SBC I Beg You....Stop Following This Man

All right, we're gonna talk about this— my goodness gracious— if you're friends with the Chocolate Knox or Marcus Pittman or some of these guys, you probably have seen this clip. Somebody's asking Dr. Russell Moore during his question-and-answer time at the Southern Baptist Convention last week, somebody's asking about complementarianism and women preaching and things like that, and what you're gonna hear—.

Why Russell Moore's Q&A Answer Is a Problem

I'll just play it. I'll just play it, but we're gonna comment on this as well, because I think that this demonstrates that Russell Moore should not be followed by anybody. He should not be a leader, and look, he has the position of leadership right now, but what I'm saying is, though, that you can only be a leader if people follow you.

You should not follow a man who thinks or acts in this way. This is beyond the pale. This is probably one of the most egregious things I have ever seen. Some people are calling it effeminate. Some people are calling it not manly.

Some people are calling it dishonest. It's a lot of different things. I'm not even sure really what to call it, but what I do know is that you should not— you should not go to war with someone like this, in other words.

Let's listen to this. Ready?

In a 2007 podcast with Nine Marks, you were asked whether women underneath the authority of a pastor could teach or preach to men. You said, if the Apostle Paul wanted to say that, he would have said it.

Everybody in the churches remain under the authority of the pastor. It doesn't mean you now have the authority to sin, to go against the creational order. It would be very much akin to a woman saying, I'm going to commit adultery under the headship of my husband.

I have my husband's permission to commit adultery, nor does it allow a woman to do what is forbidden in Scripture, which is to teach and exercise authority over a man. Is this still your position on women preaching in the church?

Why the Question Was Straightforward

Okay, so it's a very straightforward question, right? So what he does is— it might sound like he's got a lot of things, he's asserting things more so than asking a question, but actually he's not, because he's quoting something that Dr. Russell Moore said himself.

I mean, it was a few number of years ago, but he's quoting him. So he's basically saying, here's a quote that I found from you. Do you still believe this? It's a very straightforward question. And to be honest, like, look, you don't have to answer it just the way I do, but if you had quoted me saying something like that, and I still believed it, I would say yes.

And then I would go on to expand, right? Or if you gave me a quote that— and then you asked me of my own, and then you asked me if I still believe it, and I didn't still believe it, I would say no, and then I would explain myself.

So in other words, I'd answer the question straightforward, yes or no, and then I'd explain. Okay, so that's how I would answer it. Now, it doesn't mean you have to do it like I would do it, but I think, you know, it's important to have clarity, especially in a situation like this.

This is a Q &A session, so it's all about getting clarity where, for some reason, there isn't clarity. And look, I understand that sometimes people ask gotcha-type questions because they just want to catch you doing something.

I get it. I get it. But at the end of the day, there are legitimate reasons for a question like this to be posed, because there's a movement in the Southern Baptist communities that are saying, look, women can preach.

Women can preach. And here we have a leader. We want to know what you think because you're a leader. People follow you. People respect you. And that's why the questions asked. So when people ask me a question online or something like that, I have a very small sphere of influence compared to Russell Moore.

But when people ask me, it's because they want to know what I think. They either respect my opinion or maybe they don't respect my opinion and they want to, you know, hear what I have to say anyway. I don't know what it is.

But the point is, if somebody asks you a question because they want to hear what you have to say, yes or no, and you can explain if you want to. Or if you're not sure, see, there's another way to answer this question.

It doesn't have to be a yes or no. It could be something like, well, you know, I'm evolving on this and I'm not really sure where I land anymore. You see, that's another way to answer. Straightforward, yes.

Straightforward, no. Or straightforward, I'm not a hundred percent sure. I go back and forth or something like that. Let's see if we get anything close to that. Let's just listen to Dr. Russell Moore's answer.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, brother, for that question. What I would say to you is this. I have very strong convictions about biblical complementarity that God has gifted both men and women for service within the church and that God has distinctively given callings to men and to women in some specific ways.

