Justice, Mercy, Love...and Beth Moore
I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that our world has become distressingly polarized. I've always thought of myself as fairly conservative, but lately I find myself standing more and more in the center, a center I'm having a hard time locating. The strange thing is that this migration seems to have happened without my really moving. My views are more or less the same as they were ten or twenty years ago, but everything around me has changed. The voices seem more strident, viewpoints more extreme. We've lost our ability to find common ground. Just look at the way Ellen DeGeneres was attacked for calling George W. Bush a friend. Come on, people. When did it become wrong to be friends with someone you disagree with?
This morning I was thinking about the nature of justice. When we believe our cause is just, we feel better about ourselves. We pat ourselves on the back for taking the 'right' stand. To be sure, justice is important. The fight against social injustice is necessary and good. The world needs people like William Wilberforce, Susan B. Anthony, and Nelson Mandela. But what strikes me about our sense of justice today is that it seems particularly heightened on both the far right and the far left. Just hear me out with this.
Both extremes have a tendency to feel the justice of their cause so deeply that ideals like love, mercy, grace, and compassion can easily get pushed out of the picture. When our view of justice is not infused with love, unforgiveness and intolerance becomes acceptable. Judgment, control and even rage become normal. It becomes us versus them, right versus wrong, and we put up walls to protect our little ideological fiefdoms. Consider the backlash against a viral video of Texas murder victim Botham Jean's brother extending forgiveness to his brother's killer. Friends, there should never be a backlash against forgiveness. Honor justice, yes. But always elevate and embrace forgiveness. It is rare.
Consider this for a moment. People are often quick to stand for justice but equally quick to leave love and mercy standing on the sidelines. Everybody understands justice. It makes sense to our human understanding of right and wrong. As Jesus hung on the cross, it would have been completely understandable for him to call down wrath upon his persecutors. But he did not. Instead, he did the unthinkable. He extended mercy and forgiveness to the people who crucified him. Humanly speaking, that makes no sense. It turns our human understanding of justice on its head, and it places love firmly at the center of the Gospel. Love is not a liberal or conservative theology; it is the core, the very center of Christianity...at least it's supposed to be.
So this brings me to something that left me speechless this week. If you follow Christian media of any sort, you probably saw it. It was a video of a conference in which well-known Bible teacher John MacArthur and others on stage were playing a word association game. The moderator brought up well-known Bible teacher Beth Moore, which quickly prompted John MacArthur to tell her to "Go home!" (She was not present at the conference, but his comment seemed to imply that she belongs at home, not in the church.) He and the other men present proceeded to laugh at and deride Ms. Moore, calling her a narcissist and hawker, all while justifying their comments by appealing to what they claim is Biblical truth, that women should not speak in church.
Do you really think that Jesus would have sat in a room with his disciples mocking other people, let alone a female follower? Yet, Mr. MacArthur seems to believe his cause is just, that he is protecting the church from the error of allowing women to preach. I disagree with his Biblical position, but even if I didn't, I would still be grieved. What bothers me most is to see a Christian proclaiming what he believes to be just and right, while so clearly acting without love. I have read other comments by Christians suggesting that Beth Moore deserves the wrath of God for her rebellion and witchcraft. Say what? Lord have mercy, seriously. This is what pushes people away from Jesus!
As a woman, why on earth would I want to be part of something that tells me I don't have a voice? Even more so, why would I want to be part of something that seeks to put me in a box of someone else's design. But this is not Christianity. Jesus respected women. He listened to women. He loved women. For heaven's sake, the Samaritan woman in John 4 is the first person to whom Jesus reveals himself as Messiah. Did he consider her unworthy to carry the message? Nope.
I have great respect for Beth Moore, and I hope that she will extend forgiveness to Mr. MacArthur. But I wish we could all stop focusing so much on being 'right' and think more about what it means to be love -- and this applies as much to the person wearing the 'Love Wins' t-shirt who won't speak to his Trump supporting neighbor as it does to the conservative Christian who has decided to despise her liberal-minded coworker without ever attempting to get to know him. Truth and justice are Biblical principles, but they can become toxic in anyone's hands when they are not rooted in God's love. This is where righteousness begins to look a lot like self-righteousness. To be sure, we'll always have differences of opinion with those around us, but we mustn't forget that we are all human beings created in God's image and worthy of love.
Paul knew what he was talking about when he wrote that love is the greatest virtue, for without this we are nothing but a resounding gong or clanging cymbal (1 Cor 13:1). There's already too much of this kind of noise in our world. So how about when dealing with our fellow humans, we turn to patience, humility and forgiveness instead? These always bear the mark of love. So whether you're on the right, or the left, or trying to figure our where the heck you're standing at the moment -- whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian -- can we all just try a little harder to act in love? When love becomes a natural reflex, I believe that true justice always follows.
