The voice of one crying in the wilderness. That biblical phrase personifies the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Diocese of Washington who led the prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral on Tuesday. It took a woman — small of stature — to stand tall against a domineering bigot and say what church leaders of all religions should have been saying for the past months. Many religious leaders have bent over backward to avoid taking a political stand during the campaign, but a moral stand is not necessarily a religious stand. Donald Trump’s degradation of all immigrants and LGBTQ+ groups crosses the boundary and makes this an issue that affects all of us.
Pope Francis said, “who am I to judge?” and yet that is what we allow Trump to do when we stand quietly while he maligns others. If the religious leaders will not take a stand against the unfair treatment of LGBTQ individuals, then we have to turn to our political leaders to assure them that we will support them, as together, we fight the unfair treatment of these groups.
— Mary Ann Kehl, Wilmette
Budde’s courage
On Tuesday at a prayer breakfast in Washington, a soft-spoken, female bishop of the Episcopal Church spoke truth to a powerful, cruel, dishonest and greedy man. She did not raise her voice, she did not call names, she did not threaten. She looked at him with pity and gently asked him to treat the least of these with mercy. He could not meet her eyes. His eyes dropped.
She epitomizes what the Christian religion is supposed to be, how those of us who call ourselves Christians are supposed to act: with faith and courage. She did this in a room filled with his supporters and those who would turn their back on all that Christ stood for. And the reaction on the part of this man was expected. He was hostile and threatening. One of his bully supporters suggested that Budde be deported. To where you might ask, are we going to threaten to deport a citizen for asking the most powerful man in the world to treat the hurt and sick and weak and frightened people with mercy?
What kind of a country are we when we as a people choose as our president a man who is so profoundly damaged that he can be shamed by a few words, spoken 2,000 years ago by Christ?
Bravo to Budde, bravo. She has more courage than all the MAGA Republicans put together. She has done something I did not believe possible. In the quiet, peaceful way she spoke, tenderly, with compassion for a broken world and its broken people within, she shamed this man who terrifies others, in front of millions of people. She has restored my faith in my church (also Episcopal) writ large, and my country.
— Karen Evans, Chicago
Speaking truth
Budde, the first woman to serve as the spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, showed that she has more moral courage than all of the Republicans in Congress combined. She asked President Donald Trump, seated in the first pew, “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” She was referring to the immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities.
Needless to say, Trump does not like being called to task for his racist policies. He bolted from the National Cathedral like the coward he is.
Speaking truth to power is how we defeat the Trump regime. We desperately need our newspapers’ editorial boards to do the same.
— Richard Keslinke, Algonquin
Biblical sanctuary cities
Since President Donald Trump’s administration took office, there is a great deal of controversy regarding sanctuary cities, especially in Illinois. While the application of sanctuary cities and sites has evolved in various cultures, it might be useful to look at the origin of this concept from the Old Testament. As described in Deuteronomy Chapter 19, cities of refuge were designed so that if someone accidentally killed his neighbor, they would be protected from vengeance by the family of the deceased. However, if the killing was intentional, the elders of the sanctuary city were to hand over the murderer to the those who sought vengeance against him.
The point was that a sanctuary city was not a carte blanche for any transgression. An intentional illegal act did not deserve sanctuary. However, our current culture has placed a humanitarian overlay to this concept such that anyone seeking sanctuary is entitled to it, regardless of the reason. As a result, unlike the instruction to the city elders in Deuteronomy, law enforcement officers in Illinois are told to not cooperate with federal officials seeking individuals who have entered our country illegally, even if they have committed a crime.
What about the concept of mercy, as preached in the sermon on Tuesday by Budde at the Washington National Cathedral? Yes, the New Testament preaches mercy, but as an individual decision based on the grace received by sinners for salvation. However, the New Testament does not instruct the individual to ignore the laws of government. Remember, when asked about whether Jews should obey Roman law, Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” And the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13:1: “Every person is to be in subjection the governing authorities.”
Our country is clearly not under Mosaic Law or New Testament scripture. However, the outcry of progressives that the federal agents have no moral basis for seeking criminals, and therefore should not be assisted in their efforts, is incorrect. The morality of the Old Testament teaches accidental transgressions should be protected and intentional crime should not. And the morality of New Testament teaches as individuals we should obey our government.
— Robert J. Marder, Evanston
Political correctness
Reading the op-eds and letters in the Tribune, I find much of it predictable: The left castigates Donald Trump, the right justifies or lauds his actions. There is no path forward here. Maybe a first step is for all of us to concede something from the other side with which we agree.
I have a low opinion of Trump. I find him to be an incredibly insecure man whose politics are largely about mitigating those insecurities. This has nothing to do with the well-being of America.
However, where I’ll give the devil his due is political correctness. Just focusing on the arts, there are so many wonderful movies from even 10 or 15 years ago that I don’t feel would be made today. Much of current entertainment seems to have prioritized wokeness over realism or entertainment. I’ve started rereading my favorite novel from the 1980s, “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” There isn’t a false note in the book, which is one reason why I don’t think it would be published today.
— Gene Sweet, Chicago
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