So this week, in case you didn’t know, there was a thing. Renown Bible teacher Dr. John MacArthur was asked if he had two words to say to Dr. Beth Moore, an even more famous Bible teacher. And his two words, chosen out of the 171,467 words of the English language, were ... “Go home.” A statement met with thunderous applause (in my mind - I have no idea how people in the room actually felt).
Go. Home.
He told Beth Moore to go home. Mama Beth who has done more to promote personal Bible study than just about anyone I can think of on the planet. Mama Beth who has taught us how to walk out what we read and dosed her teaching with enough humor that we could laugh through the truth tears. Mama Beth who singlehandedly took on the establishment when NO ONE was calling out the abusive language used by powerful men. Mama Beth who has refused to back down from talking about abuse even in the church. Mama Beth who has walked the line for DECADES with grace and suspiciously perfect hair.
Mama Beth should go home?
First, no sir. She should not and will not be going home. Thankfully, as a southern woman, she’s used to being told to stay in her place and be silent with grace. And she hasn’t listened this far. So, fingers crossed she won’t be changing anytime soon.
Second, there are better words to choose to communicate “I think you are wrong”!!!
If religion has any meaning at all, it has the right to speak into sex and gender and any kind of behavior under the sun. Religion is the way many people orient their lives. And I’m not arguing that any religion need line up with the social protocol of the day. That doesn’t make you hateful. Just because I have a different way of looking at the world doesn’t make yours obscene or awful. By all means, stick to your beliefs! And if women shouldn’t preach or teach or pray with their hair uncovered according to your reading of your holy book, then stay true to yourself! Don’t say it’s okay. Don’t do those things yourself. Don’t compromise. You have a right to live out the truth as you see it.
What you don’t need to do is tell people you disagree with to “Go home!” There are better words.
See “go home” devalues me and my voice. It attacks me instead of my idea. It shuts down dialogue. And that’s not necessary for you to live your life according to your beliefs. And it’s certainly not necessary, well, for anything profitable.
We are adults, not kids. We can just disagree without throwing mud and sticks or whatever else we can rhetorically grasp and hurl. It doesn’t have to get personal. I don’t have to tell you to go to hell. And you don’t have to tell me to go, well anywhere.
There are better words!
There are words that allow us both to walk away as human beings seeking the best path forward. There are words that leave the collegiality or civil dialogue intact. There are words that permit community without uniformity.
Those are humble words. Kind words. And I think we could use a few more of those words.
Go home.
What would I say to Dr. John MacArthur?
I do not want you to go home, sir. I want for you what I want for myself and Mama Beth and everyone else on this big planet. I want us to keep showing up, keep loving, keep seeking, keep living out this mandate Jesus left us to love the way he loved.
I have two much better words for you, sir.
We disagree.
I do. In fact, we do. I’m not alone. I’ve got four generations of Pentecostal preacher women on both sides of my family line who join me. Women preachers across the globe stand with me. And we don’t say, “Go home.” We aren’t even asking you to agree with us, empower us, fund us, or sanction us. You do you, John.
But we stand with Mama Beth and respectfully decline your unsolicited advice. We will not go home. We haven’t stopped and won’t stop and cannot stop doing what we are compelled to do, often without platform or recognition or pay.
And at the end of the day, if we are asked what two words we would say to Dr. John MacArthur, we will say, “We disagree.”
Or maybe we won’t say anything at all because we are too busy doing all the things that make the freaking world go round. Sorry, that slipped out. I mean, walk off calmly into another day ... that we will slay.
I’m with you Mama Beth. Ride or die. All the way. Let’s go.
For the girls wondering if they have a place at this huge kingdom table, two words. Show up.
Show up because we need you. Show up because the next generation is counting on you. Show up because there is so much to do in this broken world of ours. Show up because millions have never heard. Show up because Jesus went out of his way to talk to women, and call women and give them messages and place value on them and I think he still does today.
Don’t go home. Show up.
