On John MacArthur and His Sexist Words

Hi friends, 

It’s been a few days since that vile video from John MacArthur came out. I have chosen not to say much about it. I hope that my silence did not give anyone the wrong idea. I certainly was not unaware, or ignorant of his hateful speech. His words were wrong and cruel, and incredibly jealous, which I suppose is why I haven’t said much about it. He’s petty. He’s like a schoolyard bully who’s jealous of the more popular kid on the playground. 

Men like John MacArthur are small and lack imagination. They live in a tiny world, like an echo chamber where they applaud their own speeches, and laugh at their own jokes.  

He’s wrong.

Of course, there is a precedent in Scripture for women preachers. Of course, there is a case for women teachers, and of course Beth Moore is ten times the minister that he is, and that is the point. She’s incredible, and he is not. Now everyone knows it.  

Consider for one moment The Magnificat — Mary’s Song — she is a woman proclaiming the wonders of God in Scripture. And Deborah the Judge, Junia the Prophet, and so many more. We don’t need to defend ourselves to John MacArthur.

He’s exposed himself. He is not an ally to women, he is not someone who gives the prophet her reward — and it’s time to wipe the dust off our feet and move on. Let him go, my friends. Let him go. We have better things to do with our time than debate a man like him.

Everyone comes to a place in their life when they have to make a few choices about the voices in their life. Who will you listen to, who are the people who have room and space to speak into your life? How have you learned to discern false from true, light from dark? Where is the witness of the Holy Spirit in your life? 

From my perspective, when reading Scripture from beginning to end, I’m convinced that women and men are called by God to be gifts to one another, and are called by God to work together for this planet’s good. Anything that comes short of that is a product of sin, not the redemption of God discovered and lived out in the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

What do I think of John MacArthur and the people in that room who laughed at his cruelty, who told Beth Moore to go home? 

I think that everywhere Beth Moore goes she is at home, because she is with her God, and her God is with her, and this is her Father’s world. It is not, as it turns out, John MacArthur’s world. And my dear sisters reading this, it is your Father’s world and you have the freedom and right, and the liberty to read Scripture, listen to the Holy Spirit, and do exactly as God has called you to do. 

As for those who might try to tell you to go home or that you don’t have the right to preach or teach or whatever it is God has called you to do, I’d encourage you to consider this — God asked a young virgin girl to bear His son, and she said yes. She said, fiat mihi.

Let it be to me.

She didn’t run to her church and ask her pastor if it would be okay, or if he’d give her permission. She didn’t ask her parents, her aunts or uncles or her best friend. She didn’t even ask Joseph, her future husband. She had a vision, an encounter with an angel, and Mary said yes.

And then Mary gave us the most wonderful gift we’ve ever received — a Savior. 

John MacArthur showed the world his true colors in that conference, and now everyone knows he’s not very nice, he’s also incredibly threatened by women who say yes to God, and he’s sexist.

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