by Kelly Pelton

The world wide web of deception
discredits women as a distraction
so none will see prejudice as a projection
to keep one from dealing with one's own infraction.

You focus on "women won't stand firm for truth"
as you conceal truth and won't bring it to light,
your fear of relational rift from your youth
impeding courageous disclosure. It might

be wise to stop searching the prejudiced sites;
instead let God search you for what you say women do.
Jesus said that which you can't stand in others
exists in much greater abundance in you.

by Kelly Pelton

An African American woman met
and married a white man years ago;
in recent times, she wouldn't condemn
the people he thought will surely go

to hell. He thought her compassion misplaced
and went to the internet for validation
but what he found there were facts about blacks
plus facts about women with interpretation

that swayed him to joint the KKK
and tune in to people who seek to restrict
and control the black women, and over and over
he voices repugnant ideas to inflict

a pain in her heart, calmly requesting
she dialogue with him to defend her views,
debating like men do with logic prevailing,
for he cannot put himself into her shoes.

He uses the Bible, statistics, and sound bites
to mock female pastors, to question the vote 
of black women ("they're liberals; they vote for abortion"),
to treat the whole group as his moral scapegoat.

His wife, heartbroken, betrayed, and lonely 
has nevertheless sought the Lord's healing hand
and gotten deliverance from discrimination,
rising above it to take her stand.

She now makes public what he says in private,
bringing to light what her Klansman believes,
praying God opens his eyes to the truth 
of how through one's wounds the satan deceives,

how one's devaluing "the least of these"
is treating Christ Jesus exactly the same,
subordinating our God incarnate
in the "who's in charge" power game.

She prays for her Klansman to hear the small voice
of God who as our scapegoat died,
to own and confess from his heart of hearts
the prejudice that always is denied.

by Kelly Pelton (written 23 Oct 2025)

A woman healed can walk in truth and love,
demoting all relationships but One.
Christ values her and guides her in His ways;
she orbits Him as earth goes 'round the sun.

She knows her worth as made by God to be
an image of Him, breath of love her essence,
rooted in the Vine, connected fast,
His all-surpassing power her luminescence.

She does not brace for fear of scorn or cringe
for fear of men's contempt. No dread remains
in her of ridicule, derision, shame;
she is impervious to all disdain.

She walks in freedom, nothing more to prove,
and those who would humiliate her flee,
for she will not consent to be dismissed;
she will not tolerate inequity.

To those who justify ungodly praxis
using God's own word, she sends a prayer
and chooses rather to affiliate
with churches where their women the power share,

where she can speak with boldness, freely teaching,
leading as equipped by God's own Spirit,
sharing from His word in the assembly, 
truth transforming all those who will hear it.

A woman healed no longer second-guesses,
all the parts within her now united,
trusting God to guide her in His work
of heaven on earth to which she is invited.

by Kelly Pelton (written 11 Oct 2025)

To give up patriarchy requires trust,
a trust that God is guiding female and male,
His Spirit leading all whom He indwells;
His all-surpassing power will not fail.

We ask Him for His wisdom in our midst
to help us set good boundaries with each one
who guides the corporate worship or the teaching;
then only the Lord's finest will be done.

We trust that God will heal us through the ways
His children of both genders beam His light
and love and truth and grace, with confidence
that in Christ, all our faith will become sight.

This holy invitation is for all
who've pondered God's impartiality;
let Him reveal Christ's way to read His word
and open up your eyes to let you see.

(Selah)

by Kelly Pelton (written 11 Oct 2025)

Jesus said, "You'll know them by their fruit."
The actions are what give leaders away;
it's how they treat all people they encounter 
that outweighs any solemn words they say.

The privilege, power, status of the men
in churches where the women are restricted
speak louder than the mantra "equal worth,"
the lower value of the women depicted.

