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Elizabeth Dias looks at the courageous decision of Episcopal bishop Mariann Budde to speak truth to power in a sermon confronting Trump to his face, and sees two versions of US Christianity confronting each other:
"In a flash, the war over spiritual authority in America burst into a rare public showdown.
The Canterbury Pulpit confronted the bully pulpit on the greatest possible stage."
Jennifer Rubin notes that a number of other US and world religious leaders have also spoken out about what Trump and the Republicans are doing, and concludes,
"Trump’s actions are not just lawless; they defy our deepest religious values."
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/trumps-actions-are-not-just-lawless
And John Pavolvitz calls on other religious leaders to defend Bishop Budde and speak out.
https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/dont-let-bishop-budde-stand-alone
@wdlindsy@toad.socialJessica Grose notes the compelling reasons many younger people are turning their backs on organized religion — she points, in particular, to the horror show of sexual abuse of minors and its coverup in the Catholic church.
But she laments the effects of this rejection of religious institutions for the following reasons:
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/3
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/opinion/religious-institutions-church.html
"As a secular, mildly observant Jew, I don’t feel strongly about whether other Americans attend religious services or believe in God. But I do care about the pervasive — and honestly, warranted — cynicism that young people have about religious institutions, because I think it is contributing to a more disconnected, careless and cruel society."
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/4
"Religious institutions are certainly not the only potential avenue for meaning, purpose and value in society. But we can’t underestimate the power of their reach, even in an increasingly secular world. When they have epic moral failures, it affects all of us, because it makes everyone more suspicious of potentially welcoming communities."
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/5
I agree with Jessica Grose. Religious bodies can exercise great cruelty and do horrific injustice. I know this personally as someone who has worked for church institutions and experienced deplorable discrimination in them.
Religious people have much to learn from non-religious and anti-religious people including atheists. One can be a profoundly moral person and have no religious faith at all.
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/6
But the arrogance and violence and aggression of many people speaking out on social media these days against those who have religious convictions also tells us that atheism and anti-religious commitments do not necessarily yield more humane, tolerant, kind, non-violent behavior among those who have these commitments.
I find the militant dogmatism of some anti-religious people just as repulsive as I find the dogmatism of some religious people.
Whether you're religious or anti-religious, if you want to convince me that you have something good to offer me and others, if you approach me with violence, aggression, hostility, and supercilious arrogance, I will tune you out.
Because the world is full of those things and those of us repulsed by them seek alternatives to them from anyone promising us good solutions, not echoes of them.
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/8
"Right-wing media launched an all-out assault on Budde that revealed exactly how power plans to deal with dissent in Trump's second term. …
All of this—the full machinery of right-wing outrage—deployed against a religious leader who simply asked for kindness toward vulnerable people. The disproportionate response tells us exactly what we're dealing with."
~ Parker Molloy
#Trump #BishopBudde #mercy #morality
/9
https://www.readtpa.com/p/the-price-of-speaking-up-in-trumps
"Remember this moment. Remember that asking for mercy toward scared children and immigrants was enough to trigger a full-scale campaign of intimidation from the highest levels of government and media. Remember that a sitting congressman suggested deporting an American citizen for the crime of asking the president to be kind."
As he reminds us that there's a long history in the US of religious leaders calling out presidents, John Nichols says,
"Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who stirred the wrath of Donald Trump and his conservative allies this week with a National Prayer Service homily that urged the newly inaugurated president “to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” speaks a reflective and compassionate language of faith.
#Trump #BishopBudde #mercy #morality
/11
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/mariann-budde-trump-sermon-reaction/
"I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others.
~ Mariann Budde
"In stark contrast to that shameless, transactional groveling [of rich men kissing Trump’s ass], I want to highlight three women who have courageously stood up to Trumpism and acted with moral clarity and unflinching resolve."
Jay Kuo then points to Mariann Budde, Tanya Chutkin, and Jennifer Rubin. He then notes the "hate and vitriol" that "a direct plea to Trump for mercy toward others" is eliciting among Trump supporters.
@wdlindsy so true. Let’s work together, religious and non-religious to treat each other with respect and kindness, and push back at the forces of hate and division in our world.
@EngagedPureLand It just seems totally insane not to form solidarity across unimportant dividing lines, as we all try to push back against an unprecedented threat from the political and religious right today. And I agree, as we do that without amplifying the hate and division that are everywhere in our world today….
