Herod Goes to the National Cathedral and is Disappointed
The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC
It was amusing to me to hear Trump’s reaction to the service at the National Cathedral on January 21st. I’ve been a pastor for a long time, and heard many opinions offered about the quality (or lack thereof) of the services I’ve designed and led and the sermons I’ve given. To me, Trump’s reaction says a lot more about him than it does about Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.
To start things off, here’s the printed program [pdf] prepared for those who attended the service. (You can watch the video of the service on the Cathedral’s YouTube channel here.) Notice the title on the front cover: “A Service of Prayer for the Nation.” Notice what isn’t on the front cover? Two words: Donald Trump. The message is clear, right from the start – this isn’t a celebration of Trump, like the inaugural balls or the rally at the Capital One arena. This is a service for the nation.
Not for “the citizens of” the nation.
Not for “the taxpayers of” the nation.
Not for “the leaders of” the nation.
This was a service for the nation – the *whole* nation.
Trump can attend, but it’s not about him or for him. It’s a service for the nation.
It’s also a service of prayer, and as I browse through the program, I can’t help but see the *whole* nation raised up again and again and again.
The pre-service music is an eclectic mix. The carillon selections are largely American composers, pairing old composers with 20th and 21st century arrangers. Two of the compositions are by anonymous composers, whose names have been lost to history while their music has not. The four organ selections are by two Lutherans (Bach and Buxtehude) and two Jews (Fanny Mendelssohn and her younger brother Felix). Bach and the Mendelssohns were German, and Buxtehude’s roots are more complicated because of the changing borders of Denmark, Sweden, and northern Germany at the time he was born. The brass selections come from three great composers from three nations: John Rutter (England), Anton Dvorak (the Czech Republic), and Aaron Copland (one of the greatest American composers). The pre-service music concluded with five choral pieces, each of which has deep roots in American religious life. These selections set the tone: this is a service for all the nation, with a mix of instruments, a mix of composers, and music with a mix of ethnic and religious roots that befit the mixed and diverse roots of the nation.
The Entrance Rite began with words from Jesus in Mark 17: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” Note those last two words: all people. Not a few, not some, not many, but *all* people. After a blessing from the traditions of the First Americans, the indigenous people who were here long before the Mayflower and Jamestown; long before Cortez, Pizarro, Balboa, and Ponce de Leon; long before Columbus and long before the Norse; the opening hymn by Fred Kaan was sung by all who are present in this moment, beginning like this:
For the healing of the nations, God, we pray with one accord;
for a just and equal sharing of the things that earth affords;
to a life of love in action help us rise and pledge our word.
I can imagine that a beginning like this put Trump in a pickle. “It’s all woke crap” he must have been thinking. “When will we get to the acclamation of my win in the election? When will we get to their acknowledgment of my power, my success, my victory? When are we going to get to the praise of me?” Spoiler alert: Never, never, and never. Because this service was never going to be about Trump, and I’m sure that never even dawned on him as he arrived at the National Cathedral.
But back to the hymn.
Lead us forward into freedom; from despair your world release,
that, redeemed from war and hatred, all may come and go in peace.
Show us how through care and goodness fear will die and hope increase.
In the context of Trump’s campaign, and the even closer context of Trump’s post-election announcements of his plans for the first hours and days of his administration, these words are a respectful yet powerful rebuke. Kaan is quite clear: the vision of the God to whom this prayer is addressed is One who prizes justice, equality, love, freedom, peace, care of others, goodness, and finally hope. This God is likewise dedicated to the end of slavery, despair, war, hatred, and most of all, fear. That last list is Trump’s go-to list, and Kaan named and condemned it out loud, in no uncertain terms, in four part harmony.
But Kaan was not done.
All that kills abundant living, let it from the earth be banned;
pride of status, race, or schooling, dogmas that obscure your plan.
In our common quest for justice may we hallow life’s brief span.
