At the National Prayer Service at The National Cathedral the day after the inauguration The Reverend Mariann Edger Budde lectured our President who was sitting in the first-row feet from the pulpit from which she was preaching. Her words were at best officious, sanctimonious, and condescending. They were actually demeaning to the very people to which she was virtue signaling. Her words:
“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. … In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives. … “
Well, what’s so bad about that you might ask? All she did was ask for mercy. Doesn’t God love even marginalized people? Isn’t He merciful? Doesn’t He want us to love them, too?
The response to this “hussy hissy fit” from the ecclesiastical world, including most of the Catholic Bishops was silence. Either they are unprepared to answer such questions, or they are afraid to confront the evil that is implied in a narrative couched in the false premise that if you don’t support a particular action or lifestyle, then you are acting in a way different from the way that Jesus would act.
The answer to the question posed by the good lady posing as an Ecclesiastical Queen in liturgical robes is simple: Jesus loves everyone. He loves you and me. He loves our enemies, and he calls on us to love our enemies, but because somebody disagrees with us does not mean they are an enemy. He loves children who are big and small, of all colors, and especially those who are confused about their gender. He loves immigrants. He loves people of all genders and sexual persuasion.
There is an important distinction to note about the unconditional love that Jesus promises to every person. He promises to love you, but he does not promise to love what you do. There is a big difference between tolerance and acceptance. He doesn’t “love” every idea or action, in fact he confronts those ideas and actions that stand between His people and himself. Such actions are defined as sin. The mercy that the Bishop was invoking is very different than empathy and sympathy. Mercy in the form of compassion is an action not a feeling. Mercy is not a form of capitulation that surrenders to evil. Mercy in many instances requires confrontation, just as Jesus confronted the money changers in the Temple.
Mark 11:15-18 15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’[a]? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’[b]” 18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
His house was a house of prayer for all nations and all people, but you had to play by HIS rules. And why were the chief priests and teachers so afraid of him? For the same reason Rev. Budde was calling out our President. She doesn’t want to play by His (God’s) rules. What she has to offer anyone is temporal and secular acceptance. Worldly standards that set a low bar that sets itself forever and always lower as time goes by. She asks society to set the standard, and then asks individuals to at least try to meet the standard regressing the standard to an always lower moral mean—can we all say MASS CONFIRMATION BIAS”? Can we all say secular humanism?
The Jewish-Christian standard is set by God. Believers try but can never meet that standard. That is why we seek forgiveness and through confession can obtain forgiveness. Then we try all over again and again. Being a Christian requires adapting to a moral standard. We are called on to change. The moral standard remains constant—”As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.” It is WE THE PEOPLE who must change.
Issues around sex and genderism are complex yet informed by simple truths. When I was 16, I felt I knew everything there was to know about sex and love. I even read a book by that name so I assumed if it was in a book, it must be correct. Today I know that I understand even less , even with a medical knowledge of “intersex”, genetic chromosomal aberrations like Turner’s Syndrome and Klinefelter’s Syndrome, intrinsic deficiencies like the abnormalities in estrogen and testosterone chemical pathways. Together all these clinical conditions that are real account for 1/10,000 live births. People who have these conditions require our extra effort to love them and be merciful, just as people suffering from the delusion of “transgenderism”.
The Budde speech embraced the mistruth of “transgenderism”. A delusion at best, and a psychopathy in its most virulent state. Embracing such ideologies is not an act of love or mercy. Bishp Budde shouts Have mercy! Don’t tell people they need to change! That’s hateful.” And in so doing, they circumvent the very repentance that could bring the healing we all claim to desire that brings us closer to God.
To be a Christian means that your identity is not in your sexuality, in your wealth, or your profession or anything else, but in Jesus. Knowing that you are created in the image of God, allows us to understand who we are and what is important. Knowing that this is true of every person—even those who are unwilling to confront evil, gives us the ability to show compassion and mercy to everyone—at least it should motivate us to try while asking for God’s assistance.
I was able to find one good article on this subject written by Kaeley Harms in THE CHRISTIAN POST. Her final thoughts in the article:
“Mercy and compassion for kids who are confused about their sex looks like lovingly helping them make peace with the immutable nature of it. It does NOT look like forcing the rest of society to play make-believe with the cult ideology that’s harming them. The price tag here is just too high. Kids are not dying because we refuse to tell them lies about their bodies. The suggestion is preposterous and harmful.
