More recently, MacArthur made headlines when he referred to the concept of religious liberty as “nonsense” in a sermon to his congregation.
“No Christian with half a brain would say, ‘We support religious freedom.’ We support the truth,” MacArthur said. MacArthur’s words raised alarm bells for many evangelicals, particularly Southern Baptists, for whom religious liberty is a theological distinctive.
MacArthur has also spoken directly about the goings on of the SBC, giving warnings and rebukes to the Convention for what he perceives as having departed from the Bible on issues of gender and race.
In a now infamous word association game that took place at MacArthur’s “Truth Matters Conference” in 2019, MacArthur told formerly SBC-affiliated author and Bible teacher Beth Moore to “go home.”
RELATED: Two Years Later, Beth Moore Addresses John MacArthur Telling Her to ‘Go Home’
“Just because you have the skill to sell jewelry on the TV sales channel, doesn’t mean you should be preaching,” MacArthur said of Moore. “There are people who have certain hawking skills—natural abilities to sell, they have energy and personality and all of that. That doesn’t qualify you to preach.”
MacArthur went on in that same response to criticize the SBC’s Resolution 9 regarding critical race theory and intersectionality, saying that the Convention was overturning the “clear teaching of Scripture to empower people who want power.”
These sentiments regarding the direction of the SBC are shared by those within the CBN, which was formed in 2020 to combat what it sees as a “liberal drift” in the Convention.
Upon purchasing tickets, attendees to the event are given links to resources that express a litany of grievances with SBC leadership, and the CBN urges attendees to help them “save the SBC.” The event will be held on the evening of Sunday, June 12, in the ballroom of a hotel nearby the Anaheim Convention Center.
