Gentle reminder: Civil disagreement is always welcome on my page; I’m not a fan of echo chambers.
But once you devolve into name calling and abusive attacks, I’m deleting your comments, and if you persist, I’ll suspend your ability to comment on my threads.
Play nice in my sandbox, or find a new one. Thanks, everyone.
There are 200 comments on this blog. I can’t possibly be expected to moderate it perfectly. If I see people resorting to cursing or abusive conduct, I delete the comment regardless of whether or not the one posting it agrees with me.
Saying the bishop behaved badly is NOT the same as calling someone a “cunt.”
You liked the comment about her being a "nutball." That doesn't happen accidentally. Of course you can be expected to moderate it perfectly! It's your post! Who else is going to moderate it?
You sounds as if you think Bishop Budde is a Christian despite openly denying the clauses of the Nicene Creed... as does virtually the entire hierarchy of the post-schism ECUSA. They laugh at the very idea of the supernatural, an afterlife, the resurrection (which they ascribe to something unknowable) and so on.. they think that Episcopalians that believe in those things are children that shouldn't be allowed to participate in the serious business of establishing social justice in the "kingdom of this world" (which, to them, means a Marxist totalitarian state).
Any Episcopalian bishops or priests who want to deny the Nicene Creed in the name of Karl Marx should be defrocked. They and laypeople with similar views should be taken to the church door, pointed to the nearest Unitarian congregation, and pushed out. Whether or not they go there is up to them, but they shouldn't be let back in.
While I wouldn’t push parishioners out, I’m beginning to think you are correct about everything else. I became an Episcopalian 6 years ago because I was drawn to their choirs and liturgy. But they’ve really sucked since. I’m just not sure where else I want to go.
The trick is realizing that believing in at most one God… the joke told about Unitarians… reveals that it is a fig leaf. They make disbelief in the Nicene Creed optional, don’t let it be said during services, and lay the groundwork for abandoning everything it means to be a Christian at the same time. It is a lot like claiming that there are no illegal aliens voting despite doing everything in their power to allow them to do so. What do you do to lying scheming sneaks like this? Kick them the Hell out.
Always genuine. I'm not a "gotcha" sort of person. I respect the space she wants to create but am confused about how that's being enforced. Especially now that she said she can't be expected to moderate the place she said she'd moderate. Consistency is important to me.
I used to follow an actress who claimed to be open minded about other people’s politics. Within days of the election, she blocked everyone who had expressed any political opinions at all… other than hers. Don’t believe extreme left-wingers can be trusted about anything at all… they are all immature children. Extreme right-wingers likewise.
This is a really important piece of commentary, brave and insightful. It was such a disgusting sermon-spreading false fears, ignoring real fears, demonising protective measures as harmful ones and pretending that harmful policies are decent and good. And all motivated by hate while talking about love. For me it’s that manipulative combination that really made it hideous, and you’ve nailed exactly what kind of emotional blackmail it was.
Sadly, she appears to be a Brit. There's a lot of Trump Derangement Syndrome here, especially amongst the lefty keffiyah-wearing antisemitic set. The tide is turning in the UK, only slower than it is in the USA.
So if you don’t read the article, you have no ground to stand on because you don’t even know what she’s talking about! Again an example of another liberal who cannot even have a discussion because they can’t even try to see a different point of view. You obviously don’t wanna hear about the harm. The transgender movement is causing people. To acknowledge that truth would destroy your position so you just don’t even want to know. I think you need to read the article all the way to the end to the Flannery O’Connor quote for some enlightenment. Perhaps you oughta take the time to look up Chloe Cole, and read her story just to get a different perspective on things like the truth.
I suspect you’re Canadian, as I am. That’s your first problem, because our media keeps playing this “Canadians are superior” game with us. They enjoy demonizing America, especially conservative Americans. Your attitude, reflected in your remarks about President Trump, reflect that. The reason you don’t understand Americans is because you’ve Probably not spent any real time among them. I have lived here on and off for over 20 years.
That alone should keep you from commenting, Just the fact that you haven’t read the entire article should’ve kept you from commenting on it at all. How do you expect to make an intelligent remark when you don’t know what you’re talking about?
Let me end with a southern phrase that pretty much equals your closing remark, “All the best though“…
When the fuck have trans and LGBT alphabet people been marginalized in the past 8 years?
Their ideology has been pushed from the highest levels. It’s as dumb as claiming black women have been marginalized and silenced when reality is quite the opposite.
The trannies overstepped when they went after kids. If the trannies weren’t a collection of low IQ mutants they might have caught the vibe shift and understood just how thick and red the line they crossed was. But since the Biden admin was pushing pro-trans policies, they misread the room and kept on daring people to vote for someone who wouldn’t enable their lunacy.
And now they’re crying that the government will no longer support their goal of ruining the lives of children.
In my mind a sermon on being kind would be we pray for those who are scared of change, we pray for those who are afraid of where the culture is going. We pray that they will find peace and courage in Jesus and know that He is with us always.
Not telling one man that he is causing all this angst.
When girls complained about men/boys in their lockerrooms, changing in the same room made them uncomfortable they were told that they were the problem.
There is a need for discussion about immigration but ignoring the years of looking the other way that democrats ruled over when they could have enforced the laws as written or changed them, but they didn't. They used these illegal immigrants to raise money on, ignored the crime a small group of them perpetrated on local communities. They did not show mercy or kindness by encouraging millions to cross the Darian Gap. How many people died there? How many in the deserts of Mexico and the Southwestern desert? Is that kindness?