Although such treatment can't in fact diminish
the value of the human beings controlled,
it does reveal the hearts of those who limit
Christ's Spirit in His sisters we behold.

by Kelly Pelton (written to myself 07 Oct 2025)

You've struggled, decades, up to now.
What God's allowed would fill a book 
of conflict, pressure, and suspense,
ironic twists that greatly shook

your fragile peace, disheartened you,
relationships disrupted, ending
harmony, that precious idol
tying you to constant mending.

A part of you interrogating,
"Is this worth it? Are you sure?"
This second-guessing of the truth
you grasped served only to obscure

the narrow way, painfully,
your self divided, deeply torn,
a longing to connect with one
who saw things differently. You mourn

the rift revealed by disagreement
as our Jesus calls you blessed;
your disillusionment with family 
opens you up to His best.

You are securely in His hands,
your undivided self Him trusting.
People-bonds will ebb and flow;
around your true peace they're adjusting.

by Kelly Pelton

Respecting your right to disagree,
I now move on with certainty.
The anti-egalitarian
might think I'm quite contrarian
but I'm at peace, I'm clear, I'm free,
and no one will diminish me.
The Lord has given us free will 
to be ungodly or fulfill
the role of being like His son
until His work in us is done.
Your system has no hold on me;
I follow Christ exclusively,
His way of love impartial, just
toward all. We look to Him with trust.
Denominations will have no place
when we behold Him face to face.

by Kelly Pelton

There's no debating hardened hearts of hardened men
when high regard for every human being is lacking;
no common ground exists with one who limits women
in God's name while using selective scriptural backing.

In many churches, deep-seated prejudice maintains
that God has created a social order favoring men
in status, privilege, power, prestige; this gender hierarchy
is said to protect orthodoxy. Be mindful, guarded, then,

when people justify blatant injustice, subordinating
any people group for the greater good. A system is willing
to marginalize one or some, but Jesus never was,
His Spirit teaching love to all people He's filling.

Debate is futile with one who defends unequal praxis,
the unequal treatment of those he labels equals; his actions
reveal a bankruptcy within, of failing to dearly value
each soul that God has made. People aren't distractions;

they are the point of Jesus' life, death, resurrection,
individuals of His priesthood unrestricted,
free to edify the whole assembly with their gifts, 
our Savior through His sons and daughters fully depicted.

by Kelly Pelton

Certain systems built around a common faith in Christ
are limiting the contributions that their women make,
devaluing them in the whole assembly of believers,
confining them to teach their own kind. Fairness is at stake

and God's impartiality ignored as men are lifted
highest in church social status, privileged, "first" as leaders,
keeping women from the elder roles of double honor,
sowing seeds of fear among the serious Bible readers

("Dodge those 'liberal' theologians," "Watch the slippery slope"),
lest they read the scholarship and go to God and taste
and see that He is good, His royal priesthood of believers
not by gender but by Jesus' gifting aptly placed.

With gratitude to Gretta L. Bennett and AJ Fletcher, "Separate but Equal: The Great Lie Behind Jim Crow and Progressive Complementarianism," Priscilla Papers vol. 39 no. 3, Summer 2025, p. 17.

by Kelly Pelton

Any system in this fallen world
commands allegiance to its tight control,
encouraging indifference to people
who don't adhere (or fit in) to a role.

The systems of this world are plentiful,
from governments, economies, and schools
to legal, military, institutional
churches, each with necessary rules.

Politics has parties, families
are nuclear, extended; denominations
patriarchal keep their females under
males in lesser valued serving stations.

Those for whom a system has no use
and those whose power is limited within
have decreased value in and to that system,
overlooked, less visible therein.

Jesus valued people over systems,
simplifying His commands to one:
"Love one another as I've loved you," 
expecting sole allegiance to God's Son.

If loyalty to any worldly system
(church included - it's an institution)
supersedes our loyalty to Christ,
we will engage in human diminution.

Abiding in the person that is Jesus
leads us to a love for all that's equal,
love then lived on earth as it is in heaven,
foreshadowing this earthly story's sequel.