I knew Fred Kaan, whose early life was shaped by his family’s work in the Dutch resistance to the Nazis during World War II. He knew, firsthand, the ugliness of life under leaders who prize race and status, who punish and kill those who are Not Like Us. That first word – All! – leaps out with power, this time aimed at each and every power that divides, diminishes, and kills the abundant life God intends for all people. These are words of resistance, written by one who (along with his family) lived a life of resistance during WWII. These are words offering hope to those unwilling to sell their souls to MAGA and Trump, and sending a shiver through Trump and JD Vance if they were paying attention.
And Kaan is still not done, as he ties up this hymn with one last broadside against the MAGA Un-Gospel:
You, Creator God, have written your great name on humankind;
for our growing in your likeness bring the life of Christ to mind
that by our response and service earth its destiny may find.
Those who pray this prayer — who sing this song — are not praying to shut refugees seeking safety out of the country. They are not praying to round up those who lack the right paperwork to live here, put them in detention camps, and shove them elsewhere. They are not praying to celebrate the exceptionalness of one race or nation or person above the rest of humanity. They are not praying to sit back in comfortable wealth and luxury, leaving it to the poor and needy to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.
In one short hymn, the entire inaugural address that Trump gave the day before was ripped apart, using the voices that come from the throats of everyone sitting around him. His entire campaign message was challenged and opposed, by every voice that rang to the vaulted ceiling and was broadcast out to the world. Kaan died in 2009, but this hymn sounds as if it could have been written last week. And Trump had to sit there and take it, with all the cameras rolling.
Worst of all for Trump, this was but the beginning of the service.
I’m not going to go through the rest of the service in this kind of detail – you can do that for yourself. There were prayers offered by folks from all kinds of religious traditions – Christians of various denominations, as well as Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh leaders. These prayers were filled with words like “all” and “every” to paint a picture of our common life together. In the “prayers for all who govern,” the first petition was not for President Trump, but for “all the peoples of the earth,” and moved more narrowly to “the people of our nation” meaning all the people. In the “prayers for those who serve,” the petitions were offered for those in the armed forces and the diplomatic corps, for all civil servants that “they serve with integrity and compassion, without prejudice or partiality to better their communities and the nation,” for all teachers and educators, for all first responders, and critically at the end, “all the people of our land.” In the “prayers for the peoples of this nation,” Methodist Bishop LaTrelle Easterling opened them like this: “O God, whom we cannot love unless we love our neighbor, let us pray for the most vulnerable in our community and lead us to be present with them in their suffering.” This was followed by petitions of specific and vivid mention of those who are most vulnerable.
All this is what led up to the sermon by the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde that garnered such attention in the media and such opprobrium from Trump. He tried to personalize it, demanding an apology from her, but far from her being some isolated voice standing up to him, or some he said/she said debate, Budde was speaking out of the deep religious traditions of a very diverse nation:
In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country.
We’re scared now. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals.
They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.
I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.
This now-famous plea directed specifically to President Trump, offered in a quiet and measured words, was not a one-off. In that plea, she summed up and made plain the implications of Kaan’s opening hymn, the words of the prayers offered throughout the whole service, and everything that took place in the 90 minutes before she took her place in the pulpit and began to speak. If Trump was waiting for the service to finally turn to him, this plea is when it happened — and it pissed him off.
What Budde did, in all humility and in all power, was to name Trump for what he is: one of us, with specific powers and abilities to directly shape life for all the people of the country, and indirectly for the world. Note, though, that what she pleaded for from Trump was of a piece with all the music and prayers, calling on every one of us to use our own far smaller powers and abilities to shape life for all the people in our orbit for the better, as small as our powers may be compared with the powers wielded by Trump.
That, perhaps, is what most put Trump out of joint. She was saying to him “Your title may be fancier, your staff may be grander, cameras may follow your every movement, and microphones strain to catch your every word, but in the end, you share the same task as the lowliest person who cleans hotel rooms, who labors to pick crops and build homes and process poultry while undocumented. You are One of Us, no more special and no less special, no matter how much you long for it to be otherwise.”
