For his part, Russell Moore — who recently joined Immanuel, which is not part of the SBC — spoke about his public departure from the ERLC, which came after years of conflict and a pair of investigations into whether or not Moore’s public statements about Trump and issues like immigration and abuse had hurt the SBC.
Related article: No ‘Moore’ SBC: Russell Moore Is Leaving the ERLC and Joining Christianity Today
He said he could have stayed at the ERLC. But the cost would have been too high.
“I could have won the conflict that needed to be fought,” he said. “But I realized I would have to have a conflict. And I didn’t want to be the kind of person I would be on the other side of that.”
Russell Moore also noted his friendship with Beth Moore had come as a surprise. A proponent of complementarianism, a theology that prescribes different roles for men and women in the home and in the church and bars women from the pastorate, he had been critical of her leadership and ministry in the past.
With some chagrin, he pointed out that in 2006, he had called her teaching “a gateway drug to feminism,” a statement he now regrets.
When he was under fire, however, Beth Moore reached out with support, first by direct messages on Twitter, and later with texts. Russell Moore and his wife, Maria, eventually became friends and confidants with Beth Moore, supporting each other through the maelstrom that engulfed them both.
Russell Moore joked that many friends also supported him, some of them even offering to buy him a beer or share a shot with him, something that had not happened since he was a teenager.
Both of the Moores said that, while they have left the SBC, they have not lost their faith in Jesus. While both love the church, they urged the audience to put their faith in Jesus and trust God is at work.
“I couldn’t let myself ever think this doesn’t end well,” said Beth Moore. “Because that was unacceptable.”
Both of the Moores said they plan to stay in ministry, though Beth Moore admitted retreating from the public eye sounds appealing at times. But God called her to ministry, she said, and had not yet told her to stop.
She made that point while recalling an online controversy caused by outspoken California pastor John MacArthur, a noted critic of women in ministry. During an event in 2019, MacArthur said Moore should “ go home ” rather than teaching the Bible.
MacArthur’s comment, which was referenced several times on Thursday as a punchline for jokes, never bothered her, Beth Moore said, since the pastor was not a Southern Baptist and she did not know him.
Then she turned to the audience and whispered, “I am not going home.”
“You can’t make me, because you are not my boss.”
This article originally appeared at Religion News Service.
