My name is Christiane and I love people; the way some folks go gaga over cats and dogs – that’s how I feel about humans. I love city-living, dancing, and the smell of autumn leaves. All of these loves stem from, and contribute to, my faith in God and active participation in the LDS church.
Throughout my life, I have served in a variety of church callings, ranging from chorister to Sunday School teacher. I have also felt inspired to pursue activities outside of church callings, such as AmeriCorps and public interest law, in an effort to serve God. See Matt. 25:40; Gal. 5:14; Mosiah 2:17. Last year, I was blessed to be sealed in an LDS temple to my true love.
Like Enos, I have “wrestle[d] … before God” to grow in the gospel. See Enos 1. Like Esther, I seek to act by faith, not fear. See Esth. 4-5. Through this lens, I have pondered women’s ordination. Below are several reasons why ordaining women makes sense to me:
• Allow women to participate more fully in Church service and leadership.
• Instill confidence in young women and encourage them to fulfill their divine potential as individual daughters of God.
• Dismantle gender-labeling rhetoric about roles and divine attributes (e.g., men preside/lead, women nurture).
• Encourage changes in church practices that promote female subordination (e.g., some language of temple ordinances, male oversight of highest levels of female leadership).
• Facilitate church growth and local leadership development in areas where there are faithful members and insufficient numbers of male priesthood leaders to function without missionary/regional support.
• Include faithful church members in priesthood leadership without requiring them to identify as male or female.
• Provide a more balanced perspective in church interviews/discipline.
• Promote equality in marital and other family relationships.
• Acknowledge that some traditions in our faith community are products of culture and human error instead of divine revelation from God.
Until now, I have quietly relied on peace derived from my belief that, in time, women would inevitably be ordained. But as I have watched our brothers and sisters suffer for expressing their beliefs about the ordination of women, I have been discouraged. I have been discouraged by the level of fear and resistance the idea of female ordination is met with in our church family. In my discouragement, Dr. King’s call to people of faith resonates: “Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God[.]” MLK, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 4/16/63. So I add my faithful voice to those before me:
I believe women should be ordained.