I’ve preached to congregations that have included mayors and city officials. I’ve preached to state legislators, state executive branch officials, and state supreme court justices. I’ve preached in services attended by a presidential candidate (Illinois Senator Paul Simon). One thing that has sustained me in those settings, and given me the strength to say what needs to be said, is the strong sense of being surrounded by the voices of the ancestors, preaching this same good news to them that I preach to the lowliest and most marginalized- that all that God has made is good, and all deserve support and care and love from each other.
Several years ago, on the eve of the first anniversary of January 6th, I compared Trump with King Herod who tried to use the wise men so he could kill the infant born to be the Messiah, and I used not simply the account from the Gospel of Matthew but also the retelling of the story by James Taylor in his song “Home By Another Way. Here, in part, is what I wrote that day:
But Taylor isn’t singing just to retell the story of what happened back then. He’s preaching, in his own way, drawing his listeners into the song and changing us here today:
Well it pleasures me to be here
And to sing this song tonight
They tell me that life is a miracle
And I figure that they’re right
But Herod’s always out there
He’s got our cards on file
It’s a lead pipe cinch
If we give an inch
That Herod likes to take a mileIt’s best to go home by another way
Home by another way
We got this far to a lucky star
But tomorrow is another day
We can make it another way
“Safe home!” as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart up high
And go home another wayYes, Herod *is* always out there, looking to game the system and rape the system and break the system if that’s what it takes to keep himself in power.
But there is also always another way, a way that leaves Herod and his successors powerless and impotent.
My description of Herod’s/Trump’s way came back to mind with a crash on the 20th, as word of all those initial executive orders came tumbling out. Saying Trump is “looking to game the system and rape the system and break the system if that’s what it takes” back then seems frighteningly prescient today.
But like the wise men of old, Bishop Budde knows another way, as do all those who planned this most powerful service, and as did Fred Kaan. In JT’s words, in the face of Trump’s blizzard of executive orders which are designed to take and take and take some more from the most vulnerable among us, Budde didn’t give an inch. Instead, she stood in the path of our American Herod along with a host of others, naming that other way home.
And here’s the really really good news, that would scare Trump even more if he were to think about it: you don’t have to be a bishop to name Herod for who he is, to call out his ways of fear and death, and to lift up our neighbors. That’s what the wise men did, in going home by another way. They protected a poor, vulnerable refugee-to-be from a vengeful tyrant who feared for his own power. And that’s what each of us can do, wherever we are: name Trump’s way as the path of division, destruction, and death, and point to another way.
Because JT was right: it’s best to go home by another way.
Thank you, Peterr and thanks to Bishop Budde for her courage to speak truth to power in a quiet and elegant voice.
I doubt trump would heed her message, but I hope there are people in the country who will take her message to heart.
I was hoping you would have a few good words for us all, and these are excellent words which will bear repeating. Thank you Peterr. The Bishop did her job, that’s all she did, but she did it well. A sermon isn’t always a reproof, but it certainly can be, if the preacher believes it necessary. Once again – both of you – thank you for these words.
I specifically requested it, and I don’t regret it at all.
You all are quite welcome.
Big thumb’s up.
Thank you Peterr for highlighting this pastoral message. The National Cathedral and Budde put together a service and sermon which was pointed and delivered in a dignified manner. A rebuke to Trumpism which, I dare say, will not be internalised by Trump and lackeys, but is available for all to see and benefit from. Thank you Right Reverend Budde.
He’s just mad that unlike these blasphemers, the Bishop wouldn’t declare him to be God himself: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/a-brazen-moment-of-christian-nationalism-at-trumps-inauguration/
Excellent exegesis of the service; thank you very much. In dark times like these, the light of religious faith is a welcome beacon, even to this agnostic.
Splendid piece. Thank you. I’ve sent it to my children.
You’re welcome.
If any of them come to read it, I’d love to get their reactions here in the comments.
Sent it to my sis and her Catholic Lay Deacon (full time, on the Diocese payroll!) hubbie. They, of the Berrigan Brothers and Dorothy Day persuasion, will appreciate it.
Loved your James Taylor riff. Herod, like Trump, was a ruler who had publicly advertised controversies concerning his spouses. John the Baptist was executed for criticizing him about it.
