The evangelical world can be ugly.
And this week has unearthed some of that ugliness right before the eyes of the church and beyond. I wish it wasn’t like this. But it is and will always be.
For those of you unaware, a video clip of famous leader and preacher John MacArthur has gone viral from a conference that occurred over the weekend. During what looks like the Q & A portion of the conference John MacArthur is asked to give a one or two word response to certain words. The first Word? Beth Moore. A flash of chuckles rumbles through the audience before MacArthur finally respond’s with “Go home.” Making the auditorium burst into cheers and laughter.
This was a deeply disappointing response. It was unloving, arrogant and ungodly. In fact, it was just kinda gross.
When my husband and I were dating and young in our faith John MacArthur was a hugely positive influence in our discipleship. He preached the Word in a way that gripped us and made us want to go deeper ourselves. We read his books and listened to his teaching; we’ve been blessed by John MacArthur.
Over the years our world has opened to new voices of wisdom, new teachers, and new books. Yet we’ve held his influence dear.
But I can’t and won’t defend this. He knows better and no amount of good legacy can make what he said right. Also, this isn’t new for MacArthur whose built a lot of his ministry on polemics; who and what he’s against. It’s really not the first time he’s unapologetically made less-than-careful sweeping judgements about people who are in fact his brothers and sisters in Christ. People he will live in heaven with. His eternal neighbors.
I do not agree with everything Beth Moore says. Nor do I agree with every secondary issue she takes a stand on. But as far as I know, she has never said anything definitively heretical. And she has worked tirelessly for years to see women come into the presence of the Lord through His Word. Before it was cool, Moore has sought to love and teach women the Bible.
She is my sister-in-Christ. She’s also John MacArthurs.
Which makes what he said and did in public to the cheers of others this weekend a sin against his family member from the household of God.
It was in direct opposition to James 3:9-10,
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?
No it can’t. It’s simple hypocrisy to worship Christ at a conference, then turn around and curse someone with the same mouth.
This was sin. And I hope and pray he apologizes.
Popular blogger and TV personality, Jen Hatmaker responded in a lengthy post, which I read and emphatically nodded in agreement through. That is until her qualms became about the doctrine and not the man.
Here’s the thing, and let’s make it crystal clear, this frustrating display of male misogyny does not indict God. And it does not indict His Word. It is never good hermeneutics to make huge theological leaps when a sinner acts like a sinner.
I understand the impulse to say it’s MacArthurs complimentarity that made him say those things. But if we did this with every other theological doctrine, we’d have to throw out all of them. Christian’s are still sinners. Christians who espouse both liberal and conservative theological views still sin every single day. Which means if every time I sinned in large or small ways my beliefs went on trial, they would never leave examination. Human sin should not incriminate biblical doctrine.
We must hold the magnifying glass over the Bible, not the human – over Jesus, not his people – in order to know truth.
Indeed the hope is that God’s people would always be loving, would never curse others and would act rightly in all situations. We should be better. However sanctification takes a long time and we are often slow learners. All of us. Even the big named ones.
For this reason we must ask the question “What does the Bible say about gender and equality?” Not “what does John MacArthur or Jen Hatmaker or (insert your favourite pastor here) say about gender equality?” Because God and His inspired Word sits way above them all.
Think of the good that could have come if MacArthurs “one word” response to that baiting Beth Moore question was simply…”sister”. What if he went on to say that he doesn’t agree with everything she says, but she’s his sister and for that, he loves her. What if he had funnelled his thoughts about her through the sieve of the beatitudes before he ever opened his mouth.
And what if we treated, even the people we disagree with, with that kind of dignity and respect?
Then and only then will the world know us by our love.
Let this be a lesson to all of us on how our words reveal our heart. How a thoughtless quip, even one that invokes laughter, can tear down a fellow saint in the faith and damage our reputation and good biblical doctrines.
Oh church, let’s do better.
hisgracemygrowth 