Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is a Balm
Could a 15 minute sermon provide a balm for our politically divided times? Besties Angella and Leslie believe it just might. The Besties explore Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's courageous message delivered during this year’s presidential inaugural prayer service. Her sermon was a rallying call for unity and her deep reflections on the teachings of Jesus Christ struck a powerful chord with Angie and Lez, even as they sparked criticism from the incoming president and many of his followers.
They believe Bishop Budde's sermon, dismissed and mischaracterized by some, stands as a testament to the enduring principles of love, mercy and unity they hold dear. Budde’s words of hope and guidance deserve to be heard in their entirety to appreciate the profound impact they can have.
"Have Mercy": Watch Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's Sermon Challenging Trump at Inaugural Service
https://youtu.be/gNfrbAztlcs?si=iyUWaprfPGP8fhZA
Visit Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn website for behind-the-scenes extras.
Hey Ant, hey Les how you doing. I know.
Speaker 2:Good, I'm glad we're going to be talking today about something solemn something and someone who we wanted to give some attention to.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Leslie, go ahead and introduce the podcast, and then we'll read a quote from this person and jump right in.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I want to welcome you to Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
Speaker 2:Brooklyn. I'm Angela and this person over there is Leslie, my best friend of almost 50 years. We are two intellectually curious older Black women and what that means for us is that we like to explore new ideas. We like to kind of challenge things that we have come to learn to be true that may not be so true. We like to peel back some of the stuff that is out there and we feel privileged to be at the age where we can claim early elder status and do some of that so we're going to be doing that today, and we're going to start with a reading of a quote that someone said, and then we will talk to you about it.
Speaker 1:Let me be clear. The president just used a Bible the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our churches stand for, and to do so, as you just said, he sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the churchyard. So the setting was when the president at that time, president Trump actually got troops in riot gear and used tear gas to clear protesters who were were in the courtyard of the um of one of the churches on the uh on the land on the national lawn yeah, um, and I believe that was the time when he held the bible up upside down yeah, that was the time.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we bring that up now because you wanted to acknowledge that. Marion Edgar Buddy, the pastor who you might more recently have heard about, who spoke at the service bringing in the new president, and there was a ton of controversy about what she said, and you know when it, when it happened this has been at least I don't know, maybe it's a week ago now. The days are pretty muddled in my world, probably for many of you and when it happened, I said you know, leslie, I know we are really guarding our energy right, just guarding it, how we use it, how we to be just really intentional about where we place our time and attention in order to be ready for the place that our nation is in, so we can plan, so we can love harder the ones that we choose to love. But when this pastor spoke, I just thought that this is a light, this message is a message of light, and Leslie and I then listened to the entire sermon, the part that is in the news clips, in most of the news clips.
Speaker 1:The part that is in the news clips. In most of the news clips are the last two.
Speaker 2:Two and a half minutes, yeah of a 15-minute sermon Of a 15-minute sermon and to judge whether you are in agreement or disagreement with what she said. To judge what she said based on those two parts and I don't know if you all have taken the opportunity to listen to the full 14, 15 minute.
Speaker 1:And we can put a link in. And you know we can attach a link to it, but it's out there.
Speaker 2:There's many. It's very widely available it is is, and we encourage you to do so, because what it did for us and I'll give you a moment um, a chance to speak in a moment less- what it?
Speaker 2:did for me is to it was it almost was like a bomb that someone was willing to speak up, that someone was willing to call the name of jesus christ in way, in the way that I know him to be, in, the way that doesn't fit with. Jesus is my savior, trump is my president. It just doesn't fit in that way of seeing Christ, which I think just really felt like a bomb. It was like a salve to my soul to hear this pastor speak in this way. She spoke about unity being the solid rock upon which to build a nation and then she kind of broke down what that means and listening to it as a follower of Christ and like this this seems so spot on and relevant and timely, absolutely Timely.
Speaker 2:And and and and brave in a way right, Because she has gotten tremendous backlash just from our president, from his supporters, demeaning the fact that she's a woman. You know, speaking about her, her frame, her looks, her um her, you know, he, he put the so-called in front of her is she a bishop.
Speaker 1:She's um they, they. Her title is um right reverend marianne Edgar Buddy, but she is a bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Speaker 2:Right so kind of calling her a so-called bishop and just really demeaning this person who spoke the way that the God that I serve has taught me as right and good and in line with his teaching, and so I'm going to pause, les, because I'm getting all in my feelings. So they are, and I'm with you.
Speaker 1:Well, I have so many things to say about this, but you mentioned what the current president said on his Truth Social podcast. I guess it's. Is it a podcast or it's a social media platform? On his Truth Social podcast? I guess it's. Is it a podcast or it's a social media platform. On his platform he said the so-called Episcopal bishop that she was nasty in tone and not compelling or smart. So we've heard those criticisms of his previously many times. They're often directed at women and that nasty in tone is a common theme of his. But I'd love to invite you really just to take a listen to her sermon at the inaugural prayer service, and her tone was anything but nasty.
