Dr. Luis Dias
I lost interest in the last U.S. Presidential elections from the moment the then President Joe Biden kept sending billions of dollars’ worth of arms and ammunition to Israel, bombs and missiles that were used to commit genocide against the civilian population in Gaza, and blocking every move from the international community to bring about
a ceasefire.
I’ve long felt that in terms of foreign policy, there is little difference between the Democrats and Republicans. The U.S. voter may list finer points on the home front such as healthcare or women’s rights that distinguish the two parties, but globally, the war-mongering and the bloody business of profiting from the murderous weapons industry has carried on, term after depressing term, regardless of which party is
in power.
The lacklustre ‘performances’ by both Democratic candidates, first Biden and then Kamala Harris at the Presidential debates more or less handed the victory to the Republicans on a platter, among other
contributing factors.
The newly-elected President Donald Trump lost no time in delivering on many of his election promises. Within days after assuming office, he signed a draft of Executive Orders, notable among them a full judicial pardon to some 1,500 rioters on U.S. Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, many for violent offences; revoking birthright citizenship (enshrined in the Constitution); withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO (World Health Organisation); withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement; opening the ecologically sensitive Arctic National Wildlife refuge to oil and gas drilling (remember his election slogan “Drill, baby, drill”?) and reversing restrictions on logging and road-building in a temperate rainforest that provides habitat for wolves, bears and salmon; legalising the recognition of only two genders (male and female) on passports, visas, Global Entry cards and all other forms and documents, and in all programmes and communications, thus calling into question the legal rights of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community; designating an “invasion across the southern border of the United States”, a move than can trigger executive branch powers to “take appropriate action to repel, repatriate or remove any alien engaged in the invasion”. The list continues in ominously similar vein.
Trump was riding a seemingly unstoppable euphoric wave. The pushback, when it came, came from a very unlikely but also the most appropriate source: The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., Washington’s first female diocesan bishop.
On January 21, 2025, the day after Donald Trump’s second inauguration as President, Budde delivered the homily at the interfaith prayer service traditionally held at the Washington National Cathedral after each presidential inauguration. Also in attendance were the new vice president, JD Vance; house speaker Mike Johnson; and Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary.
Bishop Budde’s 2023 book is titled ‘How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith.’ Her bravery was manifest in her homily, televised across not just the U.S. but to the wider world, as she stood up gently, calmly, to the world’s most powerful bully.
The whole homily is too exhaustive to reproduce in full (although it is well worth a read and a listen), but the first part was about the concept of “unity as a nation – not for agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division, a unity that serves the
common good.”
Invoking Matthew 7:24-29, (the parable of the wise and foolish builders; the wise building on solid rock), Budde elaborated, “Unity, in this sense, is the threshold requirement for people to live together in a free society, it is the solid rock, as Jesus said, in this case upon which to build a nation. It is not conformity. It is not a victory of one over another. It is not weary politeness nor passivity born of exhaustion. Unity is not partisan. Rather, unity is a way of being with one another that encompasses and respects differences, that teaches us to hold multiple perspectives and life experiences as valid and worthy of respect; that enables us, in our communities and in the halls of power, to genuinely care for one another even when we disagree.”
“The culture of contempt that has become normalised in our country threatens to destroy us. We are all bombarded daily with messages from what sociologists now call ‘the outrage industrial complex’, some of it driven by external forces whose interests are furthered by a polarised America. Contempt fuels our political campaigns and social media, and many profit from it. But it’s a dangerous way to lead a country.”
Towards the end, she addressed Trump directly: “Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families who fear for
their lives.”
“And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labuor in our poultry farms and meat-packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shift in hospitals – they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbours. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.”
“Have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. Help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in
this land.”
Bishop Budde’s homily resonated across the U.S., and in India too, as we also have a sad “culture of contempt” and hate against minorities, so-called ‘illegal immigrants’ and the vulnerable disadvantaged that also fuels political campaigns, the media and cyberspace in our country, and is just as toxic to our own nation’s future.
Trump lashed out later, labelling Budde’s tone “nasty”, calling her a “so-called Bishop” and “Radical Left hard-line Trump hater” and demanding an apology.
In an interview, Budde said that she spoke to President Trump about “the need for mercy, a pretty solid Christian tenet…. I’m at peace with [the homily] and [apologising for it] would be apologising for my understanding of the teachings of Jesus, and I just can’t do that.” Good for her!
I was struck by her message of “mercy”, in effect adding it to the first three necessary elements for national unity: dignity, honesty,
and humility.
Her homily’s final line is appropriate for us in India too: “May God grant us the strength and courage to honour the dignity of every human being, speak the truth in love, and walk humbly with one another and our God, for the good of all the people of this nation and the world.”
