Once a co-host of the popular Reformed podcast The Mortification of Spin, alongside Carl Trueman and Todd Pruitt, Aimee Byrd seemed to be aligned with these self-proclaimed champions of Reformed theology. But it didn’t take long before this seemingly orthodox voice in the conservative Reformed world unraveled in spectacular fashion.

Byrd, who once ascribed to the Presbyterian confession and orthodox creeds, has fallen off the doctrinal cliff—trading biblical complementarianism for full-blown, unapologetic feminism.

And, in a twist of irony that would make even the most hardened progressive blush, Byrd recently “ordained” herself to officiate her brother’s wedding. In case you’re wondering, that’s not a joke. I mean, the ordination itself is a joke, but the woman who once played in the league of Reformed giants now stoops to ordain herself, courtesy of some sketchy online ministry.

How did we get here? Byrd’s decline began when her feminist leanings slowly crept into her theological framework. It was subtle at first, only noticed by those pesky “discernment blogs” of the 20-teens who had nothing better to do than to “nitpick” at everything and “cause division” in the body of Christ. Yet, the writing was on the wall, all wrapped up in fancy rhetoric and half-baked reinterpretations of Scripture, and we were able to read it … clearly.

Her association with Carl Trueman and Todd Pruitt once gave her some credibility—though Pruitt, in particular, should share some of the blame for her rise. Remember when Pruitt, in all his wisdom, verbally endorsed with grand accolades Byrd’s feminist manifesto Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood on their podcast?

“Almost two years ago… I offered a verbal endorsement of the book… by my friend and cohost Aimee Byrd,” he later wrote in his mea culpa. Well, that ship had already sailed, and it sank fast. Byrd’s slide into Marxist-inspired feminism could’ve been spotted from a mile away, yet Pruitt helped her throw fuel on the fire—only to realize, far too late, the damage it had already done.

But let’s cut to the farce that is Aimee Byrd’s ordination. According to her own account, Byrd was asked by her brother to officiate his wedding. It seems no pastor or “civil authority” would do, so who better to take on this sacred responsibility than a self-proclaimed theologian-turned-feminist?

Of course, she needed to be ordained for the occasion, but why go through the rigorous training and theological scrutiny pastors traditionally undergo when you can just click a button and get ordained online?

Well, because she’s not qualified, of course—and she knows it. She doesn’t meet the stipulations set forth in 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, etc. to hold the office of pastor.

Enter American Marriage Ministries—an organization that exists solely for people like Byrd, who want to usurp the “title” without the actual responsibility. Byrd dives into some convoluted history lesson on weddings, ordination, and ancient Roman rank systems as if that somehow justifies her decision to bypass biblical qualifications.

She writes:

While we do have the laying on of hands in Scripture, conveying a special gifting by the Spirit for service, we can’t so easily equate it with what we have now as the modern practice of ordination. Ordination (from the Latin ordo, meaning class or rank) is a word/practice lifted from ancient Roman society. In a desire to defend Christianity against heresy, Christian apologists like Tertullian borrowed this common language from the Roman ranking system to secure authority and further separation of clergy from laity.

Talk about overcompensating. Why bother with centuries of Christian orthopraxy and the biblical requirements for ordination when you can just Google it?

In her self-congratulatory piece, Byrd waxes poetic about the “honor” and “blessing” of officiating her brother’s wedding, while conveniently sidestepping the fact that she has no actual biblical or ecclesiastical authority to do so. She admits she’s “not a pastor” but then turns around and suggests that ordination itself is nothing more than a cultural construct.

”Cultural construct,” sound familiar?

Last time we checked, Scripture is quite clear on who holds the authority to officiate over sacred matters. But this is Aimee Byrd, after all—the woman who now believes that she, as a feminist icon, is on a God-ordained mission to reform the historic, orthodox church and rescue it from biblical manhood. After all, who needs the revelation of Christ when you have “American Marriage Ministries,” right?

Byrd’s ordination is a mockery of everything the church stands for. It’s a caricature of what true pastoral ordination means in the eyes of God. She dresses it up with pseudo-intellectual musings on history and ordination, all to justify what amounts to nothing more than a cheap attempt at self-glorification.

Of course, this was never about her brother’s wedding—it was about Byrd grasping for “girl power” in yet another venue where God clearly limits it. And we’re supposed to applaud her for it?

You can’t make this stuff up.