When We Want to Be Courageous, a Bishop Stands Up

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. Photo Credit: Episcopal Diocese of Washington

The nation watched with surprised shock back on January 21st at the sight of a national religious leader standing up for those she understands her Bible says to treat with mercy in a public rebuke to Donald Trump while he sat in a front row pew.

Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., in a 15-minute sermon at a national prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral, showed a seldom-seen courage by looking toward the new President while saying:

"Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives…."

"The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors…." 

"I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land."

On the other hand, it was no surprise she was immediately attacked by Donald and his usual sycophants. With their usual lies, slurs, and name-calling. One right-wing US Rep even responded, "The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list."

Most of them just continued to support the human cruelty she referenced. But she wasn't naïve enough to expect change from those who've attained their power and riches through such inhumanity – her motivation was to do the courageous thing at that moment out of the depth of her calling.

Bishop Budde is no stranger to the cause of justice. In her 2023 book, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, she shares how she learned to be courageous through her faith, how often in life it needs to be seen publicly and privately, and how she has learned through sometimes very public trial and error.

She writes that our courage is required at times and in many ways when we need to decide to start something, come out for something, step up in public, or persevere in what we're already doing.  Quoting Anglo-Irish poet David Whyte:

"Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to be conscious of those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. To be courageous is to stay close to the way we are made."

One problem with judging whether we have done the courageous thing is that the cultural, media-driven, corporate-profitable models of "courage" we're supposed to applaud, are clickbait actions. Framed by dominant institutions, they make brave decisions every day people are expected to make, look routine and weak, and, convince us that we are without courage.

Bishop Budde includes stories of courage in her life that are private, "small" to her public stands, sometimes apparent failures, and as down-to-earth as our everyday living. As she puts it, "We learn to be brave throughout a lifetime, and in all aspects of life, especially when the courageous decisions we make are known only to God."

Courage is about making decisions based on the best information we have at the time and an analysis of what values we want to affirm for ourselves. Sometimes that's a decision to "come out" as a liberal person or an LGBTQ+ person, but sometimes it's brave to stay in.

Courage also means admitting our mistakes: "We need to be honest with ourselves and others when we make a mistake or we're brought to our knees. It's a way of living and leading with an undefended heart, truly open to others, and with a spine strong enough to withstand the experience, learn from it, and carry on."

And though we might decide to be brave despite our fears, that isn't the same as being brave only to assuage our guilt. That's why we might remember that courage rests in decisive moments, whether we choose to go or stay, change or persevere. 

No one needs any additional guilt from otherwise well-meaning people added to any they already have. As I’ve argued, "Guilt, a seemingly noble expression of justice, is a useful control mechanism for those protecting their power and prejudice. And even for the less powerful, dwelling on one's guilt helps us feel we're in control of what we probably are not."

Maybe our courage is expressed in starting a private group of individuals who are too vulnerable or afraid in this scary time, to do more than meet to support each other. Courage means seeing that a charity we love continues. 

Maybe it will be something like standing up in a meeting, saying, "No, I disagree," and sitting down. Perhaps the courage to keep still.
But for many in our society, courage is expressed by just making it through another day, another week, another presidency.

Bob Minor, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, University of Kansas
Instagram: @rnminor, fairnessproject.org