It’s Time To Stop Perverting Christianity To Push Marxism

Washington’s Episcopal Bishop, Mariann Edgar Budde, chose unity as her sermon theme at Tuesday’s national prayer service, then used the occasion to stray from unity and advance her Marxist ideals.

Her sermon started as a thinly cloaked message to President Donald Trump, who sat politely in the front row with First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Second Lady Usha Vance.

“In a democracy, not everyone’s particular hopes and dreams can be realized in a given legislative session or a presidential term, not even in a generation,” Budde said. “Not everyone’s specific prayers … will be answered in the way we would like. But for some, the loss of their hopes and dreams will be far more than political defeat, but instead, a loss of equality and dignity and their livelihoods.”

And just in case Trump couldn’t tell the sermon about how people have now lost hope was directed at him, Budde called him out from the pulpit.

“Mr. President … In the name of God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. We’re scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

Is she saying, in front of God, that because Trump is in office, the LGBTQ community is going to die? That is not a unifying message; it is outrageously untrue. It is made more shocking considering that moments before this statement, Budde’s sermon offered thee cornerstones of unity, and one was “honesty.”

“When we know what is truth, it’s incumbent upon us to speak the truth, even when, especially when it costs us,” Budde taught, but really, she is fomenting conflict between groups in God’s name.

Trump has made executive orders the LGBT community may or may not care about, including acknowledging the biological truth that men’s bodies are different than women’s bodies; and that people should be promoted based on the merit of their work, not their race, gender or sexual identity.

These are actually unifying concepts. No one is going to die over them.

God does not smile when church leaders use his name to lead people astray.  

But Budde continued her plea to the president, pushing for open U.S. borders by mischaracterizing the problem.

 “The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing 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,” Budde said. Oh my. Another lie. She is ignoring the truth that entering the United States illegally is a criminal offense. Trump has no quarrel with immigrants. It is illegal aliens he is addressing, and all are criminals. It’s right there in the name: illegal aliens.

She begged for Trump to show mercy to those fleeing war zones or persecution in their own lands, and said children fear their parents will be taken away.  

Like too many preachers, Budde is using the power of her position to promote her personal ideas, and that is a hellish crime because people who seek God are looking for eternal answers. When you dress up like a pastor and stand in a church, folks think you are going to tell the truth. The Truth is, Budde can’t keep her dislike for Trump far from the surface.

“In the immediate aftermath of the National elections, you wonder if there might be a Christian community for you,” starts a post from Budde shortly after the November election. It was an invitation to worship at the National Cathedral. An aftermath is the time after something bad happens. The word choice was not an accident, coming from a highly educated scholar like Budde.

In the post, she reveals that hers is a church where the truth is whatever you (not God) say it is.

“We don’t ask our people to agree on matters of politics, theology, or biblical interpretation. Instead we rely on God’s grace to unite us when we gather at Jesus’ table.”

When the church leader can’t articulate one truth, it is a perversion of Christianity. Saying what people want to hear may attract more followers, but it won’t lead to God.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.