OK, so full disclosure; I’ve never heard a Beth Moore sermon; I’ve never read any of her books; I have never heard or read anything longer than a 30 second snippet of her thoughts on the radio. I know she exists, and I have only a vague idea of what she looks like and sounds like. And so, I’m not really interested, in talking about Beth Moore, herself. If I had followed her speaking and writing in any meaningful way, then maybe I might have something to say about her – but I didn’t so I won’t.
I would like to say, however, that what we’re seeing in the SBC is, in fact, a bellwether – not only of the future of the SBC, but the future of Evangelicalism, and even Western Christianity more broadly. The divides currently splitting the SBC are also fomenting discord and division within mainline Protestantism (at least the mainline denominations that haven’t already split) and within Catholicism – or at least sectors of Catholicism. And the issues that are dividing the Church in the West are not traditional issues of Orthodoxy. It isn’t questions about the Divinity and humanity of Christ, about the Triunity of God, about the Resurrection, about Salvation, even. Instead, the issues dividing the Church are issues that have become highly politicized, but have tended to go unquestioned for the past 2,000 years, issues like homosexuality, transgenderism, feminism, specifically, women in ministry. Moreover, Critical Race Theory, a totalizing worldview about 50 years old, seeks to completely revamp the Christian view of sin and social dysfunction, creating a parallel and often contradictory understanding of salvation.
And, I predict that not only the SBC, but many of the Evangelical denominations that haven’t already split will do, and by split, I’m not saying that new denominations need to be formed, but that churches are going to leave denominations in large numbers looking for new homes. This has already happened in Mennonite Church USA, years ago, where the conservatives left the denomination to the liberals. Sometimes it was whole churches, sometimes it was just individuals and families, but the denomination, in the US, hemorrhaged numbers. And we’re already seeing this in the SBC – people like Beth Moore, and some black pastors who tend to be on the liberal wing of the denomination, they’re leaving because they think that the SBC is too conservative and run by white nationalists. On the other hand, there are lots of conservatives, who see that vocal and power-hungry Wokeists are seeking to gain institutional power (like they do everywhere) and fear that the denomination is going to go Woke and so the conservatives are threatening to leave to force the Convention to not grant institutional power to the Woke.
And in many ways, this is very sad, in other ways it’s simply predictable. Evangelicalism, and non-Catholic Western theology in general, is naturally prone to splitting. In Catholicism, people’s allegiance is to the Church as the source, and repository, and dispenser of truth and grace through the Magisterium and the sacraments. Within Protestantism, the allegiance is not (at least in theory) to any church or denomination – but (theoretically) to God and truth itself. Because Protestantism doesn’t place as high an emphasis on loyalty to a Church, it is more prone to split. That’s just the cost of Protestant Theology. Catholics are willing to endure that there are other Catholics who teach and preach things that they utterly despise, but their allegiance is to the Church. Obviously, there are downsides to both positions. Allegiance to a denomination means surrendering the power to vote with your feet. Allegiance to truth means that churches will forever be dividing and breaking the unity of the Body.
Evangelicalism was a reaction against the narrowness of Fundamentalism. But in trying to be big tent, the tent got too big. And when the tent gets too big and everybody can get into the tent and start declaring what the tent should be about, sooner or later, the people in the tent have no discernible identity. Which isn’t a bad thing if you’re allegiance is primarily to the tent and being a person in the tent. But if you’re allegiance is to something other than the tent and being in the tent then people are willing to leave the tent. Now, granted, there are a LOT of Evangelicals who are committed to the tent. There are a lot of Baptists who are committed to being Baptists and Lutherans and Methodists and Mennonites and Presbyterians who find their identity in the tent. They love the tent and can’t imagine not being in the tent. It isn’t just Catholics who are committed to their tent. But non-Catholics, tend to have more people in the tent who aren’t committed to the tent. And, like I said, just a minute ago, that makes the tent unstable. When there’re lotsa people in the tent who don’t really give a crap about the tent, those people are willing to leave, some at the drop of a hat, some only after fighting nail and tooth and losing some bitter struggles.
And this isn’t new. There have always been divisive struggles in the church. And predominantly, these divisive struggles in the Church have not been about primary issues of the gospel but about cultural iterations of the Gospel. Not about the Gospel itself but what the Gospel looks like when it has to be lived out in a culture. For example, let’s look at Acts 15:
15 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
16 “‘After this I will return
and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
and I will restore it,
17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’
18 things known from long ago.
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” (NIV)
The Pharisees in the Church loved God. And they loved the Gentiles. But they were bound by their culture and couldn’t see past it. That doesn’t make them bad – but it does make them wrong. And what they needed was what happened – men who saw a little more clearly preached the Word of God to them, in a way that was a little less culturally bound so they could see beyond their culture and see God’s truth.
And the fact that these struggles keep surfacing shouldn’t be a surprise! In fact, we should expect that every generation of the Church in every place where there is a Church will have to hash out what it means to be a Christian and what it means to practice Christianity and that that debate, the discernment, and the distinctions will cause discord and division. It is unavoidable and it is unending. Theology is never settled. Despite what many of my best friends think, theology was not finished by Calvin, or Luther, or Simons, or John Paul the II. Christianity is an incomplete project because it is peopled by incomplete people. Christianity is unfinished because Christians are unfinished.
And while we may think that we have the ability, unlike everyone who came before us, to look at the Scriptures with clear eyes and an unbiased mind and come to a right understanding of all things, we can’t and we won’t. All theology is a cultural artefact because we are all enculturated beings. Our cultures affect and shape and limit us in unlimited ways. Some of which we’re aware of, most of which we aren’t. That means that the Christianity I seek to live, preach, and teach is necessarily different from Paul’s or Augustine’s or Aquinas’ or Simons’. And this is good and bad. As our culture changes we see the blind spots of other cultures – but it creates new blindspots. The best we can hope for is to enter into the process whereby we’re able to see beyond our culture and get glimpses of the eternal truths of the Scriptures. It will always be an incomplete project, but it’s a necessary one. Paul tells us in Romans 12 to not be conformed to the pattern of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We have to look beyond our own time and place and experience if we wish to see the world as God sees it and to live as God would have us to live. We’ll never, in this world, finish renewing our minds, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make progress. We should make progress. We should keep praying for wisdom to see past ourselves and to receive and believe eternal truth from God.