I Am Not An Expert
I'm going to start with a maxim that I'm going to try to keep front-of-mind as I write here: I am not an expert on anything. You can call that imposter syndrome if you want, but at my core, I think that sums up my philosophy on how I approach the world, and hopefully how I will write here. I am not an expert on anything.
So, that out of the way, the first thought I'm going to commit to this medium and expand upon is this: I am a faithful Christian.
By Christian, I mean someone who strives to be like Christ. Not just someone who maybe sits in a pew or a chair on Sunday to hear someone tell me what to think, who to be angry at, or who to blame for my perceived failings – of which I have many. I mean someone who seeks to be more like Jesus Christ every single day. That's a person who provides comfort to anyone who needs it. Who loves unconditionally. Who confronts human evil and stands against it in the name of the one who saved me. Someone like Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.
My spouse is currently in her second year of seminary within the ELCA. I sit on our church's RIC committee. It's very safe to say that we are committed to extending Christ's love to any who seek it regardless of their background, gender, sexuality, or ethnicity. I see this as part of my calling to Be Like Christ – Jesus sought out, met with, ate with, stayed in the homes of, and provided assistance to those who the authorities of his time said were unclean, unworthy, and unprotected.
When my wife read me the part of Bishop Budde's homily linked above last night, knowing that it was spoken from a pulpit to Trump and Vance, directly to their faces, I felt inspired. This was a fellow Christian, who learned Jesus the way I learned Jesus, speaking her conviction directly to Power. I was not surprised (though I was disappointed) when I saw last night that an elected representative called for her to be “added to the deportation list.” I was equally unsurprised (but again, thoroughly disappointed) when I saw that Trump himself criticized her homily and called on her and her church to apologize to him, saying:
“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”
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“Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one.”
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“She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!”
I pray (literally and figuratively) that Bishop Budde does no such thing. Not only because, as it's obvious from the context of Trump's quotes that he seems to think that the point of yesterday's service in the National Cathedral was to entertain him as opposed to educate and enlighten him, but because all Christians' jobs, under this administration in particular, is to love those that Trump further disenfranchises. To loudly proclaim injustice when and where we see it. To work to fix those injustices, and to stand with our brothers and sisters who are oppressed and bear the yoke of that suffering with and for them.
I am not an expert on anything. But I am a man of Christ, a man of faith, and an advocate and ally of all those who need one. Consider this my declaration of that fact: My voice is your voice, my arm is in yours, I am standing by your side. If this administration comes for you, it comes for me as well.