Beth Moore Inspired Scores of Southern Baptist Women. They Don’t Blame Her for Leaving.

Author - Umn ministry

March 11, 2021

Fellow female SBC leaders pray her departure leads to some soul-searching within the divided denomination.

A generation of female Bible teachers, authors, and ministry leaders saw a place for themselves in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) because of the example set by Beth Moore.

Now that Moore no longer sees a place for herself in the denomination, they are continuing to stand for the convictions she helped stir within them and hoping for a wakeup call.

As one Southern Baptist women’s ministry leader tweeted on Wednesday, “Pastors, I hope you are watching women in the SBC and their response to Beth Moore...”

Moore was in many ways an exemplary figure in the Southern Baptist realm—a household name among Christians, her Bible studies reached 21 million women over her first 20 years of ministry. But she was also personable enough to stand for hugs and selfies with followers at events, to reply on Twitter to offer condolences when someone’s grandmother died or advice on how to care for a cast-iron pan.

The women who followed in her high-heeled footsteps know that tensions she walked through too well, dismayed at how issues like abuse, racism, Christian nationalism, and the Trump presidency were dividing the denomination rather than deepening its gospel witness—all issues that came up in a recent Religion News Service story about her decision to leave the SBC.

Followers in Southern Baptist churches watched the response as Moore evolved from a bestselling Bible study author to an outspoken advocate for victims of sexism and abuse, opening up about the misogyny she had faced in evangelical circles.

Christine Hoover, a Bible teacher and SBC pastor’s wife, remembers asking herself, “If Beth is treated so disdainfully in public arenas, what is being said privately, and what does that say ...