Thanks for laying this out, Peterr.
I’m not religious and don’t know much about Christian teachings, but even to me its obvious that in 2015 Trump initially pretended to be Christian for political reasons, and since then he has continued with it because some of his followers (themselves pretend Christians who apparently didn’t learn much at sunday school) seem to like it. But Trump’s reaction to this sermon, and the reaction of some of his rabid faux-Christian followers, shows what kind of people they really are.
I suspect one problem is that most Christians are relying on Sunday school and service, forgetting that one can only truly learns the Gospel on the margins, where it took place. Here’s a moving and insightful conversation between Bishop Esterling and Fr. Greg Boyle on “Going to the Margins” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEfHUMdT0Dw
My children go to Sunday school and they also spend time with homeless people, former prisoners, addicts, etc. This is not to be moral but to feel divine as explained in this post “Approaching Happiness”: https://befriending.substack.com/p/approaching-happiness?r=1qhpbg
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This holds so much of what I needed to hear. Thank you Peterr.
You’re not alone. As I wrote it, I realized that I needed to hear it, too.
“You’re not alone. As I wrote it, I realized that I needed to hear it, too.”
For all of us, danke sehr Peterr
Bitte.
I’ll have a pint of your best bitte.
Thank you for this thoughtful appreciation and appraisal of the
Service For the Nation
And thank you for reminding us of your piece for Epiphany 2022. I commend the community to re-read it in full, because it is thoughtful wise and true.
Thank you for these words.
A much needed thoughtful post as was the service and Bishop Budde’s remarks. To say the least.
I do not recall where I read what I will no doubt terribly paraphrase next.
Religious leaders of all faiths, but perhaps Christian the most seem to have been silent or most likely muted by media in their speaking out much as Bishop Budde has. This effectively has amplified the (Christian) religious zealous right wing MAGA – keep filling in the adjectives – messaging which has nothing to do with the very useful role that religion and pastors do – and CAN – serve in times like this. The right has effectively weaponized (Christian) pastoral rhetoric.
The “Trump benediction” delivered by Pastor Lorenzo Sewell where he over the top demonstrably invoked MLK speech has been universally panned – but not panned enough.
I am so very, very grateful for hearing your wisdom this morning, Peterr.
Amen
I appreciate you for highlighting the music, something that no other report, to my knowledge, has mentioned. Once again, the fullness that is Emptywheel delivers. Thank you so much, Peterr.
This.
Also this:
“You’re not alone. As I wrote it, I realized that I needed to hear it, too.”
You have brought some light into the darkness. Thank you Peter!
The Dominionists like Franklin Graham (rudely) were out of their minds but as Peterr noted above, this was far closer to Scriptural teachings than the dreck shoveled out at the inauguration (worst TV ratings BTW) by Graham and his ilk. I note the Conference of Catholic Bishops also supported the concepts of Rt. Rev. Budde but did not link to her sermon directly. In part:
Statement of Archbishop Broglio on Executive Orders Signed by the President
“Our prayer is one of hope that, as a Nation blessed with many gifts, our actions demonstrate a genuine care for our most vulnerable sisters and brothers, including the unborn, the poor, the elderly and infirm, and migrants and refugees. The just Judge expects nothing less.”
https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/statement-archbishop-broglio-executive-orders-signed-president
Just three weeks ago, Pope Francis named a new archbishop for Washington DC: Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego. The National Catholic Reporter opens their story about him like this:
You can count JD Vance among those conservative Catholics.
Then Graham discovered that among the people Budde was referencing were Christian migrants.
Oh ha ha ha. WTF.
Among those refugees frozen out are included some 1660 Afghans, including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-canceling-flights-nearly-1660-afghan-refugees-say-us-2025-01-20/
“Because this service was never going to be about Trump.”
Dah, I hate to say it, but it’s all about trump 24/7/365 till he croaks or till there’s a violent revolt.
As Alfred E. Neuman said, “What, me worry?”
Budde also challenged TRUMP after his Bible phot-op in 2020.
Huffington Post has republished something she wrote then.
