by Kelly Pelton (written 16 Mar 2021)

To reject your rejection of my kind
without rejecting you, though you deny
your sin against me, means that I unbind
you from your ongoing wrongdoing by

not holding it against you, not using
it to define you. It's still atrocious
what you're doing, your zealous abusing
from religious reasons, but ferocious

is God's love for you and me, removing
our sins from us as far as east from west.
By no means do I say He's approving 
of your treatment of me; He thinks the best

of us because He's justly judged our sins.
One day you'll know how much damage you've caused;
you'll feel the pain. Restoration begins
when by Jesus our earthly life is paused

and we understand how we hurt each one
of His children. I imagine this when
your mistreatment of me seems to have won;
I accept you now as you will be then.

by Kelly Pelton (written 15 Mar 2021)

Those who portray themselves as your intermediary,
who expect you to believe them about what God is like,
can keep you from finding out for yourself, especially
if they misrepresent His character; this is a strike

against you, but persevere in living your own story
with God and not someone else's. Resist delegating
the stewardship of your journey to other believers
who box you into a category, relegating

you to secondary roles; they can't control your inner
life with Christ, your soul's growth under His watchful caretaking.
If your journey with Him seems dry, you're failing to disclose
all that vexes, bothers, and disheartens in painstaking

detail for Him to sift, sort, and gently illuminate.
Bring up that topic which makes you squirm, that you'd rather die
than confess to another, so painful the memory,
and discover how He views it with His all-seeing eye.

Those who don't know for themselves how tenderly He handles 
our hearts's deepest hurts can only regulate external
facets of church structure while you dive into the goodness
of Him who heals and sets you free, bringing life eternal

to your past and present, transforming with all-surpassing
power your personality. You'll not rely on them 
to tell you what God is like; you'll live a rich existence
asking and seeking, knocking, receiving the best from Him.

by Kelly Pelton (written 16 Mar 2021)

The churches can say “get over it”
to your hurt feelings; ignore them.
Forge ahead, just you and Jesus;
bring every sad memory to Him.

All those times you’ve been overlooked,
invisible, or excluded
matter to Christ; He has the time,
and while on earth, He exuded

the healing concern that transforms
pain. He knows how your younger heart
bought in to the lies about you,
even if only a small part

of you ever doubted your worth
or thought you deserved punitive
treatment in a situation.
His power is transformative,

freeing you from second-guessing,
separating you from those who
fail to see your humanity,
who don’t recognize your value.

You’ll take your own side against them,
rejecting their cold rejection,
embracing God’s great love for you,
leaving behind your dejection

because you’ll know you’re not less than
those who wanted you to believe 
their opinion of you matters;
His freedom from them you receive.

by Kelly Pelton (written 07 March 2021)

When Christians question a church interpretation
of scripture, thinking we've misunderstood for so long,
some accuse them of questioning what God has said
as did the serpent to Eve before all went wrong.

"Did God actually say," the serpent began
before misquoting the audible voice of God
to cast doubt on the great Creator's character
as he tempted the human being on Eden's sod.

The goal of Bible interpretation is to
represent God accurately, not proclaiming
a false meaning that makes us doubt His character
as anything but good and righteous; stop shaming

those souls whose consciences sharpened by the Spirit
are asking to re-evaluate the old thought
regarding a Bible passage to be certain
we are staying true to the principles God wrought

throughout the whole of scripture. Let us not misquote
our Lord in a careless interpretation of
His word. His voice through scripture speaks to us today
not audibly but as the Spirit leads in love

to teach us to correctly handle the Lord's word
in the light of God's righteous judgment, His wisdom,
mercy, understanding, impartiality;
let's not misrepresent the Lord or His kingdom.

by Kelly Pelton (written 25 Feb 2021)

The bathroom in the basement of Lipscomb University
was kindly designated for colored use, no more outdoor
makeshift outhouses at this college in Nashville, Tennessee
where bathrooms for blacks were moved inside (whites were on the main floor).

The Christians wanted to treat their black brothers and sisters well,
and the indoor bathroom was a step in the right direction;
they could not see how far short of perfect love's standard they fell
or they would have discarded such rules for full integration.

Similarly, the churches that now allow women to pray
or read scripture or give a testimony or be deacons
are bringing them into worship, an orchestrated role play
that's not exactly helping the church people be beacons

of truth and love in a healthier family dynamic.
It's progress, bringing us in from the outside to be under-
foot, participating from beneath you, the panoramic
scope of God's love obscured as His children are left to wonder

why the inequity in spiritual roles; biology
didn't limit New Testament believers as did the norms
of their time. Let's implement Spirit-led methodology,
embracing gender inclusivity so the church informs

the world of God's tender and loving impartiality,
the way He speaks through all of His children both female and male.
Let's not relegate any to the basement; we're family
whose function as equals will cause worldly standards to seem stale.

by Kelly Pelton (written 19 Feb 2021)

The terms "biblical man- and womanhood"
aren't found in any Bible verse; gender
expectations are man-made, burdening
our souls with pressure to conform. Tender

hearts weren't made to fit the stereotypes
but to express God's image more fully
by being fully human, becoming
the individuals God made us to be.