Speaker 2:Anything but nasty.
Speaker 1:She was demure, she spoke in quiet tones and what was most striking to me is that she got so much pushback she asked for mercy. She got so much pushback. She asked for mercy, and when people ask for mercy they adopt a posture of bowed head.
Speaker 1:She pleaded for mercy Of reverence In a tone that was completely appropriate to ask for mercy of someone who was in a position to grant mercy. She held the Bible and she glanced at the Bible occasionally and the Bible that I know. Throughout the Bible there are people who are asking and begging for mercy, many of them on bended knee. She acknowledged his power and that he was in a position to grant mercy and she begged for mercy for the least of these.
Speaker 1:Those people who he readily announced that he was going to show no mercy for. She said that there were people who might have voted for him, who were afraid. She spoke of children who were afraid for their parents, and in this inaugural prayer service she asked the leader of our country to grant mercy. And I saw his tone in the way that he looked away, but he didn't even seem to consider what she said. It seemed that he felt it was a personal affront, as though how dare you ask me for mercy?
Speaker 1:Mercy when who better than she is in a position to beg for mercy for the people that she serves, and the least of these? Yeah, so it was very hurtful, because I'll tell you, it took, like you said, it took a lot of courage, I think, for her to position herself in that way, but it was certainly in keeping with who she seemed to be. You know from what we know of her, and not only that. Her whole sermon preached the concept of unity and the three tenets of unity being dignity of every person, honesty and humility. And with her plea for unity, she humbly asked him for mercy, and she was rebuffed so publicly by him and by his followers so publicly by him and by his followers.
Speaker 2:I thought that please, please, take a moment to listen to what she said and imagine this God that she talks about. Imagine, imagine what he asks of us if you are a follower of Christ, but even if you're not, just to understand what she was saying in terms of respect for each other, how to show love for each other, things that we're all taught that we should be Right. Yeah, there wasn't anything radical about it. The only thing radical about it is Christ being radical, and we all know that he was radical. He fought against capitalism. He fought against unfair rulers. He fought against the treatment of the widow and the orphan and the poor and the underserved and the underrepresented.
Speaker 2:And the neighbor, and the neighbor, and loving them, even though you don't like them to show love. She talked about how, in times of disasters, when people come to help, they're not thinking about who you voted for. They show up in this Christlike way to help others. That is what she talked about. That was how she prefaced this plea to the president as they say as one of the most important nation in the world, and she's pleading to him and I, just, in my state of I cannot consume too much of this every day. I'm still guarded, I'm letting a little in, but I'm still really guarding my energy. I just felt so refreshed that there was someone that is being seen widely, who is speaking this way, who is confronting, can I say it, who is confronting evil in this way, in a meek, right. Meekness is not in this meek, christ-like way, and it gave me so much feeling of wow, someone is really willing to do this and I really just want to thank her, to speak his words and to try to live his words.
Speaker 1:And for those who are following our current president and look at him as the savior or a the um, the Christian fundamentalists, if they know the Bible, they know that the bishop was speaking directly from the Bible and I don't really know what they found so objectionable. I would love to know. I've heard comments such as uh, she should be deported along with the illegals. Um, why? I mean, you know? I would love to hear more than just that, the talking points. What is it that is the problem with what she said? What? That she had the nerve to beg for mercy? It takes nerve to beg for mercy, yeah, but she represents a whole congregation of believers who are looking up to her and she will deal with the fallout consoling families and people and workers and people who are distressed after a lot of his pronouncements come true and deportations and the plans that he has for us.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if she could live with herself if she didn't. When given that opportunity Exactly?
Speaker 2:When, given that opportunity, it is your responsibility to step up. Indeed, it is yes.
Speaker 1:The administration does not have the opportunity to choose who speaks at the presidential inaugural prayer service.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true choose her or not, or someone else. But I also know that the current president mentioned that she's a left-wing liberal what have you? And I just want to understand. What is it about her message that he found to be political and left-wing? I think it was. As left-wing as I know Jesus is to be, you know. So, as radical as left-wing as he is, he's a generalist, he's a generous person, he's a socialist. He wants to feed the 5,000, you know. So I would please leave your comments and let me know your thoughts about this. I try to see both sides of things and in this case I don't see the other side.
Speaker 2:I think I'm missing something was what is um on our hearts and it is something that we thought it was important on our platform to um give some more light and air time to this um, this priest, marion edgar buddy. Check her out. Check out what she had to say in its entirety. Put Put it on. It's just 15 minutes. Put it in the background, whatever. Listen to more than the soundbite. Leave your comments.
Speaker 1:We'd love to hear from you All right and I'll say Lord, help us Amen. Lord help us. Only he can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can we just end here? I don't feel like yeah, yeah, amen. Can we just end here? I don't feel like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Amen, all right. This has been another episode of Black Boomer Besties From Black Black.
Speaker 2:That's it. You're not going to get it out of me. Okay, all right. Love you guys. Bye.
