Peter Smith Quadrant Online January 25, 2025
Bishop Mariann Budde is the leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Any non-churchgoer of sound mind who heard her self-indulgent lecturing of Donald Trump from the pulpit of the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday, January 21, would thank their lucky stars they spend their Sunday mornings lying in bed or playing golf.
The Rt. Rev. Budde is a tired old anti-Trump leftie with form. Here she is in 2020 saying that Trump should be replaced. We can safely say that Trump and those with him at the service, including Melania and JD Vance, have already consigned the episode to oblivion. It matters not to Trump and to his program to restore America. It does matter to the reputation of Christian churches. Unfortunately, Budde is just one example among phalanxes of priestly do-gooders (to be extremely generous) who put their simpering socialist politics above the Bible.
Let us try to bring clarity to the matter. According to Budde, LGBTQ+ people and children are scared of what Trump will do? Answer: I am sure than any impressionable LGBTQ+ person around Budde would get scared. She’d scare the bejesus out of them and then blame Trump.
It is true that Trump is a threat to transgender activists. That is a good thing, even if it results in just one teenage girl, confused about her sexuality, getting real help instead of having her breasts cut off. Didn’t hear Budde express concern about children being monstered by twisted activists and mercenary doctors and surgeons.
According to Budd (illegal) immigrants who are not criminals are also scared; of being deported. It is a crime to enter the United States without permission. So, all illegal immigrants are criminals. But let’s not split hairs. And we don’t have to because Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, have made it clear enough that they are primarily going after illegals who have committed crimes since crossing the border. Illegals who have killed, raped, assaulted, and stolen from US citizens.
Might have missed it, but didn’t hear Budde express sympathy for the families whose daughters like Laken Riley have been raped and killed by illegals. Didn’t either hear her convey any understanding of the onerous imposition on American communities in having to feed, clothe and house millions of illegals, in having to educate their children, in having to adjust to alien cultural norms injected into their neighbourhoods.
I am reminded of Screwtape instructing nephew Wormwood (C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters):
Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours … and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.
Christian ministers like Budde, and there are a great many of them, show all the signs, if you will, of being got at by Screwtape or Wormwood or by one of their brethren within the Infernal Legion. You don’t have to think hard to understand that subverting a Christian minister would be worth a whole lot of gongs in Hades.
The devil can cite scripture for his purpose, as Antonio put it (in The Merchant of Venice). And so it is that countless times in church I have heard that Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus were refugees too, having fled to Egypt in fear of King Herod. (Matthew 2:13–15) The message seems to be that therefore you must allow countless hordes of culturally clashing young male “refugees” into your communities lest ye be sinful. What a stretch!
First, Joseph and Mary knew that Herod was about to kill Jesus. They didn’t flee to enjoy Egypt’s social welfare benefits. Second, they returned to their home as soon as it was safe to do so. And, third, there is no account of them sponging off their hosts or causing trouble or resisting deportation. Another biblical story is apropos. The good Samaritan took the beaten-up Jewish man to an inn and paid for his keep until he recovered. (Luke 10:30-35) He didn’t take him to his home and offer put him up for life in the spare room.
A really important point to make is that Jesus asks us all as individuals to love our neighbours. I can’t find any biblical injunction to make generous offers on behalf of others. I don’t know where Budde lives. I imagine as a bishop she lives in a good neighbourhood in a nice house. How many illegal immigrants does she personally house and take care of? How many are crowding out her surrounding streets and threatening her as she shops? These people are in the business of despising their own American community, while fawning over ‘the other’. See what I mean about C.S. Lewis.
Final point. A segue. Couldn’t resist it. Budde is no shining advertisement for women priests. Still not allowed by the way in the Sydney Diocese and in two other Australian Anglican dioceses. On the other hand, Budde’s views fit well enough with the views of Justin Welby and many other male priests. So, it is not a sex thing that is eating away at the Christian clergy.
Nevertheless, St Paul’ s message in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy is that women should not speak, teach or exercise authority in church. After each reading in church we say, “Hear the word of the Lord, thanks be to God.” Obviously, for some, except for those words they don’t like.Nevertheless, St Paul’ s message in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy is that women should not speak, teach or exercise authority in church. After each reading in church we say, “Hear the word of the Lord, thanks be to God.” Obviously, for some, except for those words they don’t like.
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