Beth Moore on sexual immorality vs. criminality: 'Both are sin. ... But one calls the police.'

By Holly Meyer
Tennessean
June 11, 2018

https://tnne.ws/2MjV6eA

Popular writer and Bible teacher Beth Moore and Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, speak on a panel about abuse ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting this week in Dallas. Photo by Holly Meyer

Popular writer and Bible teacher Beth Moore speaks on a panel about abuse ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting this week in Dallas. Photo by Holly Meyer

Popular writer and Bible teacher Beth Moore says evangelicals must differentiate between sexual immorality and sexual criminality if they want the church to do better at addressing abuse.

"Both are sin and both demand repentance in order to be restored, but one calls the police," said Moore, the founder of Living Proof Ministries.

Christians cannot let guilt over their own personal sexual sins and temptations prevent them from reporting allegations, Moore said during a Monday afternoon panel in Dallas about responding to abuse in the church. 

"None of us want to throw stones, but it keeps us from even responding to a criminal situation because we think, 'Listen, I've had my own sexual dysfunction,' " Moore said. "There is a long, long shot of difference between sexual immorality and sexual criminality that we have got to get straight."

Her fellow panelist Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, built on that idea as hundreds of people gathered around to listen to the discussion, which took place ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention's big annual meeting here this week.

Russell Moore, who is not related to Beth Moore, said he has seen abusers time and again misuse grace in such a way that it hides them from being held accountable. He said that destroys what the New Testament teaches about the meaning of grace. 

"They're actually using mercy as a weapon to harm people so we have to define biblically what that looks like," Russell Moore said.

Amy Whitfield and Jonathan Howe, the hosts of the SBC This Week podcast, led the 40-minute panel that also featured Texas pastor Matt Carter, who leads The Austin Stone Community Church. The pair quizzed the panelists on best practices for pastors, people in the pews and parents regarding abuse. 

"We need to convey to the world that we care for victims and we care for women more than we care for our own positions of power," Carter said. "If that costs us something, we have to be willing to do that. It's time. The church has hid behind those power structures for too long and we need to be the ones raising our hand and treating those people the way that Christ would."

The Monday afternoon discussion comes at a time when Southern Baptists are grappling with their own high-profile #MeToo controversy. Recently, Paige Patterson, a major figure in Southern Baptist life, was ousted from his top post at a Texas seminary over allegations of his mistreatment of women.

In the midst of the growing turmoil surrounding Patterson, Beth Moore also wrote a viral open letter sharing her own uncomfortable experiences as a woman in the church and calling out sexism and misogyny in general.

Patterson's name did not come up during the Monday talk, but garnered a great deal of attention and controversy in the lead-up to the evangelical denomination's two-day annual meeting.

Thousands of Southern Baptists are expected to attend the gathering, which starts Tuesday at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. 

The Southern Baptist Convention, headquartered in Nashville, is the largest Protestant denomination in America with more than 15 million members.