William Lindsey :toad:
Elizabeth Dias looks at the courageous decision of Episcopal bishop Mariann Budde to speak truth to power in a sermon confronting Trump to his face, and sees two versions of US Christianity confronting each other:
"In a flash, the war over spiritual authority in America burst into a rare public showdown.
The Canterbury Pulpit confronted the bully pulpit on the greatest possible stage."
William Lindsey :toad:
"Right-wing media launched an all-out assault on Budde that revealed exactly how power plans to deal with dissent in Trump's second term. …
All of this—the full machinery of right-wing outrage—deployed against a religious leader who simply asked for kindness toward vulnerable people. The disproportionate response tells us exactly what we're dealing with."
~ Parker Molloy
#Trump #BishopBudde #mercy #morality
/9
https://www.readtpa.com/p/the-price-of-speaking-up-in-trumps
William Lindsey :toad:
Whether you're religious or anti-religious, if you want to convince me that you have something good to offer me and others, if you approach me with violence, aggression, hostility, and supercilious arrogance, I will tune you out.
Because the world is full of those things and those of us repulsed by them seek alternatives to them from anyone promising us good solutions, not echoes of them.
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/8
William Lindsey :toad:
I agree with Jessica Grose. Religious bodies can exercise great cruelty and do horrific injustice. I know this personally as someone who has worked for church institutions and experienced deplorable discrimination in them.
Religious people have much to learn from non-religious and anti-religious people including atheists. One can be a profoundly moral person and have no religious faith at all.
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/6
William Lindsey :toad:
But the arrogance and violence and aggression of many people speaking out on social media these days against those who have religious convictions also tells us that atheism and anti-religious commitments do not necessarily yield more humane, tolerant, kind, non-violent behavior among those who have these commitments.
I find the militant dogmatism of some anti-religious people just as repulsive as I find the dogmatism of some religious people.
William Lindsey :toad:
"Religious institutions are certainly not the only potential avenue for meaning, purpose and value in society. But we can’t underestimate the power of their reach, even in an increasingly secular world. When they have epic moral failures, it affects all of us, because it makes everyone more suspicious of potentially welcoming communities."
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/5
William Lindsey :toad:
"As a secular, mildly observant Jew, I don’t feel strongly about whether other Americans attend religious services or believe in God. But I do care about the pervasive — and honestly, warranted — cynicism that young people have about religious institutions, because I think it is contributing to a more disconnected, careless and cruel society."
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/4
William Lindsey :toad:
Jennifer Rubin notes that a number of other US and world religious leaders have also spoken out about what Trump and the Republicans are doing, and concludes,
"Trump’s actions are not just lawless; they defy our deepest religious values."
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/trumps-actions-are-not-just-lawless
And John Pavolvitz calls on other religious leaders to defend Bishop Budde and speak out.
https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/dont-let-bishop-budde-stand-alone
William Lindsey :toad:
Jessica Grose notes the compelling reasons many younger people are turning their backs on organized religion — she points, in particular, to the horror show of sexual abuse of minors and its coverup in the Catholic church.
But she laments the effects of this rejection of religious institutions for the following reasons:
#religion #morality #community #welcome #violence #cruelty
/3
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/opinion/religious-institutions-church.html
William Lindsey :toad:
"Remember this moment. Remember that asking for mercy toward scared children and immigrants was enough to trigger a full-scale campaign of intimidation from the highest levels of government and media. Remember that a sitting congressman suggested deporting an American citizen for the crime of asking the president to be kind."
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