My first reaction to Beth Moore, 2011

By Elizabeth Prata

In 2011 I was invited to attend a Beth Moore Living Proof Weekend in Charlotte NC. The dear ladies wanted to share with me a female teacher whom they loved and whom they thought would edify me. Curious as to why they were so excited, I went to the weekend experience. I was new to the South and unfamiliar with Beth Moore, even though she was at a height of popularity.

When I returned I wrote up a series reviewing the weekend with my reactions. I requested an appointment with the appropriate church people to share them in private. I certainly did not want to embarrass or antagonize my former church family, but Beth Moore’s teaching was so biblically out of context-twisted, self-absorbed, and legalistic, I couldn’t remain silent. My reactions were my own.

The church’s reaction to my reaction was instantly negative. They were not happy with me. From that point I was labeled a troublemaker, a critical spirit, divisive, and my salvation was questioned. My concerns were not addressed. I was marginalized, and finally at pastoral directive, shunned. It’s a familiar story to many of you. It’s Beth Moore who is divisive, because the result of her teaching is a pile of heaped up followers on one side and marginalized or shunned discerning church women on the other.

At the time in 2011, negative reactions to Beth Moore’s teaching were relatively unheard-of. As mentioned, she was in her height of popularity. Publicly anyway, she seemed universally beloved. I had been in an arena with 12,000 joyous fans shouting praises to Moore, stomping their feet, and singing. I felt like I was the only one shouting to God for help and relief from an oppressively evil atmosphere. (Acts 19:34). I hadn’t found any significant confirmation in my real life spheres, so I went online, which wasn’t a lot more fruitful.

Thank goodness for Pirate Christian Chris Rosebrough, who had reviewed Moore’s Hebrews teaching a few years earlier. The King’s Dale had a few articles, and with those two confirmations plus the Spirit’s gift of discernment to me, I went ahead on my “Avoid Beth Moore” campaign here on my blog, (originally on blogger).

Some years ago, Justin Peters suggested to me that I compile a list of all the reviews of Moore’s teaching, book reviews, and lifestyle critiques, and make a compendium. I did. I call it “All Beth Moore Critiques in One Place.” I include my own writing in the list, and also other women’s essays and reviews, and men/pastors/theologians’. That way, the bulk of the critiques would be in one place for ease of finding, and people would not be able to easily dismiss since there are so many with not all of them written by men. (Dismissing negative reviews of Moore because it was ‘written by a man’ is a common rebuttal, though indefensible).

This week, I went through and checked every link. Some of the links had gone dead, so I found them in the web archive and that’s why some of the links go to a cache. I have centuries-old books on my shelf but 9 year old links are already dead. The internet truly is a temporary repository.

I thought Peters’ was a capital idea, and I add to the list to this day, which has grown to over 70 critiques of Moore’s ‘ministry’ works.

My exhortations since my 2011 introduction to Beth Moore remain the same, “Avoid Beth Moore.” Why? Because she has a healthy amount of followers on her social media platforms, and still gathers a crowd at arenas (when there’s no pandemic). It’s been ten years since my earliest introduction to Beth Moore and during that decade we have seen the ugly and evil fruits of her false ministry. Her influence has been in teaching a terrible hermeneutic, living and promoting a feminist lifestyle, and being an example of usurping that the metaphorical Jezebel in Revelation 2 would probably blush to see. Moore’s form of religion includes false prophesies, new revelation, legalism, Jesus as boyfriend and God as butler, and sadly, how to be a conflict-addicted shrieking harridan (the opposite of what women are called to be, which is to live a quiet life, teaching what is good, and not a busybody).

For people to say Moore just makes a few mistakes, isn’t perfect, or is temporarily off, the answer to that is NO. If a teacher is true, the Spirit will not allow them to continue twisting the precious word of God. He will not allow blasphemy to continue from that teacher’s mouth. He will reprove or correct her. He will do it through the word as she studies, through her pastor or church elders, her friends, or life circumstances that force her take note. The Spirit in a truly converted Christian points to Jesus, not satan. Her errors won’t continue for as long as thirty-plus years, which is how long Moore has been teaching erroneously.

I know that many people have pleaded with Moore to repent, to stop her blasphemies etc, but these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The Lord has used these failed reproofs to seemingly harden her. She will eventually have to endure the consequences of her life of trading on the good name of Jesus for personal gain. (2 Corinthians 11:15).

Here is a re-posting of my series reacting to my first Beth Moore teaching. It is almost ten years since I wrote the series and a new audience has emerged who may not have come across it. I’ll also post my “All Beth Moore Critiques in One Place” link several times, too. I hope that anyone pausing at this blog long enough to read this will give these exhortations a read and pursue any of the links. Beth Moore is still dangerous, she is still leading many women astray, and it can be said, leading an entire denomination astray, too.

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 1, The Women

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 2, The Music

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3a, The Teaching

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3b: The Teaching

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 4: A final word

All Beth Moore critiques here in one place