The Seduction of Emotional Christianity
By Elizabeth Prata
See if you can spot the theme from the following quotes from Beth Moore, obtained from her various public social media accounts:
An owl hooted all through my devotional time this morning, an accompaniment which delighted me to the mere extremities. (from X).
Cried through much of my prayer time this AM. (from X)
Like, for instance, Sunday afternoon when I was sitting on my porch reading a book, this dude joined me and I nearly cried over his sublime company. (from X, who joined her? Praying mantis).
I faced a test of the genuineness of my faith so large and consequential, I’m almost at a loss to think of the right adjectives to describe it. (from X)
I could sob about it. (from X. what made her sob? She grew grapes)
He has often prayed over me and over our family with a power that left me bug-eyed and bereft of natural explanation. (on Living Proof blog, RE her husband Keith, so, his prayer has an unnatural explanation?)
Did you catch the running theme through Moore’s posts? Her over-wrought emotionalism. Her outsized emotions. In her teaching, interviews, and posts, Moore presents an emotionalism she has worked hard to normalize. This is because she has to. Her theology is flimsy. It’s paper thin and Bible-twisted. Hiding her theological hollowness with extreme emotions and an appealing delivery is a must.
Who is Beth Moore?
Beth Moore is an itinerant Bible teacher who founded Living Proof Ministries in 1993. She used to fill huge arenas of adoring fans who liked her brand of Bible teaching. She has slowed down the last few years as she has aged. She announced that she will be retiring from itinerant teaching and closing her Houston office as she approaches age 70. She is 69 years old at the time of this writing.
I am using Moore as an example here because she has spent decades, since the 1980s, presenting this emotionally driven Bible teaching to her audiences. In books, interviews, simulcasts, and live events, she has normalized hearing from God. She continually posts, as shown above, items that convey a passionate and lively emotionalism running through her theology.
Her extreme emotionalism appears even in her early stories when she was a young woman. She was urged to take a doctrine class and the male teacher taught with such passion and he even cried, so that afterward she ran to her car and looked up to heaven, saying- “I don’t know what that was, but I want it.” (source).
Note that what appealed to Beth Moore was not the doctrine itself, which she had earlier said ‘would bore her to tears,’ nor was her prayer to Jesus to get to know Him better, but Moore asked for the passion and emotion evident in the teacher’s delivery.
Moore even wrote a whole blog essay on why she had wanted and still wants emotionalism experiences. She elevates such things to a high level, equal to scriptures. She said,
But I’ll share with you the teaching in that first Bible doctrine class that I couldn’t accept for long. I couldn’t accept that a believer must fall cleanly into one category or the other: the Scriptural or the experiential.
And finally in 2026, admitting that she has normalized things she should not have normalized… In a recent interview Moore said there are some things we should share and there are some that are better kept to herself, but the only way she can usually tell the difference is after uttering what should not be shared.
And sometimes the only way I know the difference is because I’ll tell it and later wish I had just kept it to myself. Or I will have conveyed it in such a way where I’ve normalized something that maybe is not really typical of a day in day out relationship, and I might have conveyed that it was. Source Annie Downs podcast 1026, January 2026.
Yes, Beth Moore has normalized the emotional approach to theology. A side note, a Bible teacher should be able to control her tongue, James 3:1–12, Proverbs 10:19, Titus 2:1-3.
Why begin an essay on emotionalism with Beth Moore? Given her many media outlets displaying the worst of emotionalism, she has normalized it. She is a good example of what NOT to do in regard to overwrought emotions replacing theology. We should dispense from our minds the picture of her bumblebee energy on a stage pleading and crying, kneeling and swaying, crying and laughing- and re-calibrate to what the Lord actually expects from His teachers.
What is emotionalism?
Dave Jenkins at Servants of Grace has written an excellent short Q&A on the dangers of emotionalism.
Emotionalism IS dangerous. In a Bible teacher who turns out to be false, it is a cover for their vacuous teaching. In a layman, it could be an indicator that he or she is elevating emotions equal to or above scriptural learning.
