Longtime readers know I am no fan of Cokesbury or the United Methodist Publishing House. But credit is due to them for responding appropriately to the John MacArthur controversy this week.
MacArthur: Go Home Yourself
Recently, influential conservative Christian author John MacArthur’s remarks were released on women as clergy, Beth Moore, and the inability of minority voices to properly interpret the Bible. From Christianity Today:
Last week, John MacArthur celebrated 50 years in the pastorate at a conference at his congregation Grace Community Church. During the event, MacArthur accused the Southern Baptist Convention of taking a “headlong plunge” toward allowing women preachers after women spoke at the SBC’s 2019 annual meeting.
That, he said, was a sign that the denomination no longer believed in biblical authority.
“When you literally overturn the teaching of Scripture to empower people who want power, you have given up biblical authority,” said MacArthur.
A moderator also asked MacArthur and his fellow panelists to offer their gut reactions to one- or two-word phrases.
When the moderator said “Beth Moore,” MacArthur replied, “Go home.”
That’s not all. Later in the interview, and oddly under-reported, are demeaning comments on intersectionality and race:
“When the SBC met and passed Resolution 9 and said that Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory are useful tools in interpreting the Bible, that was watershed moment…and liberalism will take over.”
John MacArthur
Needless to say, all such comments fall far short of the United Methodist Social Principles and our efforts for equity in opportunity among different genders, races, and marginalized people groups.
Petitions to Cokesbury
Sharp-eyed United Methodists noticed that John MacArthur’s books and commentaries were sold on Cokesbury.com. A large number too: over 60 titles were available from one publisher alone!
A grassroots campaign began to advocate for their removal because MacArthur’s words in multiple groups. I sent my own letter after being encouraged by Stephanie Henry, a UM lay woman in Seattle. Here it is (using language inspired by Henry):
To whom it may concern,
As you may know, John MacArthur has recently made headlines for his disparaging comments about Beth Moore in particular and female clergy in general, suggesting that she ought to “go home” and saying that contemporary churches are “caving” to women in the pulpit.
As a United Methodist clergyperson who supports women in ministry, I am deeply troubled to see that our denominational bookstore is promoting an author whose teachings on women in ministry are so diametrically opposed to our Social Principles and our Wesleyan Heritage.
I strongly encourage you to remove his products from your website. There are at least 64 books under the Thomas Nelson imprint available on Cokesbury that are not fit to be supported.
I regret I was not more explicit about my race and intersectionality concerns in my letter, and chose to only focus on one topic. That’s my error.
Cokesbury Responds
Cokesbury responded to a concerted effort started by Rev. Emily Cannon, a pastor in Kansas, in the UM Clergy Moms facebook group for clergy women who are parents. Hooray for their advocacy!
Here’s their letter in full as shared publicly:
“Good evening,
Your concerns regarding recent statements made by John MacArthur have been brought to my attention today. I hope you will forgive that I am not addressing each of your personally but a group response seems best in the interest of time. While it is always distressing to find that we have disappointed our customers in any way, we are grateful when issues are brought to our attention. We sincerely appreciate the time you took to share your concerns.
First, in the interest of accurate communication, I do want you to know that Cokesbury does not promote MacArthur books in any way, including our catalogs. We do not stock inventory of his titles. However, I do want to be transparent that his titles have been available on Cokesbury.com for special order through our wholesale distributor networks should a customer seek them out and, as with all authors with multiple books in print, he has had an author bio page on the site as well.
That said, the comments made by John MacArthur last week were harmful and diametrically opposed to our Social Principles and our Wesleyan heritage. Action has been taken to remove his books from Cokesbury.com and his author bio page will no longer be on Cokesbury.com. We will no longer be offering his books to our customers.
Again, thank you for your feedback. Should you have any further comments or concerns I invite you to reach out to me personally. I am happy to hear from you!
Grace and peace,
Audrey Kidd
Chief Revenue & Customer Experience Officer
The United Methodist Publishing House
A good reply.
But more action is needed. Now is the time for Cokesbury to tighten up this “wholesale distributors” policy. You can search and find books by Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, and other conservative fundamentalists with even worse theology than John MacArthur and who are doing real, lasting harm propping up this political administration.
In the meantime, bravo for a quick response, Cokesbury.
Your Turn
Thoughts?
Thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing on social media.
I am so glad that his books are being removed. I am not familiar with all the authors but I would like to see Franklin Graham removed too. He is a sterling example of a hateful, judgmental Christian. It’s like he is diametrically opposed to everything his father cared about.