The Bishop Facing Trump’s Fury Has Challenged Him Before. Here’s What She Said Last Time. “It seemed to others that I was being brave. It felt more like I was being summoned to stand with others who were being brave.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-bible-photo-mariann-edgar-budde-2_n_679129f3e4b039fc1278140a Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, Guest Writer
Jan 22, 2025, 12:29 PM EST
Thank you Peterr.
Reverend Budde was the perfect teacher for the moment emphasizing dignity, honesty and humility. Most of all empathy.
Beautifully written. I’m agnostic but if I were to earnestly attend a service, it would be one of yours or Budde’s
I too so appreciated the background of the music. I can only pray the words of the hymns and the Bishop will begin to “soothe the savage beast” inside the cold-hearted “Christians” in Trump’s orbit.
Peterr, thank you for your post.
In 2020 Bishop Budde was asked, “If you could deliver a message to the President, what would you say?”
Bishop Budde has answered the question again on January 21, 2025. Perhaps she has been writing her sermon since June 1st 2020.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/06/02/mariann-budde-bishop-st-johns-trump-bible-photo-ac360-vpx.cnn
https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/video/bishop-overseeing-st-john-episcopal-church-reacts-trumps-71015163
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/06/02/trump-church-bible-bishop-mariann-edgar-budde-newday-vpx.cnn
I urge readers to watch all the clips. They provide a deeper context to Bishop Budde’s calling in planning a Service of Prayer for the Nation.
“Let’s not forget the real pain…” Bishop Budd June 2, 2020 regarding the George Floyd Protests. “Let me be clear, the president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus,” she told CNN.
“We align ourselves with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd and countless others. And I just can’t believe what my eyes have seen,” she added.
“I don’t want President Trump speaking for St John’s. We so dissociate ourselves from the messages of this president,” she told the Washington Post. “We hold the teachings of our sacred texts to be so, so grounding to our lives and everything we do, and it is about love of neighbor and sacrificial love and justice.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/02/outrageous-christian-leaders-reject-trump-use-of-church-as-prop-during-george-floyd-protests
She also wrote a beautiful op ed for the NYT’s on June 4, 2020. Unfortunately, I cannot link to it.
From one pastor to another — thank you for this essay.
Some years ago, I was caught on camera protesting Trump. The clip went viral for a few days and I received literally hundreds of phone calls and texts threatening me and may family. Trump supporters called or wrote letters to every church in which I had preached over the last decade. On and offline, they demanded I be de-frocked. To this day, my kids still suffer from a form of PTSD from having their mother’s (and their) lives threatened. It’s a much longer story, obviously, but the first thought I had after seeing Bishop Budde’s excellent sermon was, “Lord, I hope she has security because she is about to be walloped.”Once glance at X and other right wing sites confirmed my fears. In fact, the vitriol thrown at her was very familiar.
I know lots of pastors who saw her grace-filled preaching on Tuesday who thought, “I want to be like her.” The sad truth is very, very few pastors are in position where they can speak out forthrightly and not risk their livelihoods. The mainline church today is weak and frightened. Celebrate Budde’s courage, certainly, but don’t expect to hear many more sermons like that in the next 4 years.
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I’ve gotten my share of hate mail and the occasional death threat as well, mostly thanks to the late Fred Phelps and his hateful anti-LGBT followers. I know what you’re going through, and hope your kids can find healing.
Abbey, thank you for your comment. I have so much more I could and should say. The vast majority of people have no idea (even Peterr, in my opinion and because of how dismissive he has been about substantive information I have shared in the past.)
I’m sad to say, unlike other commenters to Peterr’s post, I don’t find it the least bit comforting (although it is eloquent in an elitist way.) It only serves to remind me how negligent and oblivious Americans have been over the past 30 years.
Adding:
Something that especially concerns me about Mariann Budde is the affiliation with the church that people close to Trump have. Barron Trump was baptised at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. And, Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, is a member of the Episcopal Church and has attended that church. In my opinion, this does not bode well for Budde.