The women and men of God's sacred word
included prostitutes, warmongers, all
on a journey of faith, diversity
the rule and not the exception; let's fall

in line with their example. No cultural
sameness is mandated by the scriptures
for women or for men, no middle-class
standards, just an urge to all be pictures

of Jesus wherever we are serving.
Each woman and man must discern the way
to live from one's story as the Lord leads
and not from misguided rules of our day.

by Kelly Pelton (written 13 Feb 2021)

If it seems unfair, it probably is. 
If it sounds ungracious, it's likely so.
The separate water fountain for blacks
didn't sit right with some people, although

it was identical to the whites's one
and worked, so what was the problem with it?
All could have a drink; no one went without...
It's silly to throw such a hissy fit

unless accentuating differences
harms those who lack power in some regard
by excluding them from full acceptance,
relegating them to another yard

to play separately apart from you,
not being a part of you. "Together"
is separate's opposite, no man-made gap
or biology-determined tether

to limit fellowship or belonging
with the group that has more social influence;
it's unfair to separate based on an 
immutable trait. Feel God's abhorrence.

by Kelly Pelton (written 11 Feb 2021)

You meant well in your reaction to secular feminism,
protecting the sanctity of life, resisting domination,
but a fearful response to something bad can be worse or as bad;
your worldly solution of counter-domination is quite sad.
Instead, you could have learned from your enemies about your own part
in unjust societal practices and have a change of heart
and find a Spirit-led path of repentance and restoration,
of respect between the genders rather than subordination.

by Kelly Pelton (written 09 Feb 2021)

The young female psyche is harmed by your church doublespeak,
your gaslighting denial of gender partiality,
misrepresenting your unjust practices as the Lord's will
to girls who have no confidence to question authority.

You persuade them to distrust their moral intuition,
your hermeneutics grounded in Jewish, Greek, and Roman
patriarchy, unbeknownst to them, you religious elite;
you make them each feel cheated that they were born a woman.

You quote, "the heart is deceitful above all things" to dissuade
them from questioning your worldly gender hierarchy;
who's to say the female heart is any more deceitful 
than males bent on protecting their empire of patriarchy?

God's healing and freeing from such dishonest role playing
takes decades, enabling His daughters to see through the lies
and to call out the church on its worldly priorities;
control through deception and intimidation never flies

in a kingdom where no one is to scramble to be first,
where all are to use their gifts to edify all believers,
where Jesus reigns instead of fearful insecurity,
where we all are children, not competitive achievers.

by Kelly Pelton (written 02 Feb 2021 to expound on CULTURAL CONTEXT posted 01 Oct 2020)

An educated woman in Roman society 
was to be quiet, not daring to speak her opinions
in public and never with an air of authority
lest the lesser-educated men feel like her minions.

Juvenal's Sixth Satire scathingly attacks such females
who defy expectations of feminine modesty;
ladies were to nod in agreement with their husbands's tales
or, understanding his wit, smile appreciatively.

Livy, the Roman historian, castigated those
women speaking freely in public rather than at home,
echoing his ancestors, lamenting the many woes
of women not under the control of males, free to roam

the streets as were men: "they desire freedom... rather license
in all matters," he moaned, "And if they win in this matter,
what will they not attempt?" Hear the fear, the timeless suspense
from this civilization's misogynistic chatter.

"Could you not have asked your own husbands the same thing at home?"
Hear Livy's irritation at females talking to men
in the Forum about laws, liberated more in Rome
than elsewhere, resented as though they'd committed a sin.

Enter the apostle Paul spreading the news of Jesus:
All else can be sacrificed to teach the message of life;
let's not distract by breaking social norms in to pieces
but embrace temperance as desirable in a wife.

Above all, the gospel must advance; don't be repulsive
to the culture but model the best of their prized virtues
so as to win their trust as you display the attractive
traits they expect. For the sake of the gospel, don't refuse 

to subordinate your freedom in Christ to be winsome
representatives of His kingdom in this world of men.
The forfeiture of equal roles for a time, though irksome, 
was not meant to be a rule for all time, only for then

as the message took root and spread along the Roman roads
and finds us two thousand years later post-feminism,
gender equality a prized ideal, no "household codes"
but collaboration instead of antagonism.

Perhaps the church can show the world the purest version
of this ideal and stop preserving Roman social norms;
it can bestow equal roles without the competition,
the genders reconciled, demonstrating modesty in all forms.

(As The Romans Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History by Jo-Ann Shelton, with thanks to Dr. Ken Cukrowski for this source and his tireless efforts toward gender equity in the church.)