What a shame to take what is true and biblical as spoken by John MacArther and to go along with the world and it views, which are not true or biblical. Remember at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow because all power has been given to him by God the Father.
Jeremy, I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. I’m UM clergy in Texas, and I’m appalled that Cokesbury would even consider people like Robert Jeffress or Franklin Graham. I gave up on them long ago, and predicted that Amazon would kill any chance they had in the US market. If they held to Methodist Social Principles and advertised as such, I would be much more inclined to return to them. Thank you for speaking out on this critical issue.
Brownshirt Liberals burning books.
Godwin always wins. Sometimes it’s just faster than others.
“…when a Hitler comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever made the comparison loses whatever debate is in progress.”
Banning thought is abhorrent no matter who does it.
That is the winning argument.
BTW, thanks for bringing up Godwin. He stares that it is OK to compare Trump to Hitler. Surely you agree that Godwin lost that argument.
Did you notice that the response letter repeats a phrase from your letter? I see “diametrically opposed to our Social Principles and our Wesleyan heritage” in both!
Ha! That was originally from Stephanie, so glad it made it in!
You all called yourself a Christians? You might as well call yourself a bunch of hypocrites Christians. The Bible says, you will know them by their fruit. In fact it was Jesus, Himself who said that. Aren’t we call to be a peace maker? To forgive one another and not revenge. But it happens to those who claimed that they are Christians but only settle for being religious. I have no idea who is John MacArthur but I ‘m laughing at the reaction of all these religious people who are judging him because he made a mistake. It looks like, people want to crucify him. But the bottom line is, we all make mistakes and man will fail us but God never fails us.
To Faanunu Maka,
John MacArthur didn’t make a mistake. He made a series of choices about the way he was going to treat several subgroups of people. He didn’t follow Jesus’ admonition to “Love one another.” Because of their great knowledge of the scriptures, we hold our church leaders to a higher standard than our laypeople. He knew the truth. He made a choice.
Just to clarify, Jeremy. MacArthur didn’t say anything about race. He spoke out against Critical Race Theory. We need more people speaking out against that heresy which has crept into the church. The SBC will be the next denomination to go the way of the world.
MacArthur’s remarks about women in ministry and specifically about Beth Moore were rude and uncalled for. I’m not sure that warrants banning his books from Cokesbury, though. If we are going to remove books by authors who disagree with Wesleyan theology, Cokesbury would have to empty their shelves.
Hi Sean, thanks for your comment. I’m not sure analyzing race and racism is “going the way of the world” but perhaps it is for some folks. But the second part is that there’s a difference between theological diversity and active opposition to a people group that is important and protected in The United Methodist Church. Such conversations are hard (a commenter elsewhere asked me if we should remove all catholic authors because they don’t ordain women either), but some violations are so egregious it is an easy decision.
Jeremy, you have again seemed to confuse race and racism with “critical race theory”. One really has nothing to do with the other. Critical theory is sometimes called “cultural Marxism”. But I’m sure you already knew that. So when I said “going the way of the world”, I was referring to critical theory in general.
I understand your point about “active opposition to a people group”. But to be fair, MacArthur isn’t United Methodist. He can’t be expected to hold to United Methodist doctrine. His opposition to ordaining women is not news. In fact, his opinion is shared by many Christians today. I happen to think he’s wrong about this issue just like I think his Calvinist views are wrong. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn from some of his teachings on core matters. As with anything we read, we must “test every spirit” and discern whether or not it lines up with God’s word.
Hi Sean, thanks for this conversation. I didn’t make that connection that “going the way of the world” was in reference to critical race theory. I apologize that I’m not well versed in it enough to be able to comment further, other than it clearly involves and is about race, and the ways how we think about race influence our behaviors and attitudes towards others of varying identities.
As far as MacArthur goes, it was an easy decision to remove him from the website and I’m sure the bean-counters could tell us how much was actually sold of his and they made the business decision that they did. We sell a ton of material that doesn’t line up with UM doctrine, which is more or less okay, except when they step out in egregious ways like this. Then I think such actions are permissable.
One of the greatest compliments John MacArthur could ever receive if for the bookstore of an apostate denomination to be offended enough by the truth that it removes his books. Hats off to John MacArthur for standing for the truth. Sad that UMC apostatized years ago. Wish they would return to Christ.
If only John McArthur stood for truth and not misogyny.
LOL.
Well said, Edward, well said. I wasn’t aware that the Social Principles carried the same or greater weight than the BOD. Plenty of people are hyping the Social Principles while violating the BOD. It’s the equivalent of proof texting. I know a cafeteria Methodist when I read one. Their name is Legion in the UMC.
