The right’s response to “Bishop” Budde is mostly wrong
There’s been a lot of talk recently about a certain TEC “bishop” and her sermon directed at Trump.
A friend from high school posted a clip from the sermon with her plea about having mercy on LGBTQ people and I responded in the comments something like:
This is why real Anglicans don’t let women preach.
I was trying to be annoying because I find the whole situation annoying, from every angle. But here’s the bottom line: as far as I can tell basically everything she said was right or close to it and we need to actually listen to most of what she said, even if her motives are at best misguided.
Multiple things can be true at the same time. She represents a version of Christianity which has strayed so far from orthodoxy that it really only counts as Christian from a sociological standpoint. The very fact that TEC has female “bishops” is part of the problem. I don’t need to rehash the arguments here, the whole witness of scripture and church tradition has made the case against the ordination of women and no good arguments have been made for it (except maybe female deacons for specific purposes). And TEC itself is an excellent argument against the practice because they continue to devolve.
The only thing I will add to the actual arguments about women’s ordination is this: I don’t think the biblical case works the way most conservatives do, but it goes to the same place. My conviction is that biblical morality is not presented as law codes to be enforced but rather as wisdom to guide, the difference is subtle but important. The upshot is that I do not think Paul’s teaching on this issue is meant to be taken as governing rules similar to say a canon law but rather wisdom for church governance. Paul is saying that this path is not wise, it’s not based in reality and truth. And so I think the best way to deal with those we disagree with on this issue is to basically wait and see…and we waited and we saw. The results are in and they’re bad. Ordaining women has not been wise or good for the church. It has emptied the mainline churches of their congregations. It has shown us how vapid and dangerous chasing cultural norms over biblical wisdom is.
All of that can be true and this “bishop” still speak truth that needed to be spoken.
Trent Horn pointed out that if this had been John MacArthur or a Conservative Catholic Bishop preaching to President Kamala Harris about justice towards the unborn that it would’ve been received as white nationalism etc. And that’s exactly right, it would’ve been seen as horrible by the media establishment. But that’s all the more reason to listen to what she actually did say that was correct, because those of us who are actually trying to serve Christ as we await death can’t afford to make everything about politics.
So let’s start with the most “controversial” thing she said. The LgBTQ mercy plea.
This is the whole reason she gave the speech. It’s not difficult to understand that. She was engaging in what I call performative homophilia which is the opposite of homophobia. She must be seen to be for homosexuals all the time and never homophobic, so whether she believes it or not she has to present a homophilic position because of the space she occupies culturally. That space is very white, “liberal” and elite. We all have things like this around us culturally. If I was a vegan I would almost never discuss it because I live in Northwest Florida where veganism is seen as a kooky California thing (because it kind of is). So whether I agreed or not I would act in such a way that made me more acceptable to those around me. If I truly thought eating animal products was immoral I wouldn’t do that but I also wouldn’t make a big deal out of it around others. But that is partially why this woman engages in performative homophilia, it makes her life easier in some sense. Has she also bought into it intellectually? Most assuredly, but there’s no way to actually know. That’s the point: it’s performative. She does it and will do it regardless of conviction or reality. This really has replaced (to some degree) the racial rhetoric because wokeness was never really about race it was always primarily about individual expression through sex. Anything that could be tied to that through any issue that bothered people got tied on or lumped in, but at the end of the day it wasn’t really about race. The United Methodist split exposed this fully: that church was split literally between Africa and LGBTQ Americans (aka white liberal Methodists).
So that’s established, the “bishop” was almost certainly speaking for the wrong reasons: performative homophilia. This is part of the bedrock of any discussion about TEC or mainline Protestantism. You have to understand what you’re dealing with to deal with it. And in some sense pointing all this out is a signal to my readers that I’m on the right side of this debate, in some sense I am engaging in performative “homophobia”. I don’t really think it’s homophobic, in fact I think holding to the revealed and natural law about homosexuality is more loving than performative homophilia but this is the landscape we live in today. You have to take a side, in reality your position is forced onto one side against your will.
So we basically know why she said what she said, but what did she actually say?
Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you… 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.
Where is the impiety here? It’s not quite as clear as some would have it. Because there’s no actual lie. There are people who identify as LGBTQ who do fear for their lives because Trump is president and also if Trump wasn’t president. Is that rational? No. But that doesn’t make it not true that there are people in this mental head space, and Trump clearly has a special ability to stir up the irrational in people.
I think it’s deeply unclear how this was a real plea for Trump to actually do anything, it seems to be a true case of mere performative homophilia. But if he could have true mercy on the lgbtq community what Christ follower wouldn’t want that? The question is what does that really mean. It’s deeply unclear that it means anything, except performative homophilia.
The real reason this in particular bothers so many of us is that I think we understand she’s merely signaling virtue and that Trump’s reelection was driven in large part because the American left has taken the lgbtq stuff way to far, they overplayed their hand and their pedophilia started to peek out and be revealed. Back in the late 00s we had arrived at a sort of detente before SCOTUS enforced gay “marriage” on the whole empire. But this ideology can’t accept peace because it isn’t based in wisdom or truth but rather individualized expressions of power over nature. Now we’re heading into the backlash, which won’t be very informed by Christian love and wisdom. It’ll be informed by populism and fear.
