Anglican Watch has received a number of questions about EDOW Bishop Mariann Budde and her recent speech at the National Cathedral, in which she directly called on Donald Trump to act with mercy towards immigrants, the LGBTQIA+ community, and others who are in fear.
This is our response.
Anglican Watch wholeheartedly endorses the notion that all persons should be free from injustice, poverty, oppression, and hate. That extends to those who, like the Holy Family, were illegal immigrants, fleeing threats of death and persecution.
We categorically reject Christian Nationalism as contrary to Christianity.
We note that the First Amendment expressly protects religion from government intrusion. Moreover, the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech for all Americans.
Thus, we applaud Bishop Budde for preaching the gospel.
At the same time, we call on Bishop Budde and all Episcopal bishops to repent of their long-standing abuse, maginalization, and oppression of others, with particular reference to those who have been abused by the church. We have documented mulitple instances in which Bishop Budde has ignored pleas from those facing abuse within the Episcopal Church, thus adding to their pain, suffering, and sorrow. Thus, while she is eager to decry injustice she cannot control, we believe it is sinful and hypocritical to ignore abuse that she CAN control.
Indeed, we note that within her own diocese, Bishop Budde permits torture profiteer, David Ayres, to serve on the board of governors of the National Cathedral School. We have covered this issue, and contacted Bishop Budde and the school directly about our belief that persons who make money from torturing others should not serve in leadership roles in the church.
The days when Episcopal priests and clergy can act with impunity and ignore even criminal conduct within the church can and must end. We call on the church to be the church it claims to be, to stop treating non-sexual abuse as non-actionable under the clergy disciplinary canons, and to stop finding pretextual bases to dismiss complaints of abuse.
Thank you, Thank You, Thank You. I have begged her to meet with me for months to discuss problems in her own Diocese. But she doesn’t respond.
Thank you for your comments and upholding what your religion cherishes as the words of their god. Anything else would have been total hypocrisy. Please ignore the non Christian Christians and continue your belief that every person should be treated with love, compassion and respect.
Well said in your assessment and in your conclusion. I find that TEC has no moral authority to speak on issues facing the nation, if they do not address and try to fix the problems they continue to cover-up within their denomination. Why doesn’t the good bishop call out the behavior of her fellow bishops who play all type of games to protect clergy who are guilty of misconduct that borders the criminal, and in cases actually is criminal. As I have said before Title IV is not taken seriously when then target of the investigation is a priest, or a bishop they want to protect. The world will do all right without TEC. In fact, I wager, it might actually be better, because there will be one less institution contributing to injustice.
Ugh. You took the words from my mouth.
I will seek their advice on national and spiritual matters when they get their act together on diocesan issues.
I suspect the National Cathedrals days as the defacto venue for inaugurations and other important events is coming to an end. No one wants to be held in a captive audience and lectured in church.
You misspelled “Christianity” (in “We categorically reject Christian Nationalism as contrary to Christiantiy”).
I found you through looking up past news, so I am sure I am not the target audience. Keep this in mind moving forward.
Also in the posted link, when you click through to see what all the sensationalist language is about (given the tone of the article I expected “torture profiteer” to be hyperbole; also I believe in the quote”“enhanced interrogation” techniques during the “war on torture.” Widely considered torture,” you meant to say “war on terror”? otherwise it makes little sense) some of the links are dead and if the house you posted was this person’s house at the time of publication (as you seem to imply) you doxxed someone’s house and email address. This, in my opinion, makes any actions taken with this information your responsibility. I worry that a watchdog organization is misunderstanding detracts from the effectiveness of your supposed goals.
This all makes your work seem deeply unserious. You say you do in-depth investigative work and I don’t doubt that sources need to be hidden in some (many) instances, but the unspecific and unmeasured and sometimes even sensationalist language, lack of sources, and purple Arial font writing over the house with a joke(? or a tasteless reference?) seems disrespectful to the mission of calling out abuse. Multiple articles reference your misgivings on certain actors without citing reasons (just that ‘we’ are supposed to not like them) that detract from the point of the main article. It makes your work sound like gossip with your friends and not something to be taken seriously. I find this unfortunate because I really think that the mission is important but I believe it should be conducted in a journalistic way (and without the hypocrisy of calling out abuse and then doxxing people.)
This article in particular, when not aware of previous articles, comes off as you directing the attention away from one of the few people in a position of authority speaking out in favor of trans people not dying on a nationally publicized stage (and getting her life threatened because of it) so that you could be on a moral high ground over things that are not cited in this article. The link about All Souls just takes you to the church’s home page, not an explanation into whatever you are trying to reference and other links lead to 404 messages. Then the story is about the “torture profiteer” has it’s own issues.
TL;DR- When you are working against power you do not get the luxury of benefit of the doubt. Please in a more journalistic manner so credible information doesn’t get shoved aside. Anything else seems like disregard for your supposed mission for some self-aggrandizing circle-jerk, which is not helpful for a self-described watchdog nonprofit.
(I say all this not expecting it to be posted in the comments but I do hope someone does read this on the back end. While I tried to be understanding with most of my issues with your articles, the editing hurts your credibility and the other issues I spoke of I find legitmately dangerous, so I hope this is not taken as “hate mail”. Have a good day)
PS: given that you doxxed Ayre I am not using my real email to send this comment. i am not a bot, just wary.
Thank you for your erudite analysis of these issues. Perhaps next time you’ll be so kind as to address the substance of the Ayres and their profiteering from torture.