Female Pastors: Beth Moore vs. Elisabeth Elliot
In recent days, the Southern Baptist denomination has had much debate, tension, and controversy regarding Beth Moore—a popular Bible teacher and author—and her position and influence in the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as her view female pastors.
The discussion of female pastors is certainly not a new debate, to say the least. However, it is a topic that has been brought to the limelight due to the interaction Beth Moore had on Twitter, notably with other public theologians like Owen Strachan.
This started as Beth Moore tweeted about teaching a men’s Bible study in order to provoke Calvinists, and revealed she was going to preach a sermon in the pulpit on Mother’s Day. This caused Owen Strachan to reply with Scripture references and laying out the biblical foundation for why the role of pastors and church elders is for men. After this interaction, Moore posted a series of tweets on May 11th on the topic of women and preaching.
First, it’s important to emphasize that I respect and appreciate how Moore started off the tweets. She acknowledged sin and weaknesses in her life, and acknowledged that there are many godly and loving Christians who are complementarians and disagree with her views on female pastors. She also emphasized the importance of reading all of what Scripture has to say regarding women and focusing deeply on how Jesus viewed and treated women. To all of this, I would say an emphatic and wholehearted “amen!”
However, Moore then went on not to explain her stance with Scripture, but argued that sin lies at the root of this debate. She said:
“Then I realized it was not over scripture at all. It was over sin. It was over power. It was over misogyny. Sexism. It was about arrogance. About protecting systems. It involved covering abuses & misuses of power. Shepherds guarding other shepherds instead of guarding the sheep.”
I want to be clear that I don’t deny for an instant the true, awful reality and trauma that abuse, sin, and sexism has had on many church members that have been recently uncovered in great detail in this denomination. This continually needs to be confronted, spoken out against, repented of, and forsaken for good. I appreciate all who speak to this end.
It is very important, however, as we look at Beth Moore’s flow of thought, that we do not blend two areas into one. The question of “can women be pastors” is primarily a biblical question. What does the Word of God say on this topic? Sinful power structures in the church with selfish goals do need to be boldly called out and ended. However, if Moore’s point is that the complementarian view that women are not to be pastors in the church is rooted in sexism, power structures, and misogyny instead of Scripture, I would take a great pause to look at Scripture and church history very closely.
We find one of the key passages relating to this topic in the book of 1 Timothy. The Apostle Paul, instructing Timothy how the church as a local body is to function writes, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet” (1 Timothy 2:12). He doesn’t ground this in the fact of adequacy, education, mental ability, or worth, but he grounds it in the order of creation. Paul goes on to say, “For Adam was formed first, then Eve…” (v. 13). Paul references the order of creation before the fall, that is to say, this is not a curse of fallen nature, but a good and perfect design made for His glory and for our good.
Another key text is 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 where Paul writes, “As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.” Again, Paul writes, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to the Corinthian church on how the local body and assembly of believers are to conduct themselves, in particular, with the teaching of God’s Word.
This is important to keep clear when reading 1 Corinthians, for it does not mean women cannot speak in church, fellowship with others, teach other women and children, or serve in many ways. It is referring to the main assembly of believers and how the teaching of God’s Word is to be ministered. This is why Paul starts with, “As in all the churches of the saints.” We see that Paul applies this universal principle to the church and that it is grounded in God’s perfect order and creation. I would argue the main reason the church has historically held to this complementarian view of Scripture is due to what we see from the context and teaching of the New Testament on how the church is to operate.
Similarly, when Paul outlines the qualifications of pastors and teachers in the church, he specifically gives qualifications for men, “He desires a noble task…” and, “Must be… husband of one wife…” (1 Timothy 3:2).
The New Testament is filled with a high view of women and their vital and essential roles and functions in the church. I would refer you to Owen Strachan’s article Divine Order: in a Chaotic Age: On Women Preaching to read more on this.
With this in mind, I would like to direct our attention to Elisabeth Elliot, who was a Christian author, speaker, missionary and evangelist. Elliot spent a great deal of her ministry discussing the importance of the distinctions between men and women and God’s design for their lives. In her book “Let Me Be a Woman”, Elliot writes:
“What sort of world might it have been if Eve had refused the Serpent’s offer and had said to him instead, ‘Let me not be like God. Let me be what I was made to be -- let me be a woman?’”
Elliot, continuing on that theme found freedom in pursuing the distinct calling of womanhood:
“...so the woman who accepts the limitations of womanhood finds in those very limitations her gifts...”
Elisabeth Elliot, like many other women and men of faith, saw the deep importance of not neglecting the differences in roles God has laid out for the church in manhood and womanhood. She wrote in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood:
“I would be the last to deny that women are given gifts that they are meant to exercise. But we must not be greedy in insisting on having all of them, in usurping the place of men. We are women, and my plea is Let me be a woman, holy through and through, asking for nothing but what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands and with all my heart, whatever that is. No arguments would ever be needed if we all shared the spirit of the ‘most blessed among women.’”
What I love about Elliot and her legacy is her deep commitment to honoring and obeying God, including living in accordance with how God has made her in her womanhood. I would like to see Beth Moore engage in an exegesis of the texts mentioned above (and many others in the New Testament) so as to give real and clear biblical arguments for the egalitarian position that women are able to preach in the local church.
It is too often, like in the example of Moore’s Twitter exchange, that this examination is not done. It is the Word of God alone that we must submit every area of our lives to, including every area of our local church and how it functions and operates. We do this because the God we serve is good, perfect, and created us with purpose and love. His will and revelation supersede all that contemporary culture has to say, and we must obey and honor Him as followers of Christ.