Beth Moore, Southern Baptists and the story behind the scoop that broke the internet
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” features analysis, fact checking and top headlines from the world of faith. Subscribe now to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.
(ANALYSIS) In a little-noticed, late-night Twitter conversation on March 3, prominent author and speaker Beth Moore indicated that her Living Proof Ministries had ended its longtime partnership with Lifeway Christian Resources, a Southern Baptist Convention publishing house.
“Adored them but SBC baggage got to be too much,” Moore tweeted, matter-of-factly. “It was heartbreaking.”
A tip about the social media posts to Religion News Service national reporter Bob Smietana set in motion one of the year’s biggest religion news scoops.
Smietana called and set up an interview with Moore, who told him March 5 — last Friday — that she is “no longer a Southern Baptist.”
After talking to Moore, the veteran religion writer then spent a nervous few days doing additional research and reporting — hoping no other journalist would learn about his in-depth exclusive.
When RNS published Smietana’s piece Tuesday, traffic quickly overwhelmed the wire service’s website, and the story became a trending topic on Twitter.
By Thursday, the Trump critic’s split with Southern Baptists was front-page news in the New York Times (read the story by Ruth Graham and Elizabeth Dias) and just missed the front page of the Washington Post (see the A2 coverage by Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Michelle Boorstein).
Other interesting follow-up coverage includes Holly Meyer’s report for USA Today, Kate Shellnutt’s story for Christianity Today and Ashlie D. Stevens’ analysis for Salon.
P.S. Kudos to RNS’ Emily McFarlan Miller for her front-page photo of Moore in the New York Times.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. How Harry and Meghan sent the Church of England into panic mode: Perhaps you heard that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle did a television interview with Oprah Winfrey. (“A cultural earthquake,” CNN called it.)
In this fascinating piece, Religion Unplugged’s own Timothy Nerozzi explores the theological implications of Markle’s statement that the royal couple had a private wedding before their public church ceremony.
Episcopal News Service’s David Paulsen offers additional analysis on the debate over which nuptials were valid, and Rajnaara C Akhtar and Rebecca Probert explain for The Conversation “Why Meghan and Harry and many others choose to have two wedding ceremonies.”
2. The whiplash of covering the pope’s Iraq trip: A year of tight covid rules in Italy, then 72 hours of crowds: Chico Harlan, the Washington Post’s Rome bureau chief, contrasts the COVID-19 precautions he has taken in Italy for a year with the seeming lack of concern for the coronavirus that he encountered in Iraq.
In other coverage, the Wall Street Journal’s Francis X. Rocca and Jared Malsin write that Pope Francis’ Iraq trip “was fraught with dangers from terrorism to Covid-19” but appeared to pay off.
3. Replanting can work. A church just has to die and rise again: Christianity Today’s Daniel Silliman says this “was a different kind of story for me.”
“I watched this church in East Tennessee for a year to see if it could really die and rise again,” Silliman wrote on Twitter. “And it did.”
It’s a terrific read.
More Top Reads
• Vaccine-mobile brings COVID-19 shots to Dearborn mosque, helping to convince the hesitant (by Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press)
• In Georgia, Republicans take aim at role of Black churches in elections (by Nick Corasaniti and Jim Rutenberg, New York Times)
• How faith can help you process a painful anniversary (by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)
• Some faith leaders call Equality Act devastating; for others, it’s God’s will (by Tom Gjelten, NPR)
• A small-town congregation sold its church. A Whites-only group moved in (by Billy Ball, Washington Post)
• America without God (by Shadi Hamid, The Atlantic)
• Chaplains and the rise of on-demand spiritual support (by Jonathan D. Fitzgerald, Boston Globe)
• Cow cuddling has become a thing for lonely hearts in the pandemic (by Kellie B. Gormly, Washington Post)
• Covid turns chaplains into personal shoppers for cargo ship workers (by Anne Kadet, Wall Street Journal)
• Roberts alone in dissent as Supreme Court case backs student in religious-speech case (by Robert Barnes, Washington Post)
Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines
If you’re familiar with the just-released Netflix documentary ”Murder Among the Mormons,” you’ll want to check out this personal reflection by longtime Salt Lake Tribune religion writer Peggy Fletcher Stack.
“I was on my honeymoon in St. George on Oct. 15, 1985, when separate bombs exploded in Salt Lake City, killing two people,” recounts Stack, who tells about her brush with bomber Mark Hofmann and “why friends suggested bomb-sniffing dogs search my wedding gifts.”
Charging Station: In Case You Missed It
Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from Religion Unplugged.
• The tyrannical threat of new blasphemy laws in Scotland (by Miles P.J. Windsor)
• Are we all evangelicals now? How the term has grown to blur theology and ideology (by Ryan Burge)
• Polls apart: Pew Research switching methodologies with its much-used U.S. religious surveys (by Richard Ostling)
• Tax authorities in India seize home of Gospel for Asia founder Bishop K.P. Yohannon (by Anne Stych)
• How the equality act would impact faith-based child placement agencies (by Chelsea Langston Bombino)
• India begins promised detention, deportation plan of Rohingya refugees (by Zaffar Iqbal)
• Ravi Zacharias International Ministries to change its name, remove founder content (by Anne Stych)
• Is ‘Southern’ more important than ‘Baptist’ in SBC culture? (by Terry Mattingly)
• My power suit cannot be tainted by persecution, enslavement and forced labor of Uyghur women (by Ewelina U. Ochab)
• When your church sees medicine as weak faith: Kenyan Christians wrestle with cancer and God (by Diana Mwango)
• Why I won’t make another Christian film (by Nathan Clarkson)
The Final Plug
Last Friday’s Weekend Plug-in featured a panel discussion on the COVID-19 vaccines and religion.
At some point, YouTube removed the video, claiming that it violated its medical misinformation policy. Religion Unplugged appealed to YouTube and Google’s press office, noting that the panel featured journalists providing actual facts and analysis.
The video was down for several days but — as of the moment I’m typing this — appears to be back up.
Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for Religion Unplugged and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.