By Carol Lucas
Before Wednesday of last week, very few people knew the name Mariann Edgar Budde. Of course, those who attend her church in Washington knew, but I suspect that few outside that sphere knew unless they were recipients of her kindness and her humanity.
Note: After writing this earlier in the week, I discovered she was responsible for bringing the remains of Matthew Shepard, (the gay young man who was beaten and killed 25 years ago in Wyoming) to the Washington National Cathedral for interment. He had never been given a final resting place for fear his grave would be vandalized. Upon learning this, she contacted the family, and co-officiated the service that welcomed Matthew to a home in the church, saying “20 years of mourning was not enough for someone who is loved, nor can it heal the grief of such a loss.”
Before I begin what I feel will be a controversial piece, (when have I ever backed away from controversy?) I feel it is necessary for me to identify myself as a spiritualist who believes strongly in God, a supreme and superior force that makes every attempt to guide us in the right direction … if we are smart enough to take heed. What I don’t adhere to are the many facets of organized religion, some of which I find especially hypocritical.
For those who walk the walk, I have nothing but admiration, and I support them in all they do. As I have always said regarding so many circumstances, “If it works for you, go for it.” Just another version of “to thine own self be true.”
It was when I tuned in on the inaugural prayer service held at the National Cathedral that the camera panned the Trump family. Watching their faces, I quickly determined that there was “trouble in River City.” I was soon to learn that the same was true throughout the Evangelical Christian community, not to mention the MAGA Republicans, but more on that later.
Let’s look closely at exactly what the Reverend said and what she didn’t say. Very simply she asked for mercy for those who are terribly frightened right now. Reduced to the lowest common denominator, the crucial words are “asked” and “mercy.”
“I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared. There are gay, lesbian, transgender children, Democratic, Republican, independent families — some who fear for their lives,” she said.
“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,” she added.
You, dear reader, would be disappointed if I didn’t digress somewhere in my piece, and this is it. “Mercy” didn’t seem to be a problem the day before, when the President signed a deluge of executive orders, including the blanket pardon for all of those who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection. These were people who attacked the Capitol police with such vengeance as to cause the death of five and the debilitating injuries of as many as 140.
As he said in an interview on FOX a couple of days later, these were “minor” incidents. Furthermore, they desecrated the halls of the building, yet in his eyes, they were patriots who, when sentenced, became hostages.
What kind of thinking brings these two “mercy driven” actions into juxtaposition? That is one I will never be able to answer.
What the Reverend didn’t do was to lecture, nor did she rant and rave; very simply she asked in a plaintive voice that was sincere.
Ah, but we had only to wait briefly for the ranting and raving, and we certainly were not disappointed. Trump, in a lengthy post on Truth Social said the following: “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a radical left, hard-line Trump hater. She brought her church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”
“She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions,” the president added. “It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one.”
Trump also called on her and the church to apologize to him.
We know he is thin-skinned, and I translate that to be a whiny, man-child. What we also know is that if any remarks stray from the greater glory of Donald Trump, be ready for a tantrum.
And about those who are so terribly upset by Bishop Budde’s plea? Well, one quote that should be cause for concern came from Georgia Rep. Mike Collins (R) who said on the social platform X, “the person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list.”
As I noted earlier in this piece, I do not write this from the position of a Christian, and so what I am about to say may sound offensive. I’ll take my chances. For those Christians who are outraged, or even dismayed, by what the Bishop said, I might offer this: apparently you choose to ignore the teachings attributed to Christ. This is beyond sad.
Said one person who knows Budde well: “She is a remarkable woman. She did what was right. What she does everyday. She most definitely practices what she preaches magnificently. Nothing fake or phony or bullshit about her. She is one of those ordinary humans doing extraordinary things which in turn makes them so very, very extraordinary. And that’s ‘holy’ contagious.”
I will add, “It takes a brave woman to tell it like it is.”
Carol Lucas is a retired high school teacher and a Lady’s Island resident. She is the author of the recently published “A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey Through Widowhood.”