How many children have been trafficked? Biden lost 300,000 children because DNA tests were cruel. Cruel to who exactly? The cartel? Certainly not the children, or their parents who put them in the care of cartels.
How many children confused about their sexuality are confused because the left told them that was what natural puberty confusion and experimentation was. How many were helped by these pushed trans treatments vs how many were harmed. We will never know as the media and the left suppress detransitioners stories and hide the reasons for many suicides.
That is not kindness. Lecturing one man to take on your attitudes in order to be kind is not kind.
You seem determined to elevate stupid and ignorant to new levels. Congratulations, your attempt appears to be successful. You may not understand this, but your attitude and the unwillingness of people like you to see reality is one of the reasons that President Trump is in power now. It’s also the reason that ultimately, the things that you push and believe in, such as transgenderism, will ultimately Be dismissed by thinking, rational people.
As soon as you used the word "kind" in a manipulative way, you gave yourself up for the Left/Woke/Progressive person you are.
To the rest of the commenters here, this person is a troll. She or he may not think of themselves as a troll and may indeed think they are doing good work, but they are a troll. A self-righteous, hate-spouting, hiding behind being "kind", troll. I wouldn't spend another moment addressing, interacting or otherwise highlighting this troll.
I'm reminded of this story...
One evening, an elderly Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside each of us.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”
“The same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one that you feed.”
Best actions would be to ignore. Trolls only stick around when you "feed" them.
It's just ‘being kind’. And if we deem you insufficiently 'kind', we will not hesitate to try to destroy you, and we aren't particularly interested to understand your side of the story
To be fair, apart from irritating the right wing, the only thing the sermon did, was to promote ‘kindness’. There was no ‘promotion’ of transgenderism or illegal immigration in Budde’s words. The Bishop merely stated that there were significant minorities who might now be concerned about their potential treatment from the incoming regime and even scared about their personal safety. Since Trump has legitimised rioting and violent attacks on police, many others in the community might have reason to share such concern, including law enforcement officers, teachers, judges and other public servants. Moreover, her plea for kindness, a lone voice amid the hubris, machismo and bluster of the new President in a congregation packed by the rich, powerful and influential, was timely and appropriate. This does not mean that illegal immigrants should be assimilated rather than deported or that the shrieking trans lobby appeased in any way.
That’s so disgustingly dishonest and hypocritical. Telling us that people are afraid is stoking that fear. The Bishop was deliberately stoking an irrational fear because she hates Donald Trump and doesn’t respect the right of people to vote differently to her. What do trans have to fear? People not using the imaginary pronouns they prefer? What has Trump done except express a biological truth? He’s not encouraged harm, just defended the right to speak the truth. Being offended by that is not being legitimately afraid. Meanwhile lots of innocent people were afraid under the Democrat regime because it encouraged rioting for months, tried to imprison political opponents, mandated harmful medical experiments and corrupted the law and the FBI into agents of tyranny.
Lots of people had real fears because J6ers guilty of nothing more than trespass went years without a trial. Lots of people had real fears and real suffering. Not ‘you used the wrong pronoun’ suffering. Not ‘how dare you vote for that man’ suffering. The suffering of being attacked or killed by Antifa, BLM and Hanas loving mobs. The suffering of losing jobs for asserting the basic right to decide what medicines you take. The suffering of families that lost loved ones to criminal gangs released from prison by Soros agents or welcomed over an open border. Or what about the 500,000 children missing in the Biden term because of that open border? I suspect lord of them knew fear and suffering a lot more than any trans person whose chosen identity isn’t validated does.
Millions more people both suffered and knew fear under Democrat ideas than Republican or MAGA ones, including abroad. Were the people bombed in endless wars afraid? I think they were.
I think it's wild that you would assume that fears of Trans humans, youth and their families in the face of so much attack, misunderstanding and vitriol are not real, nor that undocumented immigrants (30 percent of our farmworkers, roughly, are undocumented and we could also look at many other industries that many citizens do not want to get involved with) are not real. Why would they not be real? Being deported to a country of origin in which you will likely be killed or die of starvation, or in which you are politically persecuted, is very, very scary. Being torn away from family members and in some cases, the only home you have ever known is also terrifying. How are these fears not real?
Well they aren’t real because nobody has a right to illegally enter a country in the first place. Nobody has a right to ignore the laws of a nation they are joining. So any fear of deportation that follows is a fear thar person is themselves responsible for. Do something criminal and stupid and it’s your responsibility. Your emotional blackmail afterwards is meaningless.
A government has a duty to protect its own citizens, not to protect a foreign person breaking its laws and potentially threatening its citizens. You mention killings-have you ever spared a thought for innocent people in your own country killed by illegals immigrants, or raped by then, or harmed by them, or who just see their wages depressed by illegal migration? Of course not. There’s never any empathy and kindness left for them, is there?
As for trans fears, fear of what? Not being allowed in a woman’s toilet when you have a penis? What about the fear of actual women and girls regarding that? again, no sympathy for them! Or maybe it’s fear of someone not complying with an imaginary gender that describes a sexual fetish? A fear of not having the power to force other people to speak as you demand they speak? Far from being marginalised, trans rights have been prioritised, placed above those of the majority of people, and that’s unjust and, well, unkind.
Fears, too, are subjective feelings. Anyone can exaggerate them, or claim them in a delusional fashion, or use them as emotional blackmail. Plenty of people had real suffering that they had every right to prioritise over imaginary fears or insane demands that a country should allow millions of people to arrive and then put them above those already in the country.
