I wrote it for the women like Maria.

I will never stop crying about the final story I tell in Becoming the Pastor’s Wife. It is the story we used to frame our All The Buried Women podcast miniseries, too. It encapsulates why I am doing this work. It is for the women like Maria who have been forgotten by the history of our churches; the women whose voices have been taken away by our theologies and practices that privilege male power at the cost of women.

Thank you, Savannah Locke, for helping me tell these stories. I couldn’t have done it without your brilliant podcast story telling (which is a different skill than just writing book chapters). Your artistry as a musician and content creator shine as brightly as your love of God. Thank you

Peter Enns

and The Bible For Normal People for giving us a platform to tell these stories. I am so grateful.

And thank you Leanne Friesen, the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec, and those who knew Maria and gave me permission to tell her story. I am so grateful you trusted me to tell it.

Later today (sorry, it is a two-post day due to some unusual circumstances that prevented me from posting earlier this week) I am going to share with you another book that connects to this theme of reclaiming voices (and truth) in the church. It is

Aimee Byrd

’s newest book that released this week and you will not want to miss it.

*As always, you can find the evidence citations on The Bible For Normal People website for All the Buried Women.