Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
On Empathy, Bishop Budde, and Christian Nationalism

On Empathy, Bishop Budde, and Christian Nationalism

Last updated on: January 25, 2025 at 11:21 pm by Mary Pezzulo

0 Comments

On Empathy, Bishop Budde, and Christian Nationalism 2025-01-25T23:21:21-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

a statue of Jesus the Good Shepherd in front of a blue sky

image via Pixabay

It seems I have to remind people that empathy is not a sin.

In case you’ve been living under a rock this week, get back under it, because I’m going to talk about a situation involving President Trump. On Monday, we had the inauguration of Donald Trump, and I’ve made my opinion quite clear about Trump. This isn’t about him. It’s about the woman who preached a sermon to him, Bishop Mariann Budde– or rather, it’s about the reaction to her sermon.

The day after the inauguration, Trump and his posse attended a service at the Washington National Cathedral, officiated by Bishop Budde. And the good bishop preached a sermon wherein she asked the president to have mercy on certain marginalized groups like immigrants and LGBTQ people. You can read the text of that sermon here. There is not anything alarming in it. We’re supposed to have mercy on everyone.

The Bible is not nearly so clear as people would like to believe about many topics, but it’s crystal clear that we owe mercy to immigrants. And whether you’re Side A or Side B or any other letter of the alphabet, I can’t imagine being a Christian and NOT agreeing that we ought to show mercy to LGBTQ people, whom the bishop said “fear for their lives.” If you think that Transgender people are only suffering from a mental illness, we’re going to disagree on a lot, but you and I still ought to agree in principle that we should show mercy to a child afraid for her life.

Of course, the internet went bananas. I saw a lot of people congratulating Bishop Budde for her words, as I myself did. I saw people taking it a little far and posting pictures of her with a halo. I saw people sharing the fact that when the parents of Matthew Shepherd were unable to bury his remains, for fear the grave would be vandalized, Budde is the one who invited them to bury him in the National Cathedral– a fact that made me respect her even more.

And then there were the remarks from Christians who didn’t like her.

I am always surprised at how offended some people can get at a female cleric who isn’t in their denomination and has nothing to do with them. They were furious with Bishop Budde. I saw scores of people insisting that she isn’t a real bishop, refusing to call her “bishop” without ironic quotation marks, making fun of her looks and her short pixie haircut. I was scolded for praising her sermon because the sermon was somehow “not Biblical.” I was told that she only preached the sermon and invited so much negative attention in order to gain fame and money. It got so ridiculous I began to suspect that half the people dragging her on social media were parody accounts designed to make Christians look terrible.

And then I got the worst take of all, on X of course, from a Protestant deacon named Ben Garrett. Garrett went and invented a news sin to accuse the bishop of committing:

“Do not commit the sin of empathy.

This snake is God’s enemy and yours too. She hates God and His people. You need to properly hate in response.

She is not merely deceived but is a deceiver. Your eye shall not pity.”

I’ve been trying for years to articulate the difference between the thing I call “American Christianity” and that other form of Christianity, the one I think actually has to do with Christ. It’s not about denomination, because I’ve met Catholics and Protestants of all stripes who fit into both categories. It’s not about whether you prefer a more traditional liturgy or a modern one either. It’s not urban versus rural. It’s not to do with your level of education. It’s something else entirely and I haven’t known just how to put it, but this angry grouch of a deacon just made it clear for me. The difference between the thing I call American Christianity, and authentic Christianity, is that American Christianity thinks empathy is a sin.

Empathy– feeling with another, suffering with them, putting yourself in their shoes– is a sin, for the White Christian Nationalist.

For the Christian who’s actually trying to follow Christ, it’s a virtuous trait to be cultivated.

Empathy is, after all, a trait that Jesus displayed in spades. I can’t find a list of all the times the Gospels say that Jesus was “moved with compassion,” but that phrase is used at least twice in Matthew, once for a multitude of people and once for the blind men who cried “have mercy on us, Son of David!” He’s moved with compassion at the sight of a leper in the first chapter of Mark and at the crowd in the sixth chapter. In Luke, Jesus was moved with compassion at the sight of the widow with the dead son. I haven’t found the exact phrase “Jesus was moved with compassion” in the Gospel according to John, but John does contain my favorite Bible verse of all time: at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, “Jesus wept.” It seems to me that Bible-believing Christians are required to understand that Jesus had empathy.

If you hold the Catholic view of the Passion and Death of Christ instead of believing in substitutiary atonement, then the whole reason Christ became Man in the first place was empathy: He wanted to suffer our suffering with us so He could draw our human experience up into the life of the Holy Trinity. But I can’t imagine Deacon Garrett would have any patience for that kind of theology.

I have said before that the opposite of Christ isn’t the devil, the opposite of Christ is empire. And White Christian Nationalists have made it their entire program to create an earthly empire, with Christ is their excuse.

I would also say that the opposite of Christ who descended from Heaven to Earth and from Earth into hell in order to suffer with us, is a Christianity that condemns empathy as a sin. It seems the White Christian Nationalists are doing that as well now.

I am thankful for Bishop Budde’s witness to the Gospel.

In a way, I’m also thankful for Deacon Garrett’s witness. It’s taught me something I didn’t know about the depravity of White Christian Nationalists.

I know which type of Christianity I’m going to practice.

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows an d Joys of Mary, and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, donate to “The Little Portion” on paypal or Mary Pezzulo on venmo

Politics and Religion

Religion News

American Christianity

Bishop Budde

empathy

White Christian Nationalism

Previous Post

January 19, 2025

The Only Place

Next Post

January 29, 2025 The Cross is to Carry

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"One of my best professors in undergrad was a Hindu man. I loved his class. ..."

Mary

Vivek Ramaswamy is All American, And ..."

"Found it!"

Mary

Vivek Ramaswamy is All American, And ..."

"Looks like a comment is in comment jail?"

Katherine Nielsen

Vivek Ramaswamy is All American, And ..."

"II first heard of Ramaswamy when he was running for president (in 2024, I think? ..."

Katherine Nielsen

Vivek Ramaswamy is All American, And ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to 3 John, who loves to be first and will not welcome the brothers?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Gaius Diotrephes Alexander Demetrius