Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 40 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Self-Absorbed and Self-Indulgent
When Simon Cowell was one of the judges on American Idol, he would sometimes characterize an egregiously bad performance as “self-indulgent”. The first time I heard him describe a performance that way, it surprised me a bit. It wasn’t a characterization that would have occurred to me. But as time went on, and the more he continued to characterize performances that way, I began to see what he meant. There were just some performances in which the singer came across as performing for themselves more than for the audience or the enjoyment of the music itself.
I thought of Simon’s critique as I watched this woman, Mariann Budde, hijack the Inauguration National Prayer Service and put it in service to her own progressive hobby horses.
This is going to be a short post; I’m not going to spend much time critiquing the silly and platitudinous substance of her remarks. For now, I’ll just say that affirming any child involved in the kind of self-harm inherent in transgenderism and homosexuality is not “showing mercy”. What she is calling “mercy” seems more akin to yelling “Jump!” to a suicidal person who is standing on the ledge of a tall building. Likewise, ignoring immigration laws that were enacted by duly elected representatives breaks faith with your neighbors. Betraying your neighbor is a lot of things, but “merciful” isn’t one of them.
What Ms. Budde was doing (besides reaffirming in the public mind the descent into base absurdity that characterizes the leadership of the Episcopal church) was hijacking a service that was presented as being for a noble purpose, and turning it into a vehicle for her own self-expression.
Many years ago, some acquaintances invited my wife and I over for dinner. We were surprised but mildly flattered by the invitation since we didn’t know this couple all that well. The dinner was fine, but after dinner, they surprised us by setting up a marker board and making a prepared, formal pitch about signing us up to sell Amway as part of their multi-level marketing team. They had represented the occasion to us as a social gathering, but in reality, they had always intended to promote their own hobby horse. This is another way of saying our acquaintances had been manipulative and dishonest when they invited us to dinner. The invitation had never really been about a friendship, per se. It was a classic exercise in bait-and-switch.
Source: unionbetweenchristians.com/
In a similar way, the National Prayer Service was represented as a time to pray for our leaders and our country. But once everyone arrived, what they got instead was a kind of smarmy, self-righteous exhibitionist lecture by the so-called bishop. She might as well have gotten out her marker board and made a pitch for Amway.
After all of this occurred at the National Cathedral, I was left with a nagging sense that there was even another place where I had seen this kind of thing before. And then it hit me that what the “bishop” employed was essentially the same tactic used by the Westboro Baptist Church when it used to show up uninvited at military funerals to disrupt the proceedings by calling attention away from the funeral and toward themselves. The ostensible reason for their actions was the prevalence of homosexuality in American culture. Westboro’s message was, essentially, “I know you’re here to bury your dead, but we’d rather get everyone talking about us and our objection to homosexuality.” It was very hard not to perceive that there was some narcissistic self-absorption going on. Not every event is a forum for riding your own hobby horse.
If there was a narcissistic and self-congratulatory core animating Westboro’s actions, Ms. Budde’s behavior at the prayer service came across in a remarkably similar way. Someone in her orbit would be doing her a great service by reminding her that, however highly she thinks of herself and her own opinions, it is very unlikely that the National Prayer Service is ever going to be about her.
Published in General
Thank you for a direct but subdued critique of the abject misbehavior of Ms Budde. She’s not the first to highjack a Christian service, and unlikely the last, but I doubt anyone in her orbit will remind her that she is a servant of G-d, not running for office. The ECUSA leadership and much of its clergy believes exactly as she does and do not have the first idea of why the pews in their churches are emptying. She’s been waiting since 2020 to yell at him and I’d bet a lot that she discussed her speech with the Presiding Bishop and her staff and they all added something. So much smug in that pulpit. She probably had her hair and makeup done for the occasion and subsequent pictures. She gives faithful female priests a very bad name.
I appreciated your opening with Simon Cowell’s comments. Drew me right in and clearly tied two scenes together that I would not have associated on my own. Excellent post.
Her orbit is exceedingly unlikely to contain even a single person who would do that, for they not only agree with her views, but no doubt reveled in her heaping “compassion”-coated scorn upon Trump, his family, etc., who had to sit there and just take it.
Extremely well said, Keith. She is an embarrassment to her church and to all people of faith.
I have to say that I am sympathetic with the minister to some extent. If I had had any opportunity to say something to Joe Biden about the January 6 protesters being locked up in horrible prisons, I absolutely would have done so.
This woman believes this is a humanitarian issue.
Sadly, given the degree to which the aptly named “Woke Mind Virus” has infected not just her church, but nearly all major Christian denominations, your statement is much more applicable to the past than the present.
Same thing happened to us many years ago, although there were also several other couples being hi-jacked.
Having spent a lot of time with that level of clergy in the ECUSA (I was on 2 bishop search committees…) sadly, I don’t think that’s the case. Even back then – then’90’s and early 2000’s, the level of preening self absorption and self righteousness is hard to overstate. I think most (ok – many) are not actually Christian. They apologize for it so much. Right before they do something wholly lacking humility.
It has nothing to do with “compassion” or “mercy.” And They have no less rights than anyone else. They are demanding acceptance for Their perversions.
Here’s an idea, “bishop,” start Y’all’s own religion, then Y’all could all accept one another instead of infesting other religions.
President Trump on this travesty:
This represents one more example of the abuse of authority which has become so common in America today. (more here)
Both links point to the same post. We here demand to see the other post you meant to share, forthwith!
