I was raised in a faithful LDS family and served a mission in El Salvador. During my mission, it seemed entirely illogical to me that the lovely people I taught and shepherded had to be interviewed, baptized and confirmed members of the Church by a male priesthood-holder that didn’t know any of them half as well as I did.
When I returned to my home ward, I asked, “How can I be Christlike when I can’t lay hands on to heal?” My bishop told me I couldn’t say such things in front of other members. I realized there was no place for me in a community that asked me to speak (and live) inauthentically.
I am a certified nurse-midwife now, and I live every day immersed in the raw and awesome power of women and their bodies. I watch those women hand their babies over to husbands and other men to bless them. Those men and women made those children together, they will raise those children together, and they should bless those children together. I believe women should be ordained.