Cedarville University Professor Reportedly Fired From The Village Church For Sexually Abusing a Male Subordinate

On April 16, 2020, I wrote an article titled, “It Takes a (9Marx) Village.”  This article revealed that Dr. Anthony Moore had been fired from his job as lead pastor of the Fort Worth campus of The Village Church. Further, Dr. Moore was hired by Cedarville University six months after he was fired for, according to Matt Chandler, Senior Pastor of The Village Church, “grievous, immoral actions against another adult member to disqualify him as an elder and staff member.”

Since the publication of the story, sources have revealed to me that the “grievous, immoral actions” were against a male subordinate staff member of The Village Church.

What follows is a lengthy expose  of the players  who, in my opinion, have been involved in this scandal and likely played a role in the hiring of Anthony Moore for the position of  “Special Advisor to the President for Kingdom Diversity and Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Cedarville University.”

Anthony Moore

Anthony Moore spent ten years at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, obtaining both an M.Div. and a Ph.D. from the institution. He completed his Ph.D. on May 9, 2014. Moore was then hired by The Village Church to serve as lead pastor at the Fort Worth campus, quite a remarkable position to place a man with no apparent practical ministry experience into.

Moore also attended Mark Dever’s internship program at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in the Spring of 2014. Dever was aware that Moore changed jobs from The Village Church to Cedarville University. This is apparent because he updated his job on the “Past Interns” page of the CHBC website. Whether Dever knew that Moore was fired from The Village Church for “grievous, immoral actions” is unclear to me. I find it hard to believe Dever didn’t know about the Moore scandal; the circle of New Calvinist Celebrity Dudebros is rather small and they all seem to keep close tabs on each other. On the other hand, I have been told by a former intern that became an atheist that Dever removed him from the “Past Interns” list, therefore it appears Dever is likely to remove people that prove to be an embarrassment to him.

As a side note, Dever is very reticent to baptize a new convert to Christianity. He and his disciples rarely baptize children until they have left the home of their parents, choosing to wait until they prove faithful as Christians while living on their own. This from the CHBC website:

“There is, however, we believe, a greater danger of deception on the part of many who could be wrongly baptized at an age in which people are more liable to make decisions which are sincere, but ill-founded and too often short-lived.”

Dever spent several months in close, daily contact with Anthony Moore while Moore was an intern at his church, yet Dever apparently was totally deceived into thinking Moore was a solid Christian! As you can see from Dever’s Tweet below, he promoted Moore. Five months after this tweet Anthony Moore was fired from The Village Church for feeding on Christ’s sheep! Wolf alert! One year after this tweet Moore had garnered a job with his old cronies from SWBTS at Cedarville University, but more on that later.

By the way, Moore’s Twitter account, @Moorepreaching has been shut down.

I searched for a video of Moore speaking at the 9Marx “First Five Years” conference held in Dallas-Fort Worth in August 2016 but was unable to find one. There are, however, videos of many other speakers from the conference on the 9Marx YouTube site. I suppose it could be just a coincidence!

Prior to the inexperienced Moore sharing his vast depth of pastoral knowledge with pastors, many of whom had more experience than him, at the “First Five Years” 9Marx conference, he was a featured speaker at the CBMW T4G Pre-Conference in April 2016. (This was less than 2 years after being hired as a pastor; truly a meteoric rise to fame!)

Below is a clip from Dr. Anthony Moore’s message delivered to the Complementarian crowd of admirers. He makes what we can now safely assume to be a fake emotional plea to women who are being abused to expose their abuser. Even though it’s fake emotions, I took his plea to heart and am doing my best to expose the abuser!

Three years later, in a mandatory Chapel service for Cedarville University students, Moore makes a similar plea to expose abusers, although I seem to detect a less confident air in his words, likely due to the fact that some may be aware of his past.

Ah yes, “speak truth… not just on behalf of those who are being oppressed, but for those who are the oppressors. They need the Gospel.” Is Moore “lying about the reality of that day?”

Since Moore’s hiring at Cedarville University, he has really thrown himself into his job. In addition to his academic role of teaching classes about theology and preaching, and advising CU President Dr. Thomas White on matters of Kingdom Diversity, Moore takes part in extra-curricular activities such as “Sanctify Ministries.”

