I have had the great benefit of having many spiritual mentors over the course of my life. I grew up surrounded by people that loved me and had my best interests at heart. But I also grew up in a denomination that was fracturing over a number of issues. The biggest question that impacted me personally was the role women had to play in spiritual life. My congregation was affirming of women and their gifts. We valued women and their leadership. We ordained women and placed them where they were being called to serve. Unfortunately, none of those choices could fully protect women in our church from sometimes feeling the pain of a denominational crisis that centered on them.

When she is broken

And she doesn’t have words

She will creep down the dim hallway

To the place where she doesn’t need them.

And there on the door

She will read the rules:

“Menstruating women are not permitted to use the prayer room.”

And as she stares, she will wonder

Why God gave her this body

That men will seek to possess

While dismissing the human inside it.

But then she will reach out

Gently peel the sign from the door.

She will crumple it slowly in one hand

Before tossing it into the bin where it belongs.

Then she will open the door

And defy the rules they dared to set

Because if not for a woman

And her blood

They wouldn’t have their Christ.