@wdlindsy Good. I like her.
"The important thing to remember here is that Budde is still standing. And her words are still true, no matter how many right-wing hosts try to demonize her for speaking them. The immigrants she described are still our neighbors. The scared children she mentioned are still scared.
The administration's response to Budde's sermon has shown us exactly who they are. The only question is who we'll choose to be in response."
Telling a clergy person to not promote scriptures. This from the Family Values Party. The Bible Party.
@wdlindsy the church and the pulpit is one of the last places dissent against president for life trump and first lady muskolini.
Remember this moment. Remember that asking for mercy toward scared children and immigrants was enough to trigger a full-scale campaign of intimidation from the highest levels of government and media. Remember that a sitting congressman suggested deporting an American citizen for the crime of asking the president to be kind.This is how authoritarianism works—not just through direct government action, but through the creation of an environment where speaking up feels too costly. When Fox's Jesse Watters says Budde is "lucky this didn't happen on day one when he was a dictator because he would have put her in prison,” he's half-joking. But only half.
Bullies and cowards... They pick on people less fortunate... 'cos they know they cannot fight back.... Nice they pick on a lady who doesn't have to back down .... Who can rebuff the faux outrage
@wdlindsy They're really going to come down hard on me when they notice the kind of stuff I regularly toot.
So after another 4yrs all these despicable types of attacks will be normalised. Ppl will have forgotten how they felt this week, when these behaviours were still seen as unacceptable and outrageous. 
@wdlindsy Explaining mercy to right-wingers is like giving medicine to a corpse.
@wdlindsy Humanity will go under if we don't rid ourselves of the mind virus called "religion" very soon. Religion is divisive, causes wars, and is one of the pillars of patriarchy, enforcing heterosexual male supremacy in societies.
@LaChasseuse Sorry, but I'm going to continue to celebrate what Bishop Mariann Budde has just said and done.
You can certainly choose to do otherwise.
@wdlindsy Consider that she's the reason the pope won't allow female priests. Dangerous feminine ideas! EEK
No doubt there has been more evil than good done in the name of religion but that does not mean we cannot respect the good done by many religious people. #religion
@the5thColumnist Typical "not all men" argument.
I am not religious myself, but I deeply respect the better aspects of religion.
However, if someone comes at you for spouting religous rhetoric you better believe 9 times out of 10 it is because of how much that person was hurt by religion and then never listened to in grief.
The spiritual calling for you here is to remind yourself that these people are indicators of the scale of violence religous conservatism enacts upon innocent people, especially defenseless children.
Just because shitty atheists yell at you online with foolish misguided hate doesn't suddenly put them ahead of christianity in terms of destroying innocent people's lives and tearing their family from them by teaching their own family to treat them with callousness and hate.
I am sorry if you don't like the tone we are using but we do not destroy peoples lives like religious conservatives do.
@wdlindsy What anti-religious dogma specifically have you encountered?
@wdlindsy My experience with a local church was very unpleasant. Amusingly, it was about hanging local artists paintings.
@wdlindsy They need to identify if their morality comes from authority or empathy. The problem is that if it comes from empathy, they don't need an authority.
@wdlindsy atheism was the thing that gave me hope. Once I let go of catholicism I finally understood the simplicity of it all. I didn't worry about being tortured for eternity which literally no one on earth could escape because the rules were set up to fail. I realized that I get one very small chance to be as good as I can be, not because I have to be but because I want to leave the world better than I found it. I genuinely think atheism saved my life.
@wdlindsy If I recall, it was religious institutions which, burned alleged witches at the stake and sponsored the inquisition, and then we have Iran and the Taliban.
@Leefellerguy Perhaps you'd care to read the very next comment in the thread, which states,
"Religious bodies can exercise great cruelty and do horrific injustice. I know this personally as someone who has worked for church institutions and experienced deplorable discrimination in them."
The majority of religious institutions continue to perpetuate the patriarchy. Young people would like something different.
@wdlindsy Uh, what about the obvious Misogynism in the Catholic church, it rivels the Taliban.
@Leefellerguy Who do you imagine is overlooking the misogyny in the Catholic church? Jessica Grose? I wouldn't think so.
Me? Have you read anything at all I've ever written for years now that overlooks the toxic misogyny in the Catholic church?
@wdlindsy Rephrase my comment: Yes the Misogynism of the Catholic Church rivels the Taliban and Iran, I actually agree with you. My apology.