A wealthy Episcopalian church in Palm Beach will not determine Budde’s future. Bishops are elected by their diocesean members and I’m quite certain she has the support of her diocese. I’ve not heard one person criticize her except for Evangelical right wingers.
I doubt Trump and Wiles ever go to church.
I’m fully aware of the mechanics. I have personal information that I am sure is relevant to what I said. You are wrong about Wiles not going to church. And I doubt you know the way she operates in the way I have personally experienced.
So you are the Trump, you’re the great Donald Trump
Prove to me that you’re divine, make Mike Johnson grow a spine
That’s all you need do and I’ll know it’s all true
Come on, King of the Ruse!
Donald, you just won’t believe the hit you’ve made around here
You are all we talk about, you’re Time’s Person of the Year!
Oh, what a pity if it’s all a lie
Still, I’m sure that you can rock the cynics if you try
So if you are the Trump, yes the great Donald Trump
Prove to me that you’re no fool, sit Pence on your cucking stool
If you do that for me, then I’ll give you Term Three
Come on, King of the Ruse!
King Herod’s Song from Jesus Christ Superstar
Thank you for this excellent summary and commentary!
Thanks for this, Peterr.
Thanks for posting a link to the program, which seriously underlines the “major on the minor” fun house the MSM has been inhabiting by their flogging of Bishop Budde’s message, as if she was the only one on the program.
Apparently like Matt Foley, my formative years contained “Jesus Chris Superstar” so I’m always interested in reading anyone’s take on the spiritual contents of popular music. Lately I’ve been studying the Doobie Brothers, and while I knew there was lots of spirituality there, I’m pretty sure a lot of it flew under the radar. For example:
White Sun – The Doobie Brothers
Horizon of blue, hills are rollin’
Walkin’ with you through a field of red stones
I been confused from voices callin’, callin’ to me
Where the white sun has shown
And I slip away
Down by the water
And I slip away
Down by the sea
Take love and give love
It’s got to be free
The old man is weak, but strength comes from him
A smile full of youth, and a gleam in his eye
His garden is green and seems overflowin’
And his dreams await in his rockin’ chair sky
And I slip away
Down by the water
And I slip away
Down by the sea
Take love and give love
It’s got to be free
There seems to be a spiritual message there, but I don’t think I’m knowledgeable enough to grok it.
I’m doing a media cleanse, avoiding all of the Billionaire Media. I learned more about the sermon in this piece than I would have gotten from the BM. I don’t have to look to know that none of them captured the thoughtfulness Peterr explicates. And because I’m off social media as well, I missed all the useless drivel from people looking for a fight instead of understanding.
I went to Notre Dame in the mid-60s as the Viet Nam War expanded. Father Hesberg was the President then. He encouraged the entire community to engage in discussion about the war, based, of course, on St. Augustine’s Just War Theory as applied. I went to a number of experimental services at which the priests and nuns (from St. Mary’s College) participated. Sermons were replaced by colloquys, in which all of us participated as the spirit moved us, both supporters and opponents of the war, and the occasional undecided.
The service created by Bishop Budde and her colleagues is a more formal example of that kind of communal religious service. It is, in fact, a service to all of us.
A Jimmy Carter tie-in — the tale of how he made Father Hesburgh “The World’s Fastest Padre”.
One more version.
That’s a great story! Hesburg was a good man.
If Trump’s violence were not so immanent, the critics of Bishop Budde would be laughable. Franklin Graham is laughable anyway. They criticized Budde for a sermon based on the most basic of Christian and Jewish beliefs. Be kind and merciful. Do unto others… What you do to the least among you, you do to me.
All that was lost on Donald Trump, and on Franklin Graham, who rushed to succor Trump’s fragile ego by calling an Anglican bishop names – for a sermon that in many other contexts, might be boring, but in this one, was drink for parched throats about to endure exile in the desert.
Interesting. I forwarded this post to my sister and brother in law (Catholic Worker alums) and that was her comment exactly:
“The bishop brought water to our desert.”
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America. … what you’re doing is wrong,” Trump said during a question and answer session with corporate leaders and CEOs, who were assembled on stage.