But to be clear we should be praying that God (much more so than Trump) would have mercy on LGBTQ persons. Those who are afflicted with unwanted attractions, desires or dysmorphia deserve our pity and mercy. And those who are trapped in this ideology because they are being lost to the kingdom of darkness also need God’s mercy, especially the children who are being raised with this absolute moral confusion. I’m starting to notice a trend back towards using the word faggot amongst my Christian friends because they’re tired of the lgbtq agenda. That’s not a sign of health or love. I think that’s true performative homophobia. The Christian has to be held to a higher standard than performance, we have to seek God’s love for those around us.
Is the “bishop” morally confused? Yes, very much so. Ultimately is what she conveyed good? Yes, despite her confusion. Is it being misused in both sides of the media? Yes absolutely.
What about the rest of what she said? It’s hard to find anything objectionable or false in the rest of it. She spoke of the media outrage machine (which is exactly what is happening right now) and how difficult unity is to maintain these days. A lot of what she said was spot on. But the hardest part of the conversation for a Christian to deal with is really the immigrant stuff.
This is a massively unjust and complicated part of our world for a few reasons, Christians can’t afford to take tribal lines on this issue. We need to be about the poor, the orphan, and the widow. We need to be about peace and justice and mercy, and there are many things that contribute to this modern disaster. The following points are basically my condensed thoughts on the matter.
Xenophobia is not irrational or even inherently immoral. You should be afraid of what you don’t know or understand precisely because you don’t know or understand it. We do need to protect “our own.” This can be easily seen when you consider a simple example like your children talking to total strangers. We discourage that because children are easily taken advantage of and strangers are by definition strange to us. Strangers helping each other is a beautiful and welcome surprise, but at the very least healthy skepticism of the xeno is actually wise. Doesn’t mean it is the only guiding principle though, just that performative xenophilia is deeply dishonest and will ultimately hurt the alien in the end by empowering the right.
The consequences for the modern pro migrant open borders stuff in Europe have not been great for Europe, in some sense they have been disastrous. A lot of this is based in the ongoing religious and cultural war between Christianity and Islam. But this is more evidence for Xenophobia not being inherently irrational, because the other is not necessarily going to be able to get along with you. Islam and Christianity have many similarities but the differences are incredibly important and can’t be ignored. To deny that what is happening in Europe is awful is to engage in dangerous performative xenophilia.
Many individual lives and families are tragically impacted by these complicated realities. This is not something Christians can ignore. It doesn’t matter who the president is, horrible things happen to people at America’s southern border all the time. I don’t think there are easy solutions to this problem, because a lot of it is based around the inherent problems of the modern notion of the nation state and citizenship.
Immigration policy should be based around what is best for the people actually involved in the situation working towards peace, justice, and mercy. If you commit a crime while living in a country you are not a citizen of it seems reasonable that you could or should be deported. But immigrants tend to commit fewer crimes, probably in large part because they see the inherent justice of that principle. But I think what would be most beneficial is simply having a consistent policy that is based on what is actually happening at the borders of our nations. Performative xenophobia and performative xenophilia have much more to do with winning elections than anything real, and that makes the actual humans bearing God’s image at risk because of a political game.
Christians can’t be neutral on this issue. We are called to love everyone. Based in the principle of moral proximity we can’t love everyone equally and we need to start with those closest to us, but we aren’t allowed to simply close our eyes to injustice. The sources and the authorities behind the injustice may not be simple or easy to see but we have to respond with compassion to those who are suffering injustice. Our nations should privilege those who live within their borders legally, to deny that is simply foolish. But you can seek the good of the foreigner and the nation in ways that are more just and beneficial than we are currently seeing. It isn’t either or, it’s both and.
This situation is bizarre and new in human history and there simply aren’t easy solutions. “Bishop” Budde was engaging in performative xenophilia for sure, that’s basically what the whole thing was: a leftist performance. But that doesn’t get the Christian off the hook when it comes to the true things she said about mercy. Just because a person is in the wrong from a motivational perspective doesn’t mean God isn’t speaking at the same time. Remember Caiaphas’ Prophecy:
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
God can speak in this way. We can’t worship at the altar of the modern nation state especially when it has shown itself to be capable of the great evils we saw in the 20th century. Budde may have spoke more truly than we want to admit, even if it was accidental. Christianity is based around and upon radical compassion. It’s also based in justice and order and the modern immigration crisis doesn’t match any of these things. It looks to me like utter chaos all around, chaos that empowers our leaders to gain more power.
Don’t let politics be your lens for how you interpret the world around you. Christ must be your guide, not Trump or fake “bishops”, but Christ. You belong to one tribe: the tribe of Christ. Your allegiance is to your King, not political parties or performative realities that make life more manageable. The prophets repeatedly told us to seek justice and mercy, we must be about that.