Prominent evangelical Beth Moore has split from Southern Baptists, citing the 'disorientation' of seeing its Christian leaders rally around Trump

• Beth Moore, a prominent evangelical Christian and bible teacher, is leaving her denomination.
• Moore said the embrace of Donald Trump by Southern Baptist Convention leaders was disorienting.
• Moore has received criticism in recent years over her open opposition to Trump.

Beth Moore, a prominent evangelical Christian and bible teacher, is breaking with her longtime denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention.

Moore revealed the news in an interview with Religion News Service published Tuesday.

"I am still a Baptist, but I can no longer identify with Southern Baptists," Moore told RNS. "I love so many Southern Baptist people, so many Southern Baptist churches, but I don't identify with some of the things in our heritage that haven't remained in the past."

In her decades as a bible teacher, Moore drew the support of millions of evangelical Christian women who bought her books and attended her speaking events at packed stadiums. She is the founder of Living Proof Ministries, a bible-teaching organization for women.

But Moore has received criticism in recent years for her opposition to former President Donald Trump. RNS said Moore's criticism of Trump and discussions of sexism and nationalism led to her being "labeled as 'liberal' and 'woke' and even as being a heretic for daring to give a message during a Sunday morning church service."

Moore told RNS her breaking point was seeing how church leaders reacted to the "Access Hollywood" tapes, during which Trump can be heard making lewd comments about women. She expected outrage from Southern Baptist leaders, especially given their reactions to Bill Clinton in the 1990s, but instead, they backed Trump.

"The disorientation of this was staggering," Moore told RNS. "Just staggering."

"He became the banner, the poster child for the great white hope of evangelicalism, the salvation of the church in America," she said, adding that "nothing could have prepared me for that."

Evangelical Christians overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2016 and 2020. One exit survey by AP VoteCast found 81% of white evangelicals Protestant voters supported Trump in 2020, while 18% voted for Biden.

But for Christians who, like Moore, opposed Trump, his impact on religious communities has been difficult. Young Christians told Insider in November that seeing their religious leaders embrace the former president pushed some of them away from their churches.

As Moore breaks away from the Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination also faces a reckoning over sexual abuse allegations.