Speaking right after Trump made the comment, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan DID NOT ADDRESS THE CLAIM that the bank was shunning conservatives. Instead, he COMPLIMENTED Trump on the U.S. hosting the upcoming World Cup.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-accuses-bank-america-jpm-174323116.html
My emphasis.
AFAIK banks don’t ask customers about their political views. Their businesses, maybe, because some are ones the banks would prefer not dealing with.
Yeah, but Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan DID NOT ADDRESS THE CLAIM.
He just took the beating and tried to keep ticking.
A federal judge in Seattle just blocked the birthright citizenship EO. Is it too optimistic to think the SC takes this up in the coming months?
“too optimistic”? SCOTUS seems capable of reading what it wants in the constitution. Do five of them want to bend Trump’s way?
I’d guess Roberts is beginning to soul-search (not search his soul, certainly, but search *for* his soul) around all this, but probably further along that road to moral redemption is the Catholic Pentacostal Patriarch-y Lady.
“This kind of shit needs an intervention,” you might assume those surrounding him would be thinking, as in 25A. But you’d be partially wrong.
Here’s a Peter Theil thought balloon I obtained just last night via telepathy:
“Timing isn’t right yet for Vance, but sooner rather than later, sure…Something involving a spaceship, or arresting the admittedly good-looking Bishop, maybe…we just have to bring it to a full boil before we step in.”
Which led me to some nutty shit https://bsky.app/profile/hammbear2024.bsky.social/post/3lggwuw6zc22r
which led me to this guy is a professor of law https://bsky.app/profile/umnlawschool.bsky.social/post/3layngwdwys2n
Peterr, thank you to you and to Bishop Budde for lifting me up this morning. I didn’t know how much I needed to hear this until I realized a tear was running down my cheek.
My only regret is that you left the Bay Area. We are worse for your absence.
I join the many comments thanking you, Peterr, for your extraordinary post which has moved me deeply.
And a special thankyou for including the link to the program which I read before continuing with your post. I was really excited to see that Bishop Budde had included two pieces by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel — a composer who had been excluded for almost one-and-a-half century from history of music, although her compositions are as great as her brother’s. (You mention her by name in your post, too.)
So I could think that the inclusion of this underestimated woman composer might be regarded as a subtle statement.
Me too, stopping by a bit late to add my thanks, Peterr.
Hadn’t read your post until this morning.
Yesterday was spent venturing back out into the world after cold snap. Then music and texting with a sister and sister-in-law. And then early evening, came across the Bishop’s prayer and remarks on YouTube. Only two minutes of inauguration I’ve seen. I hope to keep it at that. Forever.
Thanks for inviting Peterr’s remarks, Marcy.
This is a lovely and empowering read. Thank you for sharing. While the service may not have persuaded Donald Trump, perhaps some lightbulbs went off for others present, and that is important, as you articulate so well. Your post coincides with my post this week, “Healing Hurt”, in that I’m also saying “all that God has made is good, and all deserve support and care and love from each other.” In my view this of course includes Donald Trump too, so while I do not love his policies, I do love his person. For me, this is “the other way”. If you’re interested, the link is here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/befriending/p/what-kind-of-people-cause-hurt
I focused on the reactions of Bishop Budde’s audience–at least that Elect portion that the cameras chose. I wasn’t searching for performative reactions (Trump’s pout of disapprobation, Mike Johnson’s eyerolling), but rather for those unintentional signals that our faces and bodies send, betraying our true feelings to the observer paying attention.
Paying attention. Even in a family of grifting wannabe aristocrats plus their rogue’s gallery of enablers, one of these must have heard Bishop Budde. Not just the words but their force, arrowed at all of us, but especially into the minds and cosseted hearts of those first few privileged and camera-ready rows.
