As expected, the angry reaction from the fundamentalist, conservative, Evangelical, Pentecostal/Charismatic wing has been predictable, finding ways to pick apart the values that Bishop Budde preached. Here's the bottom line. There wasn't a doctrinal or theological problem with anything the Bishop said, and in fact, they know she "correctly divided the word of truth." What some of them have come up with is a very twisted and manipulated interpretation of various Biblical texts, taking them out of the meaning that comes from understanding their historical context, and applying their own literalist standards to make the Bible's writers say something they didn't mean. They're good at that. In so doing, they've contradicted their own teaching, but they know most of their followers have absolutely no idea how to interpret scripture, and are dependent on these leaders to do it for them.
But there's another interesting response in here that tells us most of these so called "Christian" right wingers have a different gospel in mind, other than the one found in the New Testament, revealed by Jesus and recorded by his apostles. They perceived this as a public attack on their idol, Trump. Would their reaction have been so quick, so vitriolic and so angry if this had merely been a sermon preached from the pulpit of the Washington National Cathedral during a regular Sunday morning service? They would have passed this off as just another example of Episcopalian liberalism, and it's doubtful they would have torn into the contents, or into the character of the Bishop the way they did which, by the way, is a violation of the very scripture they claim to be defending.
The god that these conservative Evangelicals, the fundamentalists of Falwellian ilk and the charismatics of the Robertson ilk, worship is money. And their idol and object of their adoration is Trump.
The Apostle Paul actually addresses this kind of apostasy in the church, in his second epistle to the church at Thessalonica:
"The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying, wonders and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to beliefe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned." 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, NRSV
For those who aren't Christians, this might not have any specific meaning, but for those who have been caught up in the Trump cult, these are terms they understand, and have falsely applied to anyone who doesn't follow their theology and doctrine. Trump's very public and repeated denials of his need for God's forgiveness is more than just a difference of religious opinion, it is an outright blasphemy of the core doctrine of Christian conversion, and constitutes a public rejection of the Christian faith. In fact, Trump even takes it a step further by claiming to have formed his own god, in whom he believes, not the one revealed by Jesus in the Christian gospel.
This might all just sound like religious fiction and nonsense to those who don't profess the Christian faith, or who are not engaged in religious practice. However, in the political climate in the United States today, in which political power is quickly becoming entwined with a very real agenda and philosophy of government known as "White Christian Nationalism," the non-religious need to understand the roots of what is going on across the whole spectrum of Christian doctrine, thought and practice in order to unite with those Christians who understand the implications of all of this for the purpose of protecting our basic rights to freedom of conscience, our common freedom of, or from, religion, and especially to strengthen the wall of separation that exists between the church and the state, for the benefit of both.
The reaction to the Bishop's words, from several conservative Evangelicals in Congress, most notably Speaker Mike Johnson, from leaders like Franklin Graham, along with some of the more vitriolic elements of Charismatic pseudo-Christianity and fundamentalist televangelism, is telling. They've jumped up to defend Trump being confronted by the truth, in a way that they have never confronted him themselves about his blatant, public licentiousness, claims to worldliness, pathological lying, angry vengeance he spews, and his openly and blatant violations of the law, including the violence he promoted on January 6th, and the hatred and murder he advocates for those who have opposed his lawlessness. He is the idol they worship. They no longer follow Jesus Christ, if any of them ever did.
He fits the Apostle Paul's description of "the lawless one."
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