I wonder how you think such people have been “put above” others who live here? Many work in near slave-like conditions for minimum wage or less (and there is also a lot of wage theft.) Imagine making such a terrible journey (for some/many) to get here, to leave one’s home country—why would someone do this? Risk death to get somewhere? Unless there is a real problem in their home country for them? Serious criminals have always been subject to deportation here. Obama deported many people. And so did Biden, after he came into office with decimated ICE force, actually. (A gift from Trump so he could attack and inflame the issue.) I imagine your news sources don’t discuss this. As for Trans people, I also have no idea what you are talking about regarding a population that is now being viciously attacked from all directions, including by the POTUS himself. I can only imagine you do not know what it feels like to be “marginalized” and so you imagine all sorts of threats to your own personhood. Empathy requires curiosity. Why do migrants come here at risk to their lives? Why do Trans people seek rights? … I am not speaking of violent criminals or drug traffickers. We have always been after them and deporting them. I am speaking of the people who come here because companies will hire them. … Also, why not just raise the minimum wage? Most white or educated Americans do not want to work in slaughter houses nor in fields. The problem lies in these industries themselves.
I couldn’t listen to all of it! But many people thought it was wonderful..probably because it was so critical of Trump.
I thought it was a lot of blather.. the” “ be kind” crowd slurped it up though.
Trump spoke truth about sex being binary ! And that supposedly hurt the trans ideologues. They can’t bear the truth! Maybe because they know they’re all lies!
Thank you for writing this. It should be read aloud on every late night comedy/indoctrination show and by every NPR host and be printed on the front page of every liberal newspaper. When will this malevolent benevolence be seen for what it is?
I'm a bit more blunt, having commented that "enabling confused children to mutilate their bodies does not sound very merciful to me", but on the stage of national politics, ANYTHING associated with Trump is immediately derided by 40% of the population, dismissed with wave a hand. All "we" know is that we HATE him.
I'm afraid that the "have mercy, so long as it fits MY style of mercy" approach is more prevalent in our culture than you may think.
She was so fake-earnest and smug and oblivious. It makes me wince. How could a person be SO disconnected that she's completely unaware of the attitudes of 200 million Americans? In the age of social media?!
The issue is not that people are less merciful than she is or more hateful-they believe that she's wrong and her ideas are poisonous and harmful. That is the one thing these people seem unable to grasp. Dissenters aren't fascists or bigots or fearmongers. She's bigoted (I'm sure)! She fearmongers! The issue is not a moral one. WE BELIEVE THAT SHE IS FACTUALLY INCORRECT and it's not because we're working-class ignoramuses.
The same people who were conned by BLM, cowed by politicians during Covid, blind to realities of Biden and immigration and a dozen fucking things-these people STILL can't comprehend that they might be incorrect about political issues. It blows my fucking mind.
It might help if they ever spoke to some of the people they disagree with of course. It would be a very Christian act, I daresay...
Bishop Budde is all those things. I’ve met her when I was on the Vestry of an Episcopal church in her diocese and she came to visit the small churches. She wanted to meet with the vestry after service and lectured us on our need to improve our “social mission”. I cannot abide that woman.
I’ve attended one of her churches, too, where multiple parishioners have complained to Budde about Clergy Misconduct. She has entirely ignored them (and me). She’s in it for the adulation. A hireling not a shepherd.
I grew up going to a church in that denomination, but when I became a Christian and grew in understanding the real teachings of Christ, I rejected all that wicked tomfoolery. Real Christ-followers reject that "bishop's" rant, recognizing that it is from the pit of Hell and smells like smoke.
Yes, it is. That's not my opinion, it's God's word.
Women have vital roles to play in the Church. Without the efforts of some wonderful and dedicated ladies, our little church would collapse in a month. But those efforts **do not include being in positions of ecclesiastical authority.**
You can roll your eyes and continue in your condescending attitude all you like, but the evidence proves the truth: When a church allows women in the pulpit, sooner or later that church begins to stray from the word of God, and eventually it leads to creatures like "Bishop" Budde. All respect to our esteemed hostess, but this is the only thing in her post that I vehemently disagree with.
I would suggest that you look at how Abrahamic religions became macho patriarchies and have consistently covered up the truth since then by saying that they have ALWAYS been as they are now. They were not in the Bronze Age but women were brutally subjugated during the early Iron Age. Iron weapons led to a huge overreaction toward war, violence and patriarchy.
I would suggest you be less concerned with "Abrahamic religions," and more concerned with adherence to the word of God, which is the Holy Bible, not the Talmud or the Qur'an.
> The same people who were conned by BLM, cowed by politicians during Covid, blind to realities of Biden and immigration and a dozen fucking things-these people STILL can't comprehend that they might be incorrect about political issues. It blows my fucking mind.
This paragraph suggests you're not really heeding your own message here. I'm not "cowed by politicians" on COVID, nor am I "blind to the realities of Biden and immigration". I just... disagree with you about them.
Your point is otherwise well made, though, and certainly true of a lot of people on each side (perhaps sadly the majority).
Yes, how can they be so sure they are correct when they put their fingers in their ears at any different views…it’s inherently a mindset that leads itself to idiotic views
"Mercy and compassion for kids who are confused about their sex looks like lovingly helping them make peace with the immutable nature of it."
Until the day before yesterday, we employed "watchful waiting" until after puberty, and it turned out that the surge of hormones into the brain resolved the dysphoria 80% of the time. No botched surgeries; no bootleg hormones.
Any number of self-described tomboys over the years have described in great detail how female hormones changed their point of view. Some of the most ardent feminists have ended up wanting to be mothers.