Dumb, short-sighted censorship. You don’t like his stuff, don’t buy his stuff. You find people who do and you disagree, engage them in logical argument, not siimple-mided disparagement. And arguing that something he said is against our Social Principles therefore he should be removed is laughable. The Social Principles aren’t “law” but are “prayerful and thoughtful” efforts on how to think about issues. Nadia Bolz Weber says there is “no shame in consuming pornography if it is ethically sourced” yet our Social Principles say, “we oppose all forms of pornography and consider its use a form of sexual misconduct.” Yet, you can find her on the Cokesbury site. Our Social Principles say “we affirm the sanctity of the marriage covenant….between a man and a woman” yet you can find plenty of authors on Cokesbury who disagree with that statement. Again, I say – dumb, stupid, short-sighted censorship and a timid, sad, and politically correct response by Cokesbury. (Note: for what it’s worth, I don’t agree with MacArthur)
By that logic, the UMC ought to have the entire works of Fred Phelps on the Cokesbury site for sale.
Here’s a better version:
“You don’t like his stuff, don’t sell his stuff.”
And… done.
Start up a campaign for those other authors, if you find them objectionable. I doubt you’d get as many people to join up, but you are welcome to do so.
As Jeremy notes above in the comments, I’m sure the bean-counters checked the stats, and removing this author from their site had minimal impact – and yet the response to the ‘customer base’ is a net-positive.
I couldn’t agree more that all products by New Jim Crow preachers Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr. and James Dobson also should be removed from Cokesbury stores and from Cokesbury.com. Methodism should cleanse itself by removing all products by authors who by their positions misstate the Gospel and harm human beings from their distribution channels. I hope and pray that this will be done.
Why stop half way? Methodism should be further cleansed by Cokesbury removing from its shelves all works by authors whose thoughts and writings do not conform to the Book of Discipline.
Gross. McArthur is not a christian. He’s a businessman making money off people too stupid to see through his lies.
That is NOT the truth. He IS a Bible believing/teaching Pastor. You would be wise to study scripture. You will see he is totally right in line with scripture.
It is certainly apporpriate to express concerns to the UM Publishing House. When they heed folks’ concerns, show appreciation by buying something from them.
For those saying that he said nothing about race. He did say something to the effect that people from some ethnicities were less likely to know Greek and Hebrew. Really? That was not my seminary experience. For the record, this clergy person who happens to be female did take Greek and Hebrew.
Theology is interesting to study and ponder. But humankind’s thought processes are so inferior to God our Maker. Are we neglecting the role of the Holy Spirit as our Teacher? Often the Holy Spirit appears to be changing-up things, but don’t you wonder if the Spirit isn’t leading us Believers to a bigger REVEAL, the very heart of God? .
If John Macarthur can’t get in line with culture and if he continues to blindly follow the Bible, Cokesbury is right to give him the boot. Cokesbury, Johnny must be made to respect your authoritii!! Why Beth Moore has visions and divine revelations. Can Johnny boy say that? So what if she teaches/preaches to men? Does it really matter what the Bible says about that? By the way, who knows the whole story on Beth adopting a child and then giving the child back after some behavioral problems? Does that really matter? She’s Beth. Whatever she does is right. Who does John Macarthur think he is compared to Moore?
Our Bible study group has been studying ” Twelve Ordinary Men “. The book has been extremely enlightening and scripturally correct. His description of the the “12” has been helpful in understanding Jesus calling them to be his Disciples. To remove this book from suggested reading because of his fundamental views that have recently landed him in hot water, is a disservice to those seeking to better understand the Bible. Make no mistake, we do not agree with MacArthur’s views on women in the church. I do think that he has written some very insightful books on the Bible that are well worth reading. If you start burning all the books of those that you disagree with without leaving those that have some true insight to the truth and the understanding of true loving God, then soon you will be burning the Bible as well.
A Black woman’s detailed response to MacArthur can be found here:
https://religionnews.com/2019/10/29/why-white-women-should-be-just-as-angry-about-john-macarthurs-take-on-race/
“Hello! 911! What is the emergency?”
“Send help quickly! , another person has been identified as a human being! Oh my goodness, bloodshed will be everywhere! What should I do? The mob has him! Hurry, send help quickly! They are planning to kill him.”
Cokebury and the Methodists have the right to ignore Gods truth. But it would be to their detriment. Today’s Methodists are a far cry from my ancestors Methodists. Truly disappointing.
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matt 7:13,14 NASB
I have no doubt John MacArthur will enter through the narrow gate. Which gate will you enter?