Our Baptist faith and message confessional document is very clear in terms of our parameters of understanding complementarity there. We have issues on which we all agree and issues that we need to agree completely in order to cooperate and to have a mission together.

There are lots of other issues where we have a common agreement, but we have different ways of applying that at the secondary or at the tertiary level. I think that the New Testament pattern is to have the Lord's Supper weekly.

I'm not only happy to cooperate with churches that have the Lord's Supper monthly or quarterly or at other times. I don't even go to a church that has the Lord's Supper weekly, and I'm happy to be there.

We can have some different applications sometimes about what our biblical complementarity looks like in some ways, but we are united around the fact that as our Baptist faith and message says. So we're about a minute into this response,.

The Evasion of a Direct Answer

And there is no answer forthcoming. Let's see if he finishes it in the next minute.

The office of pastor is limited to men. What I would say to you at this point and what I would probably say to myself in 2007, a lot of things I would like to say to myself in 2007, is to say that complementarianism requires complementarity.

And that means that we need both men and women serving in every biblically appropriate way. As a social conservative, I believe that children need both a mother and a father. There are two ways that you can destroy that.

One of those ways is to say it doesn't matter whether this is a mother or a father, all you need is a parent. The other way is to say all you need is a mother or all you need is a father. We need both fathers and mothers within the Church of Jesus Christ, and we live in a denomination where we have firm convictions on biblical complementarity, but we are the denomination that was sending out Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong before women could vote in the United States of America.

Unreal. This is absolutely unreal.

Why are these people applauding? Too much to women in the Southern Baptist Convention is not an idea that makes very much sense to me right now. Instead, I would say let's be complementarian and let's try some true complementarianism, which means empowering men and women to serve under faithfulness to the inerrant.

Why the Answer Is Dishonest and Disqualifying

All right, let's just make some comments here. I plead with you, I beg you, if you are in the Southern Baptist Convention, do not give this organization one red cent. Do not do it. This answer is absolutely, it goes beyond the pale.

Look, you might not think this is that serious. This is very serious because it shows you how this man operates. Somebody, Tom Buck got in trouble for calling him a political operative, and many people have commented about this answer and said, wow, that really sounds like those presidential debates where somebody gets asked about immigration and they answer a question about taxes.

And it's like, well, what's going on here? He didn't answer the question at all. And he didn't. He didn't. And so what is going on here? Why did he answer it that way? See, we understand why presidential candidates answer the way they do, you know, in the presidential debate.

They get asked about gun control and instead they answer a question about food stamps or something like that. We get that because politicians, the way that it works in our system, they are people pleasers.

They want to please people. They want people to vote for them. And so if there's an issue that they're a little bit embarrassed about and they don't want to necessarily risk losing votes because of how they believe on that issue, they won't answer that question.

They'll answer a different question. We understand why politicians do it. Why is a Christian doing it at his convention? At a convention where people who support him, who pay his payroll and all that kind of stuff.

Someone he works for. Why is he doing that there? You see, here's why I think it disqualifies him for the position that he has. Because we expect Russell Moore to be representing Christian interests when he meets with the president.

When he meets with Barack Obama and he looks giddy as a schoolgirl meeting President Barack Obama. We expect him to be a firm man. We expect him to be a straightforward man. Someone who's clear, who understands Christian convictions and also can articulate them and is courageous enough to articulate them.

We expect him to be somewhat like John the Baptist. When he confronts the king and he says, look, you can't have your brother's wife. He knows it's going to cost him dearly, but he says to the king, you can't have your... that's not right.

That's kind of what we expect from Dr. Russell Moore. But look at how he answers a relative nobody. Look, this brother, I know him. He's a good guy, but let's just be honest. The brother who asked the question, he's not as intimidating as, you know, let's say Barack Obama would be.

He's just a guy. He's just a regular, run-of-the-mill person like me. So if Dr. Russell Moore can't answer a straightforward question in a straightforward way from someone who's a relative nobody like me, what's he going to do when Barack Obama asks him something challenging?