What I saw: Eric Trump, facial muscles relaxed from their typical pick-me-please tension, gazing up at the bishop with almost childlike open unguardedness. Usha Vance brushing JD’s hand away; he was trying to ensnare her in what looked like an exchange of derisive commentary on the sermon, but Usha never even glanced at her husband. She kept her eyes fixed on the woman delivering the address. And yes, Melania Trump, the top half of her face lopped off by a ludicrous and doubtlessly expensive hat that made her look like a South Park character–one of the minor ones–with her mouth set in a line that hardened perceptibly, in increments seemingly determined by the spectra of mercy being forced upon her.
It must have felt like being grabbed by the pussy.
I appreciate your attention to these horrible people. I hope that at least for a few seconds they felt a shock of the pain they cause others at a moment when they weren’t free to display their anger.
Thankyou Peter for your comments pertaining to the worship service. The Mrs. and I were able to listen to and watch a recording of Bishop Budde’s message. I am grateful for her, and your, words. Again, thankyou.
When I stopped being a boy around 1975, already a lapsed Catholic, I realized Christianity went on all over Germany in the Nazi era. So when Jerry Falwell descended from the step of the strip mall church to embrace Reagan I realized the score and the game was already then way out of hand already. I’ve been patient and 50 years of waiting have now confirmed my certainty. I’d sort of thought I would miss this part but maybe not. I mean the part about blood.
Thank you for the beautiful exploration of the church service. I admire the Bishop’s attempt to remind the nation’s leaders that mercy and justice are not enemies.
I’ve been using the term “Cafeteria Christians” to describe Trump, Vance and others who loudly profess their faith but choose to ignore the parts of the religion that not only don’t justify their actions but would condemn them. Now I think the better term is “Convenient Christians” – adhering to religion only when it serves their worldly lusts.
I wonder how soon they will push their twisted version to become the de facto state religion.
Thomas Jefferson (unlike Trump) actually studied the bible and edited out the stuff he didn’t see (miracles, supernatural). This should appeal to J6 deniers who “didn’t see anything.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible
Trump did some editing of his $60 bible by cutting out constitutional amendments 11-27. But he chose to include Article VI clause that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States” which strangely doesn’t seem to bother MAGA Christian nationalists.
https://abovethelaw.com/2024/05/trump-bible-constitution/
The Smithsonian Museum of American History has an electronic version online, where you can see how Jefferson laid out side by side the Greek, Latin, French, and the English (King James Version) of his passages, exhibiting the serious scholarship he was bringing to his task.
(You can also purchase a print copy from the Smithsonian as well.)
Presumably, one of the reasons for JFK’s comment to an assembly of Nobel Prize winners at a White House dinner:
https://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/1856
That sermon, indeed the whole service (as this post eloquently points out) was a classic example of parrhesia. May we see more of it, in all its forms going forward, but not from inside the Trump administration — because Machiavelli was right that a despot is overthrown by flatterers. Of course, Trump has set the table for that dynamic, and we’re witnessing the beginnings of his downfall, imo.
The question is whether our country will survive this catastrophe. Maybe it shouldn’t, because it’s current structure has delivered this catastrophe to us, and to the world.
Here’s a good Atlantic article today, about the intramural knife fight inside Trump’s camp:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/01/maga-trump-tech-nationalist-conflict/681422/
OT: My MAGAsshole neighbor down the street recently put back up Trump campaign signs after taking them down 2 weeks after the election. Only a matter of time before their friends my next door neighbors follow suit.
I keep thinking I can’t hate MAGA more but they keep proving me wrong.
Thank you so very much, Peterr, for this post. And to Marcy for your invitation to Peterr to comment on this specific inaugural event. And thanks to this entire community. I don’t comment very often, and when I do, it’s usually to express my gratitude to you all, like now.
I’m late in joining others with appreciation for this instructive detailed analysis of the heartening coherence of the service, with Bishop Budde’s s sermon delivering a compelling policy focus on the theme of compassion and humanity.
I do add one editing query on diction: “All this is what led up to the sermon by the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde that garnered such attention in the media and such approbation from Trump.”
Unless the intention were for irony, wouldn’t the apt noun for Trump’s reaction be “approbrium” rather than “approbation”?
Yeah, definitely opprobrium.
TY – Fixed.
That’s definitely what I meant. I blame autocorrect.