Tone Deaf

-Pastor Melissa-

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Twitter introduced me to the Beth Moore blog where she openly expressed things needed to change between males and females in the Evangelical church. Her blog came the same day I was planning to rail on Evangelical Female leadership, which caused me to delete that post, and instead, write an open apology to Beth Moore. Last night, I saw a reaction to Beth Moore from a Christian historian: Allison Barr. Her question: Are the male evangelical leaders going to even listen?

It's a great question that comes off the heels of Paige Patterson. If you don't know him, neither did I. He is the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He publicly announced women should stay with their husbands if they are being physically abused. Having lived in that environment as a child, and still dealing with the physiological damage it has left, his solution to abuse is very tone deaf.

That's what I realized as I did see Evangelical women standing up and supporting Beth Moore, and Evangelical men doing, well, nothing.  We, as a whole people, have found our special groups that share our special opinion. If we don't care for that opinion we simply unfollow and move on. This is why the Liberal Church has lovingly began following Beth Moore, while the Evangelical Church is acting like nothing happened. In their view, nothing has happened. Male leadership doesn't follow Beth Moore. That's for the girls.

The same is true for all of us. We have stopped seeking alternate opinions, so all of us are moving to one extreme or another. Yes, our truth is real, but it was never meant to be a truth spoken on it's own. Is there hope for the Evangelical Church? Maybe. If we all stop and take a moment and listen to something uncomfortable. EVERYONE is speaking at least a grain of truth. In opening the door to someone else, both sides might actually learn something. There's a symphony to be heard, if we could just open up enough to hear it.