Bishop Budde was right to speak truth to Trump

[lees1975]

5. To Huckabee, Johnson, and other conservative Evangelicals, you have no right to criticize a Bishop preaching truth

as long as you continue to justify your support for a moral degenerate who openly denies the very faith you claim to practice. No one who sides with Trump has credibility to criticize this Bishop without turning themselves into hypocrites.

Let's take stock of the theology being preached by Bishop Budde, which is consistent with the Christian gospel, and the critiques of the religious far right, which are not. Bishop Budde laid out a core principle, foundational to the practice of Christianity, which rests on grace. Trump's reaction to it, along with those of his apologists, just demonstrate their open denial of Christian faith and practice.

But, this isn't surprising. Huckabee was once an ordained Southern Baptist minister, and a pastor of a large church in Texarkana, Arkansas. They miss the point when it comes to what the Apostle Paul called "rightly handling the word of truth." They have removed the authority of Jesus Christ, who revealed the gospel, from being the filter through which all of the rest of the Bible is interpreted. There's a very good description of people like Huckabee, Johnson, and other Christians who have fallen victim to the false gospel of Trumpism, written by the Apostle Paul, recorded in his second epistle to Timothy:

You must understand this, that in the last days, distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhumane, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with deceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! 2 Timothy 3, 1-5, NRSV

Reading that, it's almost as if Paul was transported to the 21st century and given a vision of the United States, under Trump's leadership. This certainly characterizes the critics of the Christian gospel, preached by Bishop Budde. Paul was pretty good at sensing hypocrisy and false doctrine, and his words have proven to be prophetic over the centuries, including having the ability to address the cult beliefs produced by the blend of fundamentalist legalism, Pentecostal mysticism and right wing political extremism.

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. I Timothy 6 , NRSV

No conservative, Evangelical pastor or church leader has ever had the courage to speak truth to power, in the way Bishop Budde did. The courage it took for her to do that is evidence that she was filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And those who have become her critics are identifying themselves as hypocrites and pseudo-Christian phonies.