I was a convert and devout Mormon for fifteen years, married in the Cardston temple to a high priest. I am no longer an active Mormon. But my three young daughters are. I am no longer married. I do not know if they will continue to be Mormon when they grow up. I do what I can to discourage this possibility because they are brilliant, feisty, persuasive, creative, talented girls who have everything it takes to stamp out worldly injustices and be leaders of any organisation. The world needs them. And I don’t want their senses of confidence, their senses of purpose, and their time to be undermined and usurped by an organisation which tells them directly that, because of their bodies, their roles in this world are limited. I don’t want them to be a part of an organisation whose whole narrative of Creation hinges upon free agency, but then forces men and women into roles and jobs based on their biologies and not on their hearts, talents, or integrities.
If the priesthood was granted to women, I could support my daughters being members of the church. I still would not rejoin. But I would attend on Sunday, with admiration, as my bishop daughters gave talks, and blessed babies, and expertly inspired a community of people into fellowship and ethical behaviors.
There is room in the religious imagination for female priesthood. There is historical precedence in the Mormon church. The world is ready. And anyway, morality doesn’t depend upon readiness. Equality is the moral choice.
I believe women should be ordained.