Is he going to give straightforward biblical truth or is he going to go like this? Well, you know, kids need fathers and mothers as if anyone was denying that. Oh, you know, well, I think we can't listen too much to women in the SBC, as if anyone was denying that women have something to say in the SBC.

You see, this is the reality. I beg you, this man, whether you think that was an effeminate way to answer, whether you think that was just a cowardly way to answer, because I don't think it's actually effeminate.

I think it's just cowardly. I think it's just cowardly. I think it's cowardly. I think it's lying, too, because here's the end. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what his position is now. He just lied by omission.

He lied by omission. Now, we've caught Dr. Russell Moore in straightforward lies, too. So this is part of his character. His public persona is about this. But here's the thing. So let's just say he has the same position as he had in 2007.

Well, he didn't answer it, and he spoke as if he didn't, because he said, I would talk to my 2007 self and tell him this, as if his opinion has changed, but he didn't say it did. So now he's got wiggle room, right?

Let's say his opinion has changed. Well, he didn't say that either. He didn't say that either, and he made it seem like he's still a complementarian, just like he was in 2007. So he's got wiggle room that way.

Let's say he doesn't know anymore. Let's say he just doesn't know where he lands. Well, he's still being dishonest because he didn't say that either. He didn't give us counterpoints and say, well, you know, sometimes I think of it this way, and I see the points over here on the women can't preach side, but I also see some of the points about the women that can preach.

He didn't say that either. So it doesn't matter what position he holds now, I would respect it a lot more if he just told us what it was. I just, I beg you, if you pay for this kind of stuff, stop. Stop.

There's no reason that you need to give money to this organization anymore. There's no biblical reason that you need to do it either. He's not your pastor. You don't have to submit to Dr. Russell Moore.

I'm sorry, you just simply don't. So don't. Look, he couldn't be a leader unless people followed him. And so stop following him. He's not leading you to any good place. He will not represent your interest in a straightforward way.

He didn't do it at the convention. Why would he do it when nobody's looking in closed door meetings with the presidents? Do you see what I'm saying? So I beg you, just stop. You want a strategy for how to save the SPC?

Stop paying for the ERLC. How about that? There's nothing biblically forcing you to do it. You don't have to do it. Stop paying for it. That's a strategy. Anyway, this is a problem, man, because, you know, I was relating this to myself in my own situation, because people say that I say things in an unloving way or that I, you know, they don't like how I do things.

But you know what I think it is? I really do think it is like this sometimes. Look, I'm not perfect. So sometimes maybe I do cross a line. And if you think I have in a certain example, go ahead and show me and I'll consider it.

Absolutely. Because I think I do want to take care in my tone and how I come across. But at the end of the day, I think a lot of what a lot of what my critics think is so unloving and tone problems and it's because I speak straightforward.

I don't speak like this. And so when you hear someone speaking straightforward, it sounds hurtful. Like, who is the person? Oh, my goodness. Was it Danny Akin who said that that Owen Strawn article was the tone was all wrong?

You know why the tone was all wrong? Not because Owen had any problems, but because he said straightforward, no, you can't do this if you're a woman. You can't preach if you're a woman. You just can't.

And so that straightforward no hurt a bunch of women. And guess what? Fine. If it hurt you because Owen said the Bible says, no, you cannot preach. Your problem is not with Owen's tone. Your problem is with what the scripture says.

And so if it hurt you, so be it. Sometimes yes and no straightforward just hurts because it's just a very straightforward answer, but it's a hundred times better than this. A hundred times better than this kind of garbage, which all it does is confuses the issue and let everyone think that you're on their side.

Dr. Russell Moore is not on the side of truth because if he was, he would be straightforward about what he believes, whether it's still what he used to believe, whether it's not what he used to believe or whether he doesn't know.

No matter where and no matter how you slice it, he didn't answer the question the way a man needs to answer, which is straightforward. Yes, and here's why. No, but here's why. I'm not sure, and here's why.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful. God bless.