Beth Moore writes a beautiful, compelling memoir of her life and ministry, starting from her childhood in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), her call to ministry as a teenager, her writing and leading of women’s Bible studies, and her eventual disenchantment with the SBC and decision to leave it. Along the way she also talks extensively about her family, including the childhood sexual abuse she endured, her husband’s lifelong struggle with PTSD, and the years they spent fostering their nephew. Throughout the book, the personal and the ministerial are woven together organically; for Beth Moore, there is clearly little division between her identity as an individual and her identity as a women’s ministry leader. Every aspect of her life is “knotted up” with every other.
Because the memoir is written so seamlessly, it is difficult to pull out specific chapters or sections for commentary, but readers may be particularly interested in the details of Moore’s call to ministry (as well as the church’s response, which was first to invite her to lead a workout class at a Christian recreational center). The details of her relationship with her father and her struggle to forgive him for his abuse are also highly relevant to readers interested in women’s Christian experiences.
Finally, many readers will be interested in the events surrounding Moore’s eventual decision to leave the SBC, the church in which she was raised and where she carried out her ministry up until a few years ago. This began with her decision to speak out about the sexual abuse scandal surrounding a then-U.S. presidential candidate. While this led to a great deal of harsh criticism and even threats against her on the political front,1 it also seemed to make her a target for broader criticism from within the complementarian sphere, focusing on her public speaking engagements and general leadership activities as a woman.2 This all took place within the same general timeframe as the #MeToo movement and the exposure of hundreds of cases of sexual abuse that had been covered up by the SBC,3 followed by an escalating debate within the SBC over critical race theory.4 It should be noted that Moore is careful throughout the book not to take a wider political stance outside of her criticism of one high-profile individual, of racism, and of the phenomenon of “Christian nationalism.”
It was a combination of all these factors that led Moore to the realization that sexism was far more deeply embedded in the SBC than she had ever realized, and that the issue of women in ministry was not merely a question of theological disagreement but was inextricably tied up with sexual abuse and prejudice against women. Hence, her eventual and deeply painful decision to leave the church. The final chapter of the book relates her year-long search for a new church home, eventually (much to her own surprise) settling at the Anglican Church of North America, where she has since been vested as an acolyte and lector.
Because Moore’s book is a memoir focused on her own life experiences, readers should not expect much in the way of broader theological musings or Bible study. Moore also does not take a clear stance on the egalitarian-complementarian divide; she does not advocate for (or against) the ordination of women or draw a direct line between complementarian theology and sexual abuse (although such a connection might be inferred from the events she describes within the SBC). In this sense, readers who hoped for stronger leadership from Moore on this issue may be disappointed. However, the book is written in such a way as to make it accessible to as broad a swath of Christian women as possible, and it would serve as an excellent conversation starter amongst women who may not have clear feelings about egalitarian theology but who are concerned with the protection of women within the church and society at large.
1 Emma Green, “The Tiny Blonde Bible Teacher Taking on the Evangelical Political Machine,” The Atlantic, October 2018.
2 Jessica McBride, “John MacArthur, Beth Moore Audio Causes Controversy,” Heavy, October 20, 2019.
See also Jesse T. Jackson, “Two Years Later, Beth Moore Addresses John MacArthur Telling Her to Go Home,” Church Leaders, February 4, 2022.
3 Terry Gross, “How the Southern Baptist Convention Covered Up Its Widespread Sexual Abuse Scandal,” Fresh Air, NPR, June 2, 2022.
4 Kate Shellnutt, “Southern Baptists Keep Quarreling over Critical Race Theory,” Christianity Today, December 3, 2020.