Hi, I’m Keith.
I am a seventh generation Mormon, born and raised in the Church. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a core part of who I am as a person. I served a mission, got married in the temple, and I love my participation in the Church, and I love my church family. I have followed OW since its beginnings and my first reaction was skepticism. I believed that women in the Church were valued for their roles as mothers and did not need the priesthood. Despite this, I felt like their voices were important and I was devastated by the excommunication of Kate Kelly and actions taken by the Church against other OW leaders.
I began to look closer at the issue and discovered that priesthood had been given to early women in the Church and that they performed priesthood blessings. I could not find any doctrinal reason why women should not be ordained. Then I became a father. I realized that motherhood is not equal to the priesthood with fatherhood devalued as a distant third place. Fatherhood is every bit as important as motherhood and I have no less capability to nurture. It saddens me that in my church, for a man to be nurturing is seen an un-masculine. I am a father and I am a nurturer, every bit as much as my wife, and my role in raising my two boys is just as important.
One day I noticed that someone on Facebook had posted pictures from OW of women giving priesthood blessings. I felt something that I had been taught to recognize and follow my whole life. I felt the same feeling that comes over me when I read the Book of Mormon, or take the sacrament, or quietly pray to my Heavenly Father, or meditate in the Temple. My soul hungered, and longed for the day when I can stand side by side with my beautiful wife and bless my children and when she can lay her hands on my head and minister to me.
I believe women should be ordained.