This essay is outstanding. We have been put in a compassion trap by those who refuse to engage in the nuances and complexities of the issue. Albert Maysles said, "Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance." I am a pastor and I have seen first hand the manipulation of the Christian virtue of kindness due in large part to our natural aversion to complexity.
The other side of that coin is over-correction: our parents and grandparents were mean to gay people, therefore we can't possibly question anything trans people ask for. (And as for why trans people get the benefit of our collective guilt over gay people... we need a 3-sided coin so we can talk about forced teaming)
Interesting idea. I've heard this same idea to explain Germany's self destruction through immigration from the Muslims that will not assimilate into German society. Now they are recreating the societies that they escaped from. Guilt over what they did to the Jews will not allow the German leaders to criticize the immigrants flowing into their country. Complex, I agree.
So true. I’ve been in that trap for years. It’s invariably populated with words like ‘consensus’, ‘live-and-let-live’ and ‘tolerance’. It’s a state-of-mind, more often than not, forged in countries with democratic traditions and a strong sense of national community. Qualities that automatically assume ‘others’ can always be accommodated and accepted. The reality is that not all of them can. Any concept of ‘neighbourliness’ is rendered ridiculous. Love is impossible and kindness, futile. So I absolutely see through Bishop Budde’s observations and admire Kaeley’s essay greatly. All that said, since I also have reservations about jack-boots and gas chambers, I found Budde’s words welcome, nonetheless.
It works until, “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me.”
Excellent, many thanks. I forwarded the column to a theology seminary professor who read it and sent back "Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I personally think it was only an 18 exclamation point essay, not the full 20 he awarded it. But, still.
Two men went to temple to pray, one was a Pharisee, the other a MAGA Republican. The Pharisee looked up to Heaven and and prayed, "I thank God that I am not like other men. I [insert liberal talking points]. . .
She’s a smug sanctimonious goblin who obscures her loathing of our country and it’s people in words of love and tolerance. She’s whispering in our ear that, in order to be good people, we need to destroy ourselves. It’s not enough that she sacrifice for her ideology, everyone else must be sacrificed to her ideology.
Frankly, title and position mean everything to these nutballs like Budde. Her highest achievement is not an intimate relationship with God, not following in her master's footsteps, not loving her neighbor as herself, but "being" the Bishop in the Episcopal church, which is equivalent to being the chief inmate in an insane asylum. Little wonder the pews are almost empty in this denomination.
The Episcopal Church has become the ‘Bud Light’ of Anglicanism. Less filling, looks demonic and tastes awful.
Great job of cutting through the plastic wrapping that covers all of the news of the day. Having empathy for trans people is not the same as funding the industry that preys on them, standing against illegal immigration doesn't make a person racist or anti immigrant. It is so obvious, but we need people like you who can verbalize it. People like me can only drag it out behind the barn and feed it to the hogs, or throw it from a helicopter.
Episcopal priest here. May regret identifying myself as such, which just speaks to how thoroughly cancel culture remains embedded in progressive institutions (particularly this one).
There is a way to speak uncomfortable truths in sermons with grace and nuance. It’s important not to be predictable. It’s important to use language that confounds our expectations and takes us beyond standard ways of knowing. That’s what Jesus did. That’s what good preachers should do.
Yes, there is, but was this the time or place for confrontation? To me, this was grandstanding more than anything else and grandstanding is nothing but pride. If the minister had a burning desire to plead that the president be merciful, she could have asked for a private word with him later or sent a letter. But then the world would not have seen her great virtue and courage.
I do not presume to know the Bishop’s motivations, but her exposition on the values of the Sermon on the Mount, call for unity without uniformity, got the attention of a good , smart, atheist friend of mine and has brought him much closer to faith in Jesus. Had it not been at this public event, he never would have seen it.
I am happy to see this comment. May kindness and mercy follow you [ALL of you, all of US, no exceptions] all the days of your life and may you live in the house of the Lord forever.
Hey everyone,
Gentle reminder: Civil disagreement is always welcome on my page; I’m not a fan of echo chambers.
But once you devolve into name calling and abusive attacks, I’m deleting your comments, and if you persist, I’ll suspend your ability to comment on my threads.
Play nice in my sandbox, or find a new one. Thanks, everyone.
You liked a lot of comments who called the bishop quite a few names. Is the name calling rule only reserved for people who name call conservatives?
There are 200 comments on this blog. I can’t possibly be expected to moderate it perfectly. If I see people resorting to cursing or abusive conduct, I delete the comment regardless of whether or not the one posting it agrees with me.
Saying the bishop behaved badly is NOT the same as calling someone a “cunt.”
Thank you for your understanding.
I respect that but you set the rule and what you said you would tolerate. If you saw it and liked it, I would assume you can just as easily delete it.
And while no one is calling her "cunt* they are calling her an idiot, stupid, etc. Those are not about her behavior but about her character.
Again, I respect the rule and how tough it is to moderate but it is a self imposed one.
You liked the comment about her being a "nutball." That doesn't happen accidentally. Of course you can be expected to moderate it perfectly! It's your post! Who else is going to moderate it?
You sounds as if you think Bishop Budde is a Christian despite openly denying the clauses of the Nicene Creed... as does virtually the entire hierarchy of the post-schism ECUSA. They laugh at the very idea of the supernatural, an afterlife, the resurrection (which they ascribe to something unknowable) and so on.. they think that Episcopalians that believe in those things are children that shouldn't be allowed to participate in the serious business of establishing social justice in the "kingdom of this world" (which, to them, means a Marxist totalitarian state).
