Beth Moore’s memoir, “All My Knotted-Up Life,” released today (Tuesday, Feb. 21). On Monday, Feb. 20, Moore joined ABC News’ Linsey Davis to discuss her newest book, and during the interview, Moore explained she has a specific reason for now revealing that the person who sexually abused her as a child was her father.
“What is clear to me is that this subject matter has remained so general that people don’t know the pain of it and the cost of it to the victim,” said Moore. “And so it was important to me to put some color in it, place it in a home, give that home an address and a yard and a street, and understand what it is like to be in secret where you feel like you carry all of this shame.”
.@BethMooreLPM was one of the most celebrated female teachers in the Baptist faith until she spoke out against former Pres. Trump. She opens up to @LinseyDavis about the backlash, her decision to reveal a deep trauma from her childhood and new memoir, “All My Knotted-Up Life.” pic.twitter.com/KjAOiTPE7c
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) February 21, 2023
Beth Moore: Protect People, Not Power
Beth Moore is an influential author and Bible teacher whose “life took a turn,” as Davis put it, after Moore first spoke out against Donald Trump in 2016. After the “Access Hollywood” tape was leaked of Trump describing how feels free to sexually assault women, Moore spoke out in a series of tweets in which she said, “I’m one among many women sexually abused, misused, stared down, heckled, talked naughty to. Like we liked it. We didn’t. We’re tired of it.”
In the years that followed, Moore, who was a member of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) at the time, received considerable pushback for her opposition to Trump and for speaking out on behalf of women, as well as for at times preaching during Sunday morning services.
In 2021, Moore announced that she was leaving the SBC, saying that she is “still a Baptist, but I can no longer identify with Southern Baptists. I love so many Southern Baptist people, so many Southern Baptist churches, but I don’t identify with some of the things in our heritage that haven’t remained in the past.”
RELATED: Beth Moore, Part 2—What It Was Like to Leave the SBC
Davis asked if Moore’s experience as a woman in the SBC had led her to consider leaving the denomination even before 2016. Moore acknowledged that there were times certain situations seemed “off” to her, but said that she would explain them away using Scripture.
She put the behavior down, not to a lack of respect, but to how certain people viewed authority in the church based on the Bible. Moore said she kept this view until she realized, “Wait a second, I don’t think that this is about Scripture. I think this is about power.”
She said, “When I watched so many champion Donald Trump in October of 2016” and soon after saw the SBC start to deal with its “sexual abuse crisis,” she realized that the support of Trump “was not an anomaly.”
RELATED: SBC Executive Committee Releases List of Alleged and Convicted Sex Abusers
