What Would You Have Done?
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is the only person who, in these days, has dared to publicly confront Donald Trump.
HAVANA TIMES – It is a unique opportunity. You are standing in front of the most powerful man in the world. He has just become, once again, the President of the United States, and it is his first full day in office after returning to the White House. It is an old tradition to go to church on the morning of the first day of the presidency. You have a microphone, and he doesn’t.
There are reporters from everywhere. Cameras are pointing at you. Hundreds of people are sitting, waiting for your sermon at the Washington National Cathedral. The event is broadcast internationally. Millions of people will listen. You take the pulpit, surrounded by red and white flowers, and an awkward silence is created. Almost no one knows who you are. But soon, they will.
What would you have done?
The options were very clear. You could give a very generic speech, with religious tones, talking about unity and reconciliation. In fact, everyone would have expected something like that. And in the end, no one would have remembered the speech or your name. The alternative was to become a rebel and tell the new president, to his face, exactly what you think. No shouting. No obscenities. But also, without the slightest doubt about what you want to communicate.
And that’s exactly what Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde did. She is the religious leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and is in charge of almost a hundred churches and schools. But, more than anything, she is the only person who, in these days of festivities, pardons, threats, and revenge, has dared to publicly confront Donald Trump.
“I ask you to have compassion for the people in this country who are afraid,” Bishop Budde told Trump, who shifted uncomfortably in his seat, avoiding eye contact. “There are gays, lesbians, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families who fear for their lives.” This seemed to be a direct confrontation to the president, who, during his inauguration just hours earlier, had declared that his administration’s official policy would recognize “only two genders: male and female.”
But Bishop Budde didn’t stop there.
“The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” the bishop told the president, without raising her voice but contradicting the narrative pushed by Trump since 2015. “I ask you to have compassion, Mr. President, for those communities whose children fear their parents will be deported, and help those fleeing war zones and suffering persecution in their countries, and who seek to be welcomed here.”
Upon leaving the church, clearly angry, Trump said he did not like the religious service, and a little later, on his Truth Social network, he said the tone of the bishop’s speech had been “disgusting” and demanded an apology.
But instead of apologizing, Bishop Budde seemed surprised that no one had confronted the president directly. “But isn’t anyone going to say anything?” the bishop asked aloud to a reporter from The New York Times. “Isn’t anyone going to say anything about the direction the country is taking?”
Very few dare to contradict Trump publicly at this moment. And there is much to confront: his plans for mass deportations are cruel, unjust, and unproductive, and could result in the separation of thousands of families; his policies attack the diversity that has made this country unique; his interventionism in Mexico, Panama, Canada, and Greenland violates all international rules. Likewise, his pardon of the insurgents from the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol opens the door to more political violence.
His indifference to global warming puts the planet at greater risk; his order to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization leaves us more vulnerable to another possible pandemic; his refusal to acknowledge his electoral defeat in 2020 is a massive and dangerous disinformation campaign, and a terrible example for authoritarian regimes; stripping citizenship from children born in the United States attacks the Constitution and a tradition of more than two centuries; and his accumulation of power—controlling the Executive, Congress, and the majority in the Supreme Court—threatens the old American democracy.
The lesson from Bishop Budde is clear. For religious leaders, journalists, politicians, human rights activists, defenders of cultural diversity, environmental protectors, and defenders of democracy, staying silent in the face of many of Trump’s proposals is to betray yourself and betray those who stand with you. He only won the election. That’s it. The truth does not belong to him. The word is our best weapon.
What would you have done? (The answer defines you).
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Published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
The article opens with the statement: “It is a unique opportunity. You are standing in front of the most powerful man in the world.” The stage is set.
Yes, from Bishop Budde’s perspective and from a worldly view, she was standing in front of a powerful man and in that unique opportunity it was most certainly incumbent on her – as God’s representative – to speak her mind the truth. And she did exactly that – much to Trump’s and Vance’s chagrin.
As a religious – a Bishop at that- her devotion and her reason for being is not to the powerful of this world but to the exact opposite – to the weak, to the dispossessed, to the disadvantaged, like all those unfortunate immigrants being rounded up and summarily handcuffed and exported. Her allegiance is to the all powerful, the Almighty, the Supreme Being – God.
Even Pope Francis, God’s Roman Catholic representative, sent a message to Trump to be compassionate towards those handcuffed immigrants that he immediately wants expelled.
She simply echoed the sentiments of the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The article quotes the Bishop “I ask you to have compassion for the people in this country who are afraid, Bishop Budde told Trump.”
The Bishop is not afraid. Why would she be frightened of the most “powerful” man in the world ? She “. . . dared to publicly confront Donald Trump.” And rightly so.
The Bishop is very aware of Biblical scripture. How many times did Jesus of Nazareth confront the powerful Pharisees in public squares. Jesus did not shy away because he feared repercussions from the impact of his words. Similarly, Bishop Budde is fulfilling her religious devotion and mandate and her words, if they happen to irritate Trump and others, so be it.
On a more broader perspective not only are the religious standing in unison against Trump’s turbulent outbursts, but the government leaders of diverse countries are voicing their aghast, their perplexities in Trump’s isolationist behaviour, and are resigned to take the necessary remedial action: fear-not.
“. . . his policies attack the diversity that has made this country unique; his interventionism in Mexico, Panama, Canada, and Greenland violates all international rules.” The Canadian federal government is facing a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports to the United States on February 01. Brutal.
Moreover, Trump’s musings about making Canada the 51st American State is not amusing. Words sometimes have no serious meaning especially when they come from Trump’s mouth. Canada and the United States two sovereign democratic independent countries have had mutual beneficial cooperative economic relations for decades and decades. Why interrupt the international order?
The article concludes: “The lesson from Bishop Budde is clear.” When a bully has the gumption to try and inflict pain whether actual or perceived one must stand up and with truth and conviction call out and address the potential violation(s).
The article ends with the question: “What would you have done?”
Bishop Budde did the right thing with her public words. She spoke the truth. Likewise, the government of Canada with feisty fortitude and determination not only with words has economic measures ready to be implemented if Trump’s tariff tactic comes to fruition. Canadians will defend their economic rights; Canadians will not stand idly by and be bullied. Speaking the truth and abiding by its precepts are the best approaches.