth who loves to poke the bear. That is, as she said, she deliberately gets people riled up. I’ve mentioned before that a woman is to be quiet, graceful, helpful, and not divisive. The Bible lists these qualities as pleasing to God in women. Moore is the opposite. Her disdain for ‘Calvinists’, for men, and for the Bible is evident in her tweet.
So Miss Courtney admitted to being scheduled to preach a Sunday Service in a Southern Baptist church. Moore replied that she was going to do the same.
A storm erupted.
“In 2019, Moore posted a tweet suggesting she would be preaching in a church on Mother’s Day — though she didn’t use the word “preach” — setting off an uproar in the conservative denomination about whether women should be permitted to preach. She said she watched in amazement as that conversation immediately supplanted the discussion of a sexual abuse scandal that was rocking the church.” (Source)
Christians in the more conservative denominations were probably aware that the more liberal denominations and sections of the faith have allowed women to preach for a long time (i.e. Methodist, Charismatic…). In their own denominations, many perhaps did not know, or if they knew they ignored the issue of women regularly preaching. Shamefully, the Southern Baptist Convention turned a blind eye to the false prophetess and false teacher Beth Moore who for years had regularly preached to men in church services and in Sunday School. She was a sacred cow. Untouchable. Satan-protected. If you doubt just how much Moore was untouchable, witness the huge controversy a mere 5 months later in 2019 when John MacArthur said Moore should “Go home.”
Uproar was a good word in that article. Once she burst the delicate bubble of bystanders pretending not to see the sacred cow walking down the middle of the street, when the boy shouted that the Emperor wore no clothes, Moore was outed as a rebel. And this was a controversy that didn’t go away, as many of them did after Moore had said something divisive, biblically untrue, or just plain obnoxious. This controversy not only didn’t dissipate, it grew.
By the time June rolled around, Moore had to address it. And as usual, she deflected.
“We were in the middle of the biggest sexual abuse scandal that has ever hit our denomination,” Moore told Religion News Service. “And suddenly, the most important thing to talk about was whether or not a woman could stand at the pulpit and give a message.” (Source)
Jesus will not accept an argument which says one’s own sin should be ignored because there are worse sins out there.
Women preaching to men in the church is not a third tier issue or a fringe issue or a ‘get over it’ issue. It is a problem. Women preaching is a HUGE problem and it’s getting worse every year.
First, why is this a problem?
It’s out and out rebellion. It is a violation of scripture. It ignores God’s standards and roles for each gender.
There is one clear, non-debatable verse which states it:
But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. (1 Timothy 2:12).
Others reference a woman’s duties,
Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior… (Titus 2:3a)
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 says, Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. / If they wish to inquire about something, they are to ask their own husbands at home; for it is dishonorable for a woman to speak in the church.
When the verse says “dishonorable” the Greek word means “In the New Testament, αἰσχρός is used to describe actions, behaviors, or conditions that are considered morally or ethically unacceptable. It often carries a connotation of public disgrace or dishonor.” A woman preaching is disgracing the pulpit and polluting it with shame.
The 1 Corinthians 14 verse says it is DISHONORABLE for a woman to preach. Here is the Greek Lexicon explaining the meaning of the word dishonorable-
So; a woman preaching is shameful, morally inappropriate, unholy, unacceptable.
This wink-wink nudge-nudge attitude about preacher Moore and other women who were preaching remained in the SBC for many decades. The bubble must not be breached. A few voices warned that the ill-effects of Beth Moore’s preaching example would spread like leaven, and a few voices insisted that any woman preaching was a devastating leaven allowed to ferment. There were exhortations, but those voices were largely relegated to the fringes.
But yes. It IS important. As MacArthur said above, woman standing at a pulpit giving a sermon to men in the church is a usurpation. It is rebellion. It is front-and-center a visible poke in God’s eye against Jesus’ standards for men, women, and the church. HIS church.
Sadly, the problem of women preaching in the church has only grown. The Mother’s Day camel nose was under the tent and soon the whole camel followed. Whole denominations have fallen prey to the errant notion that women are just as qualified as men to preach. Women are capable to teach, many examples abound in the Bible where women are lauded for their various evangelistic and teaching abilities. But we are not biblically qualified to preach during the church service and never to men anywhere.
If you notice, many influential women preach and they serve as an example by optics or by overt agitation for other women to preach. Aimee Byrd left the Presbyterian denomination she was a member of for so long as she left complementarianism behind. She struggled to find a church according to her, but then when she visited a Methodist church led by a woman (who has just had a baby) Aimee felt she had come home. She even recalled her feelings when she saw the priestly garbed female “reverend” with her baby strapped to her chest while preaching as a “powerful, beautiful act of God”.
It isn’t. It is an abomination to God and He hates it.
The visible and UNCORRECTED vision of a woman preaching IS like leaven. Aimee Byrd’s September 2023 essay was even titled, “What a Woman Pastor Showed Me.” She was speaking of New Hope United Methodist Church of Greater Brunswick MD where Katie O’Hern Hamilton preached. With baby.
You will notice that this particular church as been led by women recently life:
Just as feminism has brought havoc to our society from the top to the bottom, from work life to in-home families, so has the issue of women preaching brought havoc in the church. Mothers Day is a man made holiday and it is not an excuse to set aside God’s standards. His standards are from heaven, are eternal, and are perfect. Do the women preachers on Mother’s Day think the conversation on judgment day will go like this?
Jesus: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the eternal image of God, the Perfect which has come. Why were you preaching when I said in my word not to?
Woman: Well it was Mother’s Day!
Jesus: Oh, that’s right. Good job! A man would not have expressed My eternal word better than you could because you’re a woman and a mother and he is not.
Or maybe it would go like this:
Jesus: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the eternal image of God, the Perfect which has come. Why were you preaching when I said in my word not to?
Woman: It was Mother’s Day!
Jesus: Do you believe a man-made day is more important than MY day, the Sabbath? I told Isaiah what I would do to sinners. ‘Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it’. I will exterminate YOU! Depart from me you who do iniquity!
An look at the word exterminate goes like this:
The concept of שָׁמַד (shamad) underscores the seriousness of divine judgment and the complete eradication of evil as part of God’s redemptive plan. It serves as a warning to those who defy God’s commands and a reassurance to the faithful that God will ultimately triumph over wickedness. Strong’s Hebrew
It is not popular to say that women should not preach. But when has any particular aspect of Christianity at certain moments been popular?
Ephesians 6:2 says HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (the first commandment with a promise), which is based on Exodus 20:12
Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
We are to honor the parents every day, not just one day a year. Supplanting God from the Sunday pulpit in order to participate in a man-made holiday is not an excuse. If you are in a church with a female pastor, or a co-pastor, you are not in a church. You are in a Satan club and the smell of brimstone should be in your nostrils. If you leave, repent, and fall on the grace and mercy of God you will smell the sweet aroma of forgiveness.
Further Resources
Is it biblical for women to be pastors or elders? For the Gospel
