Keep The Faith

The backlash to Bishop Marian Budde speaking up for the most vulnerable in our society is a useful reminder that progressivism and religious faith often go hand-in-hand.

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.

If money is tight or you’re already up to eyeballs in subscriptions, here’s another idea — share this article. Email it to a friend (or even an enemy). Post it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Text or email it to your wife, husband, mother, father, brother, sister, or even your creepy second cousin who lives in Vatican City. Word of mouth is often the best way to build support for a creative endeavor, so if everyone here sends it to just one person … it would be much appreciated.

For those of you who haven’t seen the video of comments made by Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday, it’s worth your time.

Here is the passage that has upset Trump and many of his supporters.

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen”

Trump responded on Truth Social by calling Budde “a Radical Left hard-line Trump hater,” who “brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way” and “was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”

(That Trump responded to a plea for mercy as a personal attack against him is acutely on-brand).

Shutterstock

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Budde of using her sermon to “weaponize the pulpit” and demanded she apologize to Trump “for the lies that she told.” (Everything Budde said in her sermon was true.)

Some of these criticisms have merit. Bishop Budde directly confronted the president on a policy issue with a strong political component. Her words went beyond a general plea to protect LGBTQ Americans and undocumented migrants to addressing Trump directly on an issue that is core to his political standing. If four years ago, a conservative bishop had confronted President Biden on his support for abortion rights, many Democrats would have been up in arms. I don’t find this criticism all that compelling — and I think Budde acted appropriately — but I think it’s reasonable to raise the issue.

However, I find this response from Speaker of the House Mike Johnson far more problematic.

Johnson was not alone in disparaging Budde. Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno said, “It's outrageous that some woke Bishop would lecture President Trump about deporting illegals.” Fox News’s Sean Hannity, who is an evangelical Christian, said Budde “made the service about her very own deranged political beliefs with a disgraceful prayer full of fearmongering and division.”

The notion that asking the president of the United States “to honor the dignity of every human being” is a “radical ideology” or a “deranged political belief” is perversely offensive.

Moreover, calling on the president to “walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people” is the literal opposite of fearmongering and division.

That these words come from individuals who wear their Christian and Catholic faith on their sleeves is even more disgusting. If one wants to disagree with Budde’s decision to speak at what is generally considered a non-partisan event — fine. However, suggesting that showing mercy to the most vulnerable in our society is a “radical” or “deranged” notion demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of Christian theology

As an editorial in the National Christian Reporter (NCR) put it:

What she (Budde) did was something she was obliged to do as a disciple of Christ preaching the Christian message. She gave a human face to those who, in the approach of a heartless administration, are a faceless group, shamefully maligned and made into a national scapegoat.

… If a Christian leader in her pulpit, addressing a president who voluntarily placed himself in that sacred space, cannot speak out of the heart of the Gospel, then we might as well turn our cathedrals, basilicas and other houses of worship into museums.

As this editorial further points out, religious leaders have been at the forefront of criticizing Trump’s plans for mass deportation. Pope Francis has called the plan a “disgrace.” Cardinal Robert McElroy, the newly appointed archbishop of Washington, said mass deportation is "incompatible with Catholic doctrine."