Any Episcopalian bishops or priests who want to deny the Nicene Creed in the name of Karl Marx should be defrocked. They and laypeople with similar views should be taken to the church door, pointed to the nearest Unitarian congregation, and pushed out. Whether or not they go there is up to them, but they shouldn't be let back in.
While I wouldn’t push parishioners out, I’m beginning to think you are correct about everything else. I became an Episcopalian 6 years ago because I was drawn to their choirs and liturgy. But they’ve really sucked since. I’m just not sure where else I want to go.
The trick is realizing that believing in at most one God… the joke told about Unitarians… reveals that it is a fig leaf. They make disbelief in the Nicene Creed optional, don’t let it be said during services, and lay the groundwork for abandoning everything it means to be a Christian at the same time. It is a lot like claiming that there are no illegal aliens voting despite doing everything in their power to allow them to do so. What do you do to lying scheming sneaks like this? Kick them the Hell out.
Try the Anglican Catholic Church
Too sexist.
Sounds different to what they claim https://www.episcopalchurch.org/what-we-believe/
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/what-we-believe/
Dustin, are you asking a rhetorical question? Or are
you sincerely interested in the motivation in the authors' "likes"?
Always genuine. I'm not a "gotcha" sort of person. I respect the space she wants to create but am confused about how that's being enforced. Especially now that she said she can't be expected to moderate the place she said she'd moderate. Consistency is important to me.
I used to follow an actress who claimed to be open minded about other people’s politics. Within days of the election, she blocked everyone who had expressed any political opinions at all… other than hers. Don’t believe extreme left-wingers can be trusted about anything at all… they are all immature children. Extreme right-wingers likewise.
Thank you for a superb walk-through of this issue. "Toxic sympathy" of the Bishop Budde kind is something we need much less of.
Another perspective from a disciple of our Lord.
https://open.substack.com/pub/borsin/p/the-golden-rule-to-test-the-spirits?r=3exks5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
This is a really important piece of commentary, brave and insightful. It was such a disgusting sermon-spreading false fears, ignoring real fears, demonising protective measures as harmful ones and pretending that harmful policies are decent and good. And all motivated by hate while talking about love. For me it’s that manipulative combination that really made it hideous, and you’ve nailed exactly what kind of emotional blackmail it was.
That sermon was like a greatest hits of the dumbest progressive lunacy that the Biden admin deliberately empowered and promoted.
Yes. It was the capstone of his pathetic presidency.
It’s almost like you didn’t even bother to read the article.
You keep lecturing people about kindness without stopping to contend with the reality that what Budde wants isn’t kind at all.
Sadly, she appears to be a Brit. There's a lot of Trump Derangement Syndrome here, especially amongst the lefty keffiyah-wearing antisemitic set. The tide is turning in the UK, only slower than it is in the USA.
So if you don’t read the article, you have no ground to stand on because you don’t even know what she’s talking about! Again an example of another liberal who cannot even have a discussion because they can’t even try to see a different point of view. You obviously don’t wanna hear about the harm. The transgender movement is causing people. To acknowledge that truth would destroy your position so you just don’t even want to know. I think you need to read the article all the way to the end to the Flannery O’Connor quote for some enlightenment. Perhaps you oughta take the time to look up Chloe Cole, and read her story just to get a different perspective on things like the truth.
You really should read the entire article. What the author points out is a very unusual and true take on manipulation disguised as a call for mercy.
Lesley can’t read the article; it might challenge his(?) preconceptions.
To quote the 20th century philosopher George Clinton “Free your mind and your ass will follow.”
I suspect you’re Canadian, as I am. That’s your first problem, because our media keeps playing this “Canadians are superior” game with us. They enjoy demonizing America, especially conservative Americans. Your attitude, reflected in your remarks about President Trump, reflect that. The reason you don’t understand Americans is because you’ve Probably not spent any real time among them. I have lived here on and off for over 20 years.
That alone should keep you from commenting, Just the fact that you haven’t read the entire article should’ve kept you from commenting on it at all. How do you expect to make an intelligent remark when you don’t know what you’re talking about?
Let me end with a southern phrase that pretty much equals your closing remark, “All the best though“…
Bless your heart.
When the fuck have trans and LGBT alphabet people been marginalized in the past 8 years?
Their ideology has been pushed from the highest levels. It’s as dumb as claiming black women have been marginalized and silenced when reality is quite the opposite.
The trannies overstepped when they went after kids. If the trannies weren’t a collection of low IQ mutants they might have caught the vibe shift and understood just how thick and red the line they crossed was. But since the Biden admin was pushing pro-trans policies, they misread the room and kept on daring people to vote for someone who wouldn’t enable their lunacy.
And now they’re crying that the government will no longer support their goal of ruining the lives of children.
Mutilating children and indulging mental illness isn’t kind.
That’s how you end up with some old lesbian hag lecturing the president about a subject he knows more about than she does.
Episcopalians are morons who thought being Catholic was too much work. They’re a dying sect for a reason.
But was it encouraging kindness? Really?
In my mind a sermon on being kind would be we pray for those who are scared of change, we pray for those who are afraid of where the culture is going. We pray that they will find peace and courage in Jesus and know that He is with us always.
Not telling one man that he is causing all this angst.
When girls complained about men/boys in their lockerrooms, changing in the same room made them uncomfortable they were told that they were the problem.
There is a need for discussion about immigration but ignoring the years of looking the other way that democrats ruled over when they could have enforced the laws as written or changed them, but they didn't. They used these illegal immigrants to raise money on, ignored the crime a small group of them perpetrated on local communities. They did not show mercy or kindness by encouraging millions to cross the Darian Gap. How many people died there? How many in the deserts of Mexico and the Southwestern desert? Is that kindness?