The National Cathedral in Washington is not only an Episcopal Church, it is her church. Woodrow Wilson and his wife are entombed there, as is Matthew Shepard, the patron saint of “hate speech.”
Who’s to blame? Not her. Trump and Vance accepted her invitation to be there. They put themselves in that position. If a Democrat is in the pews of a Catholic Church do we expect the priest to avoid the subject of abortion or would you cheer him if he did?
This is about “infesting” religion in order to change culture. A founding culture such as ours requires religion at the base of so much, if an individual is that religious or not. If this pitiful “bishop” realizes or not, she is just an instrument used in purposely destroying that culture necessary for us to be a self-governing republic. Shallow people like this are mostly useful idiots for their own destruction – as well as ours.
The Bishop ignores the fact that the introduction of millions of aliens harms the natives by making their neighborhoods less safe and costing them to house feed, educate them. They are uninvited guests and the bishop ignores the host’s legitimate grievances.
She talks about the maids and poultry workers, but it’s not about them. Those illegals could probably be legal if they’d obeyed our immigration laws. Americans are mostly ok with self – supporting working folks adapting to their new environs, staying out of trouble and trying to fit in. The problem is that we had enough home grown welfare recipients and criminals. That’s what the immigration laws are about. The criminals and moochers are the problem, Trump looks like the solution.
Jesus may love them all, but they don’t need to be here.
The Washington National Cathedral Presidential Inaugural Service has become a TRADITION since Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985. The only President who didn’t abide by it was Bill Clinton, at a time when it hadn’t yet become a tradition.
Is this where you trot out your “Well, nobody put a gun to their head and forced them to attend!” … “argument”?
Had Trump not attended, would you have just dismissed it as unimportant, or joined the inevitable “Trump tramples 40 year tradition, snubs service at Washington Cathedral!” opprobrium bandwagon, I wonder … NOT.
It has had a role of providing a spiritual space since it was built in 1907:
It’s a beautiful church.
Ooo. All the way back to 1985? Why that was about the time of the founding of… Blockbuster Video.
On a scale of 1 to 10, caring whether or not Trump (or any president) shows up to a church service: 0.1. On caring whether or not the “conservative” movement believes that any religion and it’s prelates have an obligation to bend the knee to a president: 11.6.
The Episcopal Church is the Episcopal Church USA simply because they can’t embrace King Charles III as their official “Defender of the Faith.” The First Amendment exists to keep the state out of the affairs of faith, not vice versa.
This is what happens when your political focus is centered on an individual and not principle. When you run into someone whose principles embrace freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion, and those beliefs run counter to the actions of whatever personality you’ve pledged yourself to, you take it as a personal insult to both your “leader” and yourself. And, yes, I put the scare quotes around the word leader in the same way Trump and many here put them around the word bishop, as if any church in the US needs the President of the United States to confer legitimacy upon them. That’s not the way this country is supposed to operate.
Self-indulgence is at the root of woke foolishness.
I respect her right to say whatever she wants. She is completely wrong, of course. The serpent has deceived her into thinking her causes are noble and above reproach. They are simply evil.
Fixed, should work now
This is why her denomination has steadily hemorrhaged members. If reading and agreeing with the New York Times and the zeitgeist it serves is the source and essence of justification, why go to church?
The old joke was that Episcopalians believed in ‘justification by taste alone.’ The reality is what you get when you substitute whatever is deemed enlightened secular left opinion for “taste” in that phrase. It is noteworthy that the last orthodox Christian bishops in that denomination are in Africa. The British and American bishops have trendied themselves into complete irrelevance.
Since not a single commenter has questioned her right to speak freely, I’m afraid you’ve mounted the wrong high horse.
This is also very good from Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent:
Oh, I remember those days. How many friendships did this MLM sour? And then Amway changed its name so that kind gestures could continue to be used as a cloak for business building (avarice?)
As explained in the original post, wrong time and place for the message she delivered. The message was more about the speaker’s own issues rather than the occasion for which the service was arranged.
Which also means her message is less likely to have an impact than if she had delivered it in a more appropriate setting. By hijacking the Inauguration National Prayer Service for her own pet peeves, it is much easier for President Trump and everyone else to dismiss and ignore what she said, and may diminish the likelihood the people she seems to think she wants to influence will listen to anything she has to say. So even from a self-centered persuasion standpoint, the sermon was likely counter-productive.
But if people like that understood such things, such things wouldn’t happen.
That’s why ten years ago we left a denomination in which I had participated for 50 years (and my wife had participated for 40), when the denominational pronouncements sounded more like a secular social service and political action committee, and the message from the pulpit sounded no different from what we could read and see in the “mainstream” media. Why gather as a church when “church” provided nothing we couldn’t find elsewhere?
I think she should say what she wants politically in some capacity other than as clergy. Maybe in her dining room with friends. Or a public speaker’s corner a la Hyde Park London. She’s been waiting to lecture Trump since 2020. Now she’s making the rounds of media who would hardly have been interested in her before.
Oh? How does one affirm the her “right” to speak and worship in her manner and still claim that she managed to “hijack” the service? How does one affirm the her “right” and insist she has “infested” the service or “abused” her authority? And finally, that she is somehow not actually a bishop in the church whose pulpit she occupied?
All because she didn’t bend the knee to Donald Trump?