One person pointed out that in the hymn, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” Charles Wesley wrote, “Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly.” Another user, whose Twitter bio lists him as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Religion at Baylor University with a focus on identity formation in medieval and early modern Europe, tweeted, “Simply begging people calling Beth Moore unchristian for using romantic language in spiritual contexts to read *anything* by medieval Christians.”
Historian Dr. Beth Allison Barr, who is also at Baylor, responded, “I totally just said that to someone off Twitter!”
Author and historian Dr. Jemar Tisby responded to Smietana, saying, “And the tweet is from ::checks notes:: two weeks ago! It took them a while, but when they decide to attack they get in formation and on message. Plus, they have no problem with all the ‘Jesus is my boyfriend’ CCM songs.”
Yet others see the backlash against Moore as “redirected rage” from evangelicals upset about the recent FBI raid at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