How many children have been trafficked? Biden lost 300,000 children because DNA tests were cruel. Cruel to who exactly? The cartel? Certainly not the children, or their parents who put them in the care of cartels.
How many children confused about their sexuality are confused because the left told them that was what natural puberty confusion and experimentation was. How many were helped by these pushed trans treatments vs how many were harmed. We will never know as the media and the left suppress detransitioners stories and hide the reasons for many suicides.
That is not kindness. Lecturing one man to take on your attitudes in order to be kind is not kind.
I think you missed her thesis. Did you actually read her post? And your missive is well…confusing. But you be you.
You seem determined to elevate stupid and ignorant to new levels. Congratulations, your attempt appears to be successful. You may not understand this, but your attitude and the unwillingness of people like you to see reality is one of the reasons that President Trump is in power now. It’s also the reason that ultimately, the things that you push and believe in, such as transgenderism, will ultimately Be dismissed by thinking, rational people.
@nanabandana or Lesley Williams
As soon as you used the word "kind" in a manipulative way, you gave yourself up for the Left/Woke/Progressive person you are.
To the rest of the commenters here, this person is a troll. She or he may not think of themselves as a troll and may indeed think they are doing good work, but they are a troll. A self-righteous, hate-spouting, hiding behind being "kind", troll. I wouldn't spend another moment addressing, interacting or otherwise highlighting this troll.
I'm reminded of this story...
One evening, an elderly Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside each of us.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”
“The same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one that you feed.”
Best actions would be to ignore. Trolls only stick around when you "feed" them.
Is it kind to slap your child's hand before they touch a hot stove? Ideas have consequences.
It's just ‘being kind’. And if we deem you insufficiently 'kind', we will not hesitate to try to destroy you, and we aren't particularly interested to understand your side of the story
Lesley,
The sermon did not promote kindness.
To be fair, apart from irritating the right wing, the only thing the sermon did, was to promote ‘kindness’. There was no ‘promotion’ of transgenderism or illegal immigration in Budde’s words. The Bishop merely stated that there were significant minorities who might now be concerned about their potential treatment from the incoming regime and even scared about their personal safety. Since Trump has legitimised rioting and violent attacks on police, many others in the community might have reason to share such concern, including law enforcement officers, teachers, judges and other public servants. Moreover, her plea for kindness, a lone voice amid the hubris, machismo and bluster of the new President in a congregation packed by the rich, powerful and influential, was timely and appropriate. This does not mean that illegal immigrants should be assimilated rather than deported or that the shrieking trans lobby appeased in any way.
That’s so disgustingly dishonest and hypocritical. Telling us that people are afraid is stoking that fear. The Bishop was deliberately stoking an irrational fear because she hates Donald Trump and doesn’t respect the right of people to vote differently to her. What do trans have to fear? People not using the imaginary pronouns they prefer? What has Trump done except express a biological truth? He’s not encouraged harm, just defended the right to speak the truth. Being offended by that is not being legitimately afraid. Meanwhile lots of innocent people were afraid under the Democrat regime because it encouraged rioting for months, tried to imprison political opponents, mandated harmful medical experiments and corrupted the law and the FBI into agents of tyranny.
Lots of people had real fears because J6ers guilty of nothing more than trespass went years without a trial. Lots of people had real fears and real suffering. Not ‘you used the wrong pronoun’ suffering. Not ‘how dare you vote for that man’ suffering. The suffering of being attacked or killed by Antifa, BLM and Hanas loving mobs. The suffering of losing jobs for asserting the basic right to decide what medicines you take. The suffering of families that lost loved ones to criminal gangs released from prison by Soros agents or welcomed over an open border. Or what about the 500,000 children missing in the Biden term because of that open border? I suspect lord of them knew fear and suffering a lot more than any trans person whose chosen identity isn’t validated does.
Millions more people both suffered and knew fear under Democrat ideas than Republican or MAGA ones, including abroad. Were the people bombed in endless wars afraid? I think they were.
I felt this article to my very bones. Wonderfully executed.
This is the devil’s trick to manipulate your love & empathy against what is right. All love is not equal - this is disordered love.
Very much agreed
I think it's wild that you would assume that fears of Trans humans, youth and their families in the face of so much attack, misunderstanding and vitriol are not real, nor that undocumented immigrants (30 percent of our farmworkers, roughly, are undocumented and we could also look at many other industries that many citizens do not want to get involved with) are not real. Why would they not be real? Being deported to a country of origin in which you will likely be killed or die of starvation, or in which you are politically persecuted, is very, very scary. Being torn away from family members and in some cases, the only home you have ever known is also terrifying. How are these fears not real?
Well they aren’t real because nobody has a right to illegally enter a country in the first place. Nobody has a right to ignore the laws of a nation they are joining. So any fear of deportation that follows is a fear thar person is themselves responsible for. Do something criminal and stupid and it’s your responsibility. Your emotional blackmail afterwards is meaningless.
A government has a duty to protect its own citizens, not to protect a foreign person breaking its laws and potentially threatening its citizens. You mention killings-have you ever spared a thought for innocent people in your own country killed by illegals immigrants, or raped by then, or harmed by them, or who just see their wages depressed by illegal migration? Of course not. There’s never any empathy and kindness left for them, is there?
As for trans fears, fear of what? Not being allowed in a woman’s toilet when you have a penis? What about the fear of actual women and girls regarding that? again, no sympathy for them! Or maybe it’s fear of someone not complying with an imaginary gender that describes a sexual fetish? A fear of not having the power to force other people to speak as you demand they speak? Far from being marginalised, trans rights have been prioritised, placed above those of the majority of people, and that’s unjust and, well, unkind.