Moore is also an assistant coach for Cedarville University’s Men’s Basketball team!

In the clip below you will see Dr. Jason Lee moderating a panel discussion. Initially, he throws out some silly ice-breaking questions. One of his questions of Dr. Moore concerns a recent basketball game against Ohio State.

Note that Dr. Lee is the Dean of the Theology department. As such he would be Dr. Moore’s superior.  I was informed that Lee was a professor of Moore’s at SWBTS, mentored many students, was friends with Moore, and they attended church together for several years while Moore was attending SWBTS.

I would guess that Dr. Lee likely had a say in the hiring of Dr. Moore, but have no firsthand knowledge of that.

One interesting piece of information I received, which is worth keeping in mind as you read further in this story, is that all Cedarville staff from the bottom up – all who needed to know – were fully aware of what happened at The Village Church with Anthony Moore.  When the question was posed if the individuals at Cedarville University were aware that they could potentially be putting others at risk by hiring Moore, the reply was that they were!

Paige Patterson

“Patterson started preaching while still in his teens. He held several Pastorates before becoming president of the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies (now Criswell College) in Dallas, Texas. Patterson formed a strong connection with W.A. Criswell of the First Baptist Church of Dallas while in this position. After 17 years he became president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina (1992-2003). Patterson was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in both 1998 and 1999. He has lectured and preached extensively and authored and edited many books and journals. In 2003, he became the 8th president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He was removed as president in May 2018 over his past advice to women concerning marital abuse and rape, then stripped of his positions of emeritus president and theologian-in-residence for his handling of several rape investigations. He served on the board of trustees of Cedarville University  [from 2003] until he resigned on May 31, 2018.”
Source: Wikipedia

Patterson was one of the key men who worked to restore conservative doctrines in the Southern Baptist denomination. He was on the Cedarville University Board of Trustees and likely the man who was instrumental in the hiring of Dr. Thomas White as President in 2013. Thomas and Patterson worked together in a  controversial but successful effort to restore ultra-conservative values at Cedarville University. Here is a link to an interesting timeline of the “purge” at Cedarville University.

Dr. Thomas White was a protege of Patterson. They authored a book together that was published in 2007.

Patterson was also very fond of Anthony Moore. Here is a video clip from August 2008. Paige Patterson washes the feet of SWBTS student Anthony Moore at the first chapel service of the academic year at SWBTS.

In 2018 troubling facts came to light concerning Patterson’s treatment of women who had been sexually abused at institutions he had presided over. Patterson was eventually fired from his job as President of SWBTS. Prior to his firing individuals concerned with his position on the Cedarville University Board of Trustees signed a petition calling for the immediate removal of Patterson from the Board. They threatened a cessation of all financial support if Patterson was not removed, a move usually guaranteed to get results!

Shortly after Patterson was fired from SWBTS he was forced to resign from the Board of Trustees of Cedarville University.

Audio from the article above:

It is my opinion that Paige Patterson likely played a major role in the hiring of Dr. Anthony Moore. You will recall that Moore was hired by Cedarville University in August of 2017. Patterson resigned his position on the Board of Trustees in May 2018.

Thomas White

Thomas White, as President of Cedarville University, is ultimately responsible for the hiring of Anthony Moore.  It can be amply demonstrated that White is good friends with both Anthony Moore and Paige Patterson.

I have previously supplied a video of Paige Patterson washing the feet of Anthony White.  In the article below White writes about the incident. He also mentions Paul Pressler, a retired judge who in recent years has been credibly charged with numerous homosexual relationships.

At the time White wrote this article he likely had no knowledge of Judge Pressler’s “grievous, immoral actions” (to borrow a phrase from Matt Chandler) but it’s interesting to note that Pressler and Patterson were friends who led the Conservative Resurgence, as stated in White’s article below.

Quite honestly, that whole foot-washing scenario struck me as a bit weird.  The “My sweet son, Anthony” language creeps me out, but maybe that’s just me. And what’s up with White’s penchant for displaying selfies of himself with what appears to be Black Africans? Perhaps he fancies himself to be David Livingstone? The only thing I think of when I see his photos is the guy needs to get out in the sun a bit more.

