Beth Moore Followers - and other angry commenters

Today I received another comment from an angry follower of Beth Moore. Rather than steer you to the particular comment, I am going to give you a highlight:

“Maybe you should be spending more time on your relationship with God instead of cutting down and criticizing the relationship that others like Beth have with God.”

Of course the poster has no idea how much time I spend in my relationship with God (I tend to think my apologetics ministry is part of my relationship with God.) And she makes the poor logic of associating criticizing someone’s teaching with cutting them down and criticizing their relationship with God.

Then she said, “Who are you to criticize what God is saying to someone else?” My response was that if someone is claiming to have direct revelation from God, who I am is a Berean who searches the Scriptures to see if what she says is true!

Of all the commentaries I have posted over the past 2 ½ years, those in which I’ve addressed the false teachings of Beth Moore get the most angry comments. It is interesting that they always have ad hominem attacks while never addressing the issues I bring forth; no objective examination of my critiques to explain where I might be in error (and I am more than willing to be corrected if I am in error), just charges of what a mean and spiteful person I am. Here are some more examples from Beth Moore zealots:

“stop wasting your time putting other people down, and start leading people to Christ for crying out loud!! i hope that no unsaved people find this blog.”

“I forgive you for bitterness against other Christians and will pray in intercession for you.”

“You have stepped into very dangerous ground where you will be required to give an account to God Almighty for the persecution of His dear believers such as Beth Moore. I will pray for God's mercy for your Parasitical [sic] comments and heart.”

“I fear somewhere along the way you have been hurt by a Southern girl and that is why you can not stand Beth's appearance or the way she delivers her Bible study. I am sorry if you have been transferring these strong emotions toward her”

“How it must grieve the Father's heart when His children slander one another”

“Mr. Chatfield, from what I have read of your inaccurate rantings concerning Beth Moore- you are a very jealous and envious man…Your bitterness toward God speaking directly to Beth speaks volumes of your own broken communication with God due to your derogotory [sic] attitude. I think you have a problem with women in the ministry- especially SUCCESSFUL women in the ministry. Your negativity toward a fellow believer will keep you right where you are- an unknown, angry blogger. As long as you sit in the seat of the scornful- you will never be annointed [sic]….My focus was mainly on the venom you have for a fellow Christian…You are so legalistic in your thinking. You need to ask yourself how Jesus would write this blog. Would he sound like you, or would He respond with TRUTH in LOVE? Your words are tearing down, not building up.”

“As a person who has read a number of Beth Moore books and participated in a number of her Bible studies, I find the evaluation of her ministry/teachings extremely judgmental (not to mention inaccurate)”

“Maybe you have to be a woman, Southern, or speak in tongues to understand Beth”

“Look at how much time you have waisted [sic] criticizing.”

“I found your post to be demeaning and sarcastic...not at all objective.”

“I find your criticisms to be harsh, and wonder if a lot of it is just a male /female divide thing (we are made to be different and we think differently!)”

“Oh nothing like a hypocrite such as you. Have you actually read the bible?…I can simply skim your blog before getting a massive migraine and tell that you're 1. Jealous of Beth Moore 2. Have a long walk to go before you'll have a moment where you have any business writing an apologetic for high school students. … You are one of those people who send new Christians running because of your out and out hypocricy [sic].”

These are only quotes from the comments; you should see the angry e-mails I have gotten with all sorts of attacks against my person, and lots of filthy language. The interesting thing here is that this is the type of thing I get from members of cults: no addressing of the issues I raise, just name-calling and general statements of how wrong I am. What I am finding is that these Beth Moore’s followers are very much like cult members: they viciously defend their “prophet” against any attempts to examine their prophet’s teachings. They refuse to objectively examine their prophet’s teaching because he/she claims direct revelations from God, as does Beth.

There are articles on other subjects where someone didn’t agree with me and, like Moore’s followers, they don’t address the issues, but do attack me. I’ve been told I claim to be perfect (where? when?), that I judge people (I don’t - I judge their teachings), that I “bash” churches (examining their teachings in light of Scripture becomes “bashing”), I discredit the work of Christ, that I am boring and stuffy, that I think I’m better than anyone else (I certainly don’t), that my blog is nothing but negativity and condemnation, that I have no love, that I “talk trash,” that I am a “bigoted coward,” and, welllllll - you get the picture. Of course my blog is not the only one where this happens; virtually every blog I read, whether Christian or just conservative, has these types of comments.

It seems to me that too many people don’t want to discuss the merits of my - or anyone’s - arguments, but they would rather just throw tantrums and blindly follow their favorite teachers or philosophies without ever examining their teachings alongside Scripture.

Now, here is the new rule for posting comments on my blog. If you disagree with what I say, then demonstrate from Scripture or other data where I am in error and I will be more than willing to recant or correct the error. But if you include any personal attacks against me, your comment will not be posted. I have spent too much time correcting these sorts of comments and challenging commenters to explain the evidence for their personal attacks, and I don’t think it is a proper use of my time. Not only that, but why should I post someone behaving in an un-Christian manner?