Bishop Budde was right to speak truth to Trump

[Jilly_in_VA]

By Sophia A. Nelson

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and America’s third president, is why religious freedom is enshrined in the First Amendment. Jefferson started writing about “religious freedom” when America was still a British colony. While serving as ambassador to France, Jefferson wrote letters to James Madison, encouraging him to include religious freedom in the Constitution. In 1777, Jefferson drafted a bill to establish religious liberty in Virginia based on what he deemed the inalienable right to freedom of conscience. In 1779, he proposed it to the Virginia legislature, but it was opposed by the Church of England. The legislature eventually approved it, but only after Jefferson left office as governor.

Jefferson saw religious freedom as essential for a functioning republic. He was right.

In America, we do not have kings or tyrants. We respect each other’s liberty and the right to worship as we choose or not to worship at all. That makes us unique in the world. It draws other people from around the world to the United States. No state-sanctioned religion. No state-sanctioned church. And our priests, bishops, pastors, rabbis, clerics and clergy are empowered by that freedom to preach unfettered the word of God to their parishioners, to the public and, yes, to heads of state who attend their services. That is America at her finest.

Yet, somehow a portion of the Republican Party, including President Donald Trump and his followers, many of whom profess to love the lord and demand the Ten Commandments be displayed in schools, have decided that it is OK to attack a bishop, Mariann Budde of the Episcopal Church of Washington, for her humble and respectful plea to simply show the least of these among us — our fellow citizens — compassion.

I am not sure how we got here, but this level of corrosive destruction and disrespect for our constitutional order is not sustainable. It is unthinkable for a sitting president to demand a bishop apologize to him because he did not like her speech at a church service he was attending. Worse is the number of so-called leaders, from House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana to Ambassador Mike Huckabee — avowed Christians — who attacked the bishop as “inappropriate” or worse.

https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-bishop-budde-was-right-to-speak-truth-to-trump/UJB3SWQG6NFCBLNILCECVF4QDE/

Complete zinger of an op-ed, and worth the read.