Christianity Tomorrow
My friend, Jon Tate, was kind enough to help me with a screen grab. What you’re looking at on your left is Public Servant 45 targeting and also bearing false witness against Bishop Mariann Budde. On your right is Bishop Budde (alongside Dean Randy Hollerith) praying to the God of all mercies on behalf of 45. One of these things is not like the other.
I see art to the right and empire to the left. Conscience compels me to note that the empire to the left is my empire in the sense that I have custody over 45. He is targeting his fellow American on my dime and my time and my watch. Bishop Budde’s too.
If you have yet to behold the footage in which Bishop Budde addresses 45 and J.D. Vance and their spouses with truth and love and profound respect. Please do. It is valuable and worthy of close study.
I found myself feeling hopeful as Second Lady Usha Vance resisted her husband’s attempt to interrupt Bishop Budde as she listened to her. I was reminded of Karen Pence’s occasional refusal to normalize bad behavior.
Good luck, everybody.
There is little doubt what Trump was doing with his post--giving his mob a fresh target on which to focus their rage and violent threats. I don't have to read the news to know that the bishop is already receiving such threats, and her life is about to become hell for the sake of the gospel.
The deeper truth this all reveals is the moral bankruptcy of MAGA Christians (I use "Christians" here for want of a better term.) The bishop's urgings on behalf of those who are living in fear, and her call to honor the worth and dignity of all persons should seem uncontroversial to any Jesus follower. That MAGA instead treats them as blasphemy tells you pretty much all you need to know about who and what they worship. Hint: It ain't Jesus.
Please, please, let there be no more acceptance of their claim that they are Jesus followers. What has happened to a voting majority of Americans is what Isaiah said had happened to Jerusalem and Judah: the whole head is sick, and the whole body is full of bruises. Now more than ever, the prophetic voice needs to call out the evil that perverts and ruins this society.
Thanks David. There may have been a reversal on my screen so that your references to left and right are not matching the words. I think the contrast is clear and hopefully your readers will know which is which.