Fears, too, are subjective feelings. Anyone can exaggerate them, or claim them in a delusional fashion, or use them as emotional blackmail. Plenty of people had real suffering that they had every right to prioritise over imaginary fears or insane demands that a country should allow millions of people to arrive and then put them above those already in the country.
I wonder how you think such people have been “put above” others who live here? Many work in near slave-like conditions for minimum wage or less (and there is also a lot of wage theft.) Imagine making such a terrible journey (for some/many) to get here, to leave one’s home country—why would someone do this? Risk death to get somewhere? Unless there is a real problem in their home country for them? Serious criminals have always been subject to deportation here. Obama deported many people. And so did Biden, after he came into office with decimated ICE force, actually. (A gift from Trump so he could attack and inflame the issue.) I imagine your news sources don’t discuss this. As for Trans people, I also have no idea what you are talking about regarding a population that is now being viciously attacked from all directions, including by the POTUS himself. I can only imagine you do not know what it feels like to be “marginalized” and so you imagine all sorts of threats to your own personhood. Empathy requires curiosity. Why do migrants come here at risk to their lives? Why do Trans people seek rights? … I am not speaking of violent criminals or drug traffickers. We have always been after them and deporting them. I am speaking of the people who come here because companies will hire them. … Also, why not just raise the minimum wage? Most white or educated Americans do not want to work in slaughter houses nor in fields. The problem lies in these industries themselves.
I couldn’t listen to all of it! But many people thought it was wonderful..probably because it was so critical of Trump.
I thought it was a lot of blather.. the” “ be kind” crowd slurped it up though.
Trump spoke truth about sex being binary ! And that supposedly hurt the trans ideologues. They can’t bear the truth! Maybe because they know they’re all lies!
Thank you for writing this. It should be read aloud on every late night comedy/indoctrination show and by every NPR host and be printed on the front page of every liberal newspaper. When will this malevolent benevolence be seen for what it is?
Wonderful summation:
When will this malevolent benevolence be seen for what it is?
Well, clearly you didn’t read my sentence carefully, but I won’t insult you because of that.
Brilliant essay.
I'm a bit more blunt, having commented that "enabling confused children to mutilate their bodies does not sound very merciful to me", but on the stage of national politics, ANYTHING associated with Trump is immediately derided by 40% of the population, dismissed with wave a hand. All "we" know is that we HATE him.
I'm afraid that the "have mercy, so long as it fits MY style of mercy" approach is more prevalent in our culture than you may think.
Orwell's title was 40 years premature.
She was so fake-earnest and smug and oblivious. It makes me wince. How could a person be SO disconnected that she's completely unaware of the attitudes of 200 million Americans? In the age of social media?!
The issue is not that people are less merciful than she is or more hateful-they believe that she's wrong and her ideas are poisonous and harmful. That is the one thing these people seem unable to grasp. Dissenters aren't fascists or bigots or fearmongers. She's bigoted (I'm sure)! She fearmongers! The issue is not a moral one. WE BELIEVE THAT SHE IS FACTUALLY INCORRECT and it's not because we're working-class ignoramuses.
The same people who were conned by BLM, cowed by politicians during Covid, blind to realities of Biden and immigration and a dozen fucking things-these people STILL can't comprehend that they might be incorrect about political issues. It blows my fucking mind.
It might help if they ever spoke to some of the people they disagree with of course. It would be a very Christian act, I daresay...
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/talking-to-the-other-side-a-brief
Bishop Budde is all those things. I’ve met her when I was on the Vestry of an Episcopal church in her diocese and she came to visit the small churches. She wanted to meet with the vestry after service and lectured us on our need to improve our “social mission”. I cannot abide that woman.
I’ve attended one of her churches, too, where multiple parishioners have complained to Budde about Clergy Misconduct. She has entirely ignored them (and me). She’s in it for the adulation. A hireling not a shepherd.
I grew up going to a church in that denomination, but when I became a Christian and grew in understanding the real teachings of Christ, I rejected all that wicked tomfoolery. Real Christ-followers reject that "bishop's" rant, recognizing that it is from the pit of Hell and smells like smoke.
I bet you think ordaining women is a terrible sin.
Yes, it is. That's not my opinion, it's God's word.
Women have vital roles to play in the Church. Without the efforts of some wonderful and dedicated ladies, our little church would collapse in a month. But those efforts **do not include being in positions of ecclesiastical authority.**
You can roll your eyes and continue in your condescending attitude all you like, but the evidence proves the truth: When a church allows women in the pulpit, sooner or later that church begins to stray from the word of God, and eventually it leads to creatures like "Bishop" Budde. All respect to our esteemed hostess, but this is the only thing in her post that I vehemently disagree with.
I would suggest that you look at how Abrahamic religions became macho patriarchies and have consistently covered up the truth since then by saying that they have ALWAYS been as they are now. They were not in the Bronze Age but women were brutally subjugated during the early Iron Age. Iron weapons led to a huge overreaction toward war, violence and patriarchy.
I would suggest you be less concerned with "Abrahamic religions," and more concerned with adherence to the word of God, which is the Holy Bible, not the Talmud or the Qur'an.
> The same people who were conned by BLM, cowed by politicians during Covid, blind to realities of Biden and immigration and a dozen fucking things-these people STILL can't comprehend that they might be incorrect about political issues. It blows my fucking mind.