Dave Jenkins wrote: “What Is Emotionalism?“
Emotionalism is the elevation of feelings above truth. In the context of worship, it means chasing experiences and emotional highs rather than centering worship on who God is and what He has revealed in His Word. It’s not that emotion is wrong—far from it. God created us with emotions, and true worship should stir our hearts (Psalm 95:1–7). But when emotion becomes the goal rather than the result of biblical worship, we’ve lost our way.”
We saw that clearly in Moore when she asked Jesus for the same intensity of emotions her doctrine class teacher exhibited, and again 15 years later on her blog when she defended the experiential approach to the faith, experiences that include high emotions.
Another paragraph from Dave Jenkins: The Problem with Emotion-Driven Worship
Emotionalism confuses feelings with faithfulness. It teaches people to evaluate worship based on how moved they feel rather than how aligned it is with Scripture. It subtly shifts our focus from God to ourselves: “Did I feel something?” becomes more important than “Did I worship in spirit and truth?” (John 4:24). This mindset leaves believers chasing spiritual highs and unable to endure spiritual valleys. It weakens discernment, opens the door to doctrinal error, and fuels performance-based worship rather than reverent awe before a holy God.
So clear and well-stated. I remember Rick Warren back in 1998 and his explanation of chasing emotional highs. This is from the Baptist Press:
More than 700 individuals in the San Diego area made professions of faith through the Inner-City Evangelism Conference and “experiential events” that accompanied six of the evangelism workshops. … “We’re just a church that tries to look for waves, and we ride them. And then we try to do it with balance.” Catching the wave means first determining what God is doing, Warren said“. Article is aptly titled, Rick Warren: Surfing skills critical to ‘catching waves’ of God’s activity
Should we be looking around at the world and chasing what in our finite minds SEEMS like a work of God? God said in Hosea 5:12 that He will be as a moth to Ephraim, And like rottenness to the house of Judah. Rot and moths work in secret, in the dark. How can we detect that? Or a work of God might be a famine or a war, are we going to chase that down and join it? Or even seeming ‘revivals’ many times are not. (Azusa, Asbury, Toronto Blessing…) Too often, movements prioritize sensationalism accompanied by showmanship, engage in emotional manipulation, or simply present false theology absent preaching on sin, wrath, and repentance. Chasing man-interpreted waves and experiences is a dangerous method.
Here are some resources on emotionalism, so rife in Christendom and also in the world. People increasingly are swapping facts for feelings, and this is a mistake. To be sure, emotions are a good thing. I feel deeply when I engage in the Bible. I often cry when I pray. But these feelings are a result of the awe and reverence I have for the Savior as presented in His word.
FURTHER RESOURCES
The Danger of Emotionalism in Worship, by Dave Jenkins at Servants of Grace. I recommend this article.
What do you think about emotional sensationalism in the modern church? by Stephen Nichols at Ligonier.
“There is a difference between emotion and emotionalism. When you get into emotionalism, the barometer for what is true or what is real becomes how I feel about it.“
Emotion and Emotionalism: A Sermon on John 4:13-14, by MArtyn Lloyd-Jones.
“Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones shows how a joy that is simply based on emotions is not the joy that Christ gives. True and lasting joy comes about when Christians put their trust in Jesus and come to a full assurance of salvation.” Also here on Youtube that has a transcript.
Feelings- A sermon on 2 Timothy 1:6, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
“While feelings come and go, there is a great difference between rejoicing and feeling happy. Dr. Lloyd-Jones calls his listener to seek not happiness, but righteousness”. At MLJ Trust, with notes; or here on Youtube, with transcript.
Review of Beth Moore’s study “Believing God” by Susan Disston.
“Although she wants to be theological and Christ-centered, too much of Moore’s material is about her take on her experience with God. Her writing tends to be undisciplined and shallow. She is far too willing to gloss over uncomfortable theological implications in favor of feel-good stories and quick explanations.”
