(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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. —Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, January 21, 2025
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Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde rocks—a refreshing voice speaking not only for the church and the prophetic tradition of the Bible (as did Martin Luther King Jr.) but also for the conscience of America.
Our better angels.
The bishop won accolades from people who don’t go to church and from those who don’t even like it. Even atheists gave her God a nod. Christian nationalists did not.
Budde was bold, brave, and bodacious in her address to the president during the Inaugural Prayer Service at the National Cathedral.
In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.
Stunning! Inspirational! Compelling!
In the name of our God.
But there’s a fallacy in that.
The bishop’s God is not Trump’s god.
In the name of OUR God, Mr. President, have mercy.
Nice try.
“Our God” was a gracious and generous presumption that each honored and served the same God. But Trump wasn’t buying it. He saw right through it. Her God and his god are not the same.
Her God welcomes the stranger and tends to the least among us.
His does not.
(The Golden Calf has no heart.)
Her God is merciful.
His is ruthless.
And what does her God require of her, but “to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly.” (Micah 6.8)
His god doesn’t require any of that. After all, his god is Mammon.
(And that’s okay. You know, the First Amendment thing.)
And what does Mammon require of him, but to love wealth, practice greed, and strut proudly.
Jesus famously said: You cannot serve God and Mammon. He didn’t say you should not; he said you could not. You gotta choose one or the other, pal.
It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a billionaire to enter the kingdom of heaven.
We can quote the Bible and Jesus till we’re blue in the face, but that won’t change Trump’s heart.
The Bible is a BEAUTIFUL book. I love to pose with it. But only SUCKERS AND LOSERS heed it.
Where’s the SPANISH INQUISITION when we need it?!
(BAD IDEA. We’ve got too much religious zealotry in this country already!)