This paragraph suggests you're not really heeding your own message here. I'm not "cowed by politicians" on COVID, nor am I "blind to the realities of Biden and immigration". I just... disagree with you about them.
Your point is otherwise well made, though, and certainly true of a lot of people on each side (perhaps sadly the majority).
Yes, how can they be so sure they are correct when they put their fingers in their ears at any different views…it’s inherently a mindset that leads itself to idiotic views
Wrong....it might help if they Listened to some of the people they disagree with but yes I think your point stands
"Mercy and compassion for kids who are confused about their sex looks like lovingly helping them make peace with the immutable nature of it."
Until the day before yesterday, we employed "watchful waiting" until after puberty, and it turned out that the surge of hormones into the brain resolved the dysphoria 80% of the time. No botched surgeries; no bootleg hormones.
THAT was merciful. THAT was compassionate.
Any number of self-described tomboys over the years have described in great detail how female hormones changed their point of view. Some of the most ardent feminists have ended up wanting to be mothers.
Truly ardent feminism includes recognition of the sanctity of motherhood
I've known a woman or two that might qualify... but none of them had had children yet.
This essay is outstanding. We have been put in a compassion trap by those who refuse to engage in the nuances and complexities of the issue. Albert Maysles said, "Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance." I am a pastor and I have seen first hand the manipulation of the Christian virtue of kindness due in large part to our natural aversion to complexity.
The other side of that coin is over-correction: our parents and grandparents were mean to gay people, therefore we can't possibly question anything trans people ask for. (And as for why trans people get the benefit of our collective guilt over gay people... we need a 3-sided coin so we can talk about forced teaming)
Interesting idea. I've heard this same idea to explain Germany's self destruction through immigration from the Muslims that will not assimilate into German society. Now they are recreating the societies that they escaped from. Guilt over what they did to the Jews will not allow the German leaders to criticize the immigrants flowing into their country. Complex, I agree.
And, comedically or perhaps sadly…the Jewish people of Germany feel no longer welcome there partially because of the immigration policies of Germany
So true. I’ve been in that trap for years. It’s invariably populated with words like ‘consensus’, ‘live-and-let-live’ and ‘tolerance’. It’s a state-of-mind, more often than not, forged in countries with democratic traditions and a strong sense of national community. Qualities that automatically assume ‘others’ can always be accommodated and accepted. The reality is that not all of them can. Any concept of ‘neighbourliness’ is rendered ridiculous. Love is impossible and kindness, futile. So I absolutely see through Bishop Budde’s observations and admire Kaeley’s essay greatly. All that said, since I also have reservations about jack-boots and gas chambers, I found Budde’s words welcome, nonetheless.
It works until, “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me.”
Nailed it Kaeley... the lunacy is hard to comprehend.
Excellent, many thanks. I forwarded the column to a theology seminary professor who read it and sent back "Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I personally think it was only an 18 exclamation point essay, not the full 20 he awarded it. But, still.
Two men went to temple to pray, one was a Pharisee, the other a MAGA Republican. The Pharisee looked up to Heaven and and prayed, "I thank God that I am not like other men. I [insert liberal talking points]. . .
This: "Jesus says, 'Come as you are,' not 'Stay as you are.'"
She’s a smug sanctimonious goblin who obscures her loathing of our country and it’s people in words of love and tolerance. She’s whispering in our ear that, in order to be good people, we need to destroy ourselves. It’s not enough that she sacrifice for her ideology, everyone else must be sacrificed to her ideology.
Frankly, title and position mean everything to these nutballs like Budde. Her highest achievement is not an intimate relationship with God, not following in her master's footsteps, not loving her neighbor as herself, but "being" the Bishop in the Episcopal church, which is equivalent to being the chief inmate in an insane asylum. Little wonder the pews are almost empty in this denomination.
The Episcopal Church has become the ‘Bud Light’ of Anglicanism. Less filling, looks demonic and tastes awful.
How is lying to children any sort of kindness? https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/lying-to-our-children-hey-all-parents It is no more than a convenient falsehood to claim that children "know themselves" or to believe that some kids are trans because it is impossible to be "born in the wrong body". https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/the-alternative-universe-offered
Great job of cutting through the plastic wrapping that covers all of the news of the day. Having empathy for trans people is not the same as funding the industry that preys on them, standing against illegal immigration doesn't make a person racist or anti immigrant. It is so obvious, but we need people like you who can verbalize it. People like me can only drag it out behind the barn and feed it to the hogs, or throw it from a helicopter.
Episcopal priest here. May regret identifying myself as such, which just speaks to how thoroughly cancel culture remains embedded in progressive institutions (particularly this one).
There is a way to speak uncomfortable truths in sermons with grace and nuance. It’s important not to be predictable. It’s important to use language that confounds our expectations and takes us beyond standard ways of knowing. That’s what Jesus did. That’s what good preachers should do.
Yes, there is, but was this the time or place for confrontation? To me, this was grandstanding more than anything else and grandstanding is nothing but pride. If the minister had a burning desire to plead that the president be merciful, she could have asked for a private word with him later or sent a letter. But then the world would not have seen her great virtue and courage.
I agree with you.
I do not presume to know the Bishop’s motivations, but her exposition on the values of the Sermon on the Mount, call for unity without uniformity, got the attention of a good , smart, atheist friend of mine and has brought him much closer to faith in Jesus. Had it not been at this public event, he never would have seen it.
I am happy to see this comment. May kindness and mercy follow you [ALL of you, all of US, no exceptions] all the days of your life and may you live in the house of the Lord forever.
Yes, confounding expectations is what Jesus did and taught! Great comment.