Next, we have another photo of Dr. Livingstone on an African holiday! White decries the lack of real men as he rants against metro-sexuals and homosexuals.  White can think of no better example of a real man to point us to than his guy pal, Paige Patterson! Sorry Tommy, you just lost all credibility with me. Oh, wait a minute, Patterson did have all those stuffed animals he killed on hunting trips prominently displayed in his study, so I guess he is a manly-man.

I wonder if White has any examples of homosexual men he can point us to?

The article below highlights White’s relationship with Patterson. Additionally, it points out his convoluted use of the English language. Perhaps that’s the result of a lifetime spent in the Ivory Palace? Whatever. I imagine his stack of books is almost as large as Al Mohler’s stack. Well, I probably have a bigger belt buckle than either of them!

Here is an article White wrote on the eve of Patterson’s resignation from the Board of Trustees of Cedarville University. White has to walk a tightrope here. He doesn’t want to throw his lifetime benefactor under the bus, but he knows it would be political suicide for him to praise Patterson excessively. I give White an A+ on this aspect of his article.

On the negative side, when you consider that White hired Moore knowing that he was fired for sexually abusing a male subordinate at The Village Church, his whole stance on sexual abuse rings hollow.

The next video must be a Gospel pep-fest rally conducted at a Cedarville University chapel service. It’s very inspiring. I almost deleted this entire post after hearing Dr. White exhort us to not be a person that points out problems of the church.

Not really.

I think part of the problem with the Evangelical church in America is that the individual churches are overwhelmingly populated with people that don’t point out the problems. In fact, if you are one of the sexually abused or those who advocate for the abused you are likely to be attacked, maligned, told to get over it, to move on, to quit pointing out sin because we are all sinners, and to become one of those who always look on the bright side of life.

As an aside, I wanted to point out that White is a big backer of 9Marx. He has spoken at some of their conferences and he invites the para-church organization to hold a yearly conference at Cedarville. This year’s subject will be…. wait for it… church discipline!  I expect the 9Marx spokesman will make it clear that church discipline is not for clergy types such as Anthony Moore.

Finally, it should be less than comforting to know that Thomas White is a member of the “Men are Better than Women Club – CBMW for short. You will notice that Jeff Purswell is also a member. He is a pastor with C.J. Mahaney at the Sovereign Grace run-away church plant in Louisville and is in charge of the 10-month long “Pastor’s College” where young men go to be indoctrinated in the finer points of flattery and covering up sexual abuse. Also on the Board are C.J. Mahaney apologists Denny Burk, Ligon Duncan and Wayne Grudem.

I could add a lot more documentation but I think I have supplied enough to show White’s ties to Patterson and Moore. I am of the opinion that White is likely chief among the men instrumental in the hiring of Moore. I think the Board of Trustees needs to conduct a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of this travesty and then let the chips fall where they may.

Matt Chandler

Need I say more? Chandler is heavy-handed authoritarian. He reveals his true colors in the above rant.

It’s hard for me to believe he did not play a role in Anthony Moore obtaining his job at Cedarville. I would guess that as a minimum he assured Cedarville officials he would not protest the hiring.

The Village Church has had several serious sexual abuse scandals over the past few years. It causes an outsider like me to question what the heck is going on down there? If The Village Church were an NFL team and Chandler was the head coach he would have been fired a few seasons ago. I think an independent investigative group needs to be called in to examine the church and make suggestions for change. As an outsider, I am doubtful the elders are up to the task.

One last thing I found interesting is that The Village Church hired Dave Bruskas as Anthony Moore’s replacement.

At one time Bruskas apparently was the number two man at Mars Hill. I did not follow the Mars Hill debacle closely, but Warren Throckmorton did. I suggest you read his article “Mars Hill Church Executive Elder Dave Bruskas on Mark Driscoll, NYTs Best-Seller List, Strange Fire and More.”

Additionally, here is what Pastor Dustin Kensrue had to say about Bruskas in a public letter he wrote titled “On My Resignation and the Future of Mars Hill Church:”