Questions for Bishop Budde and the Church of Never Trump

Written by Dr. Everett Piper

For the past two weeks, adulation over Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde’s scolding of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance has become all the rage for liberal church leaders across the United States and, indeed, around the world.

Here’s just a sampling of what the “Church of Never Trump” has had to say.

The Free Methodist Church Board of Bishops issued an emergency statement echoing the words of Bishop Budde and expressing “deep concern for the very real pain” that members of their community are experiencing.

The general superintendent of The Wesleyan Church, Wayne Schmidt, called for a national webinar to address his denomination’s “anxiety and uncertainty” because we now have a president who intends to enforce our country’s laws.

Catholic Archbishop Timothy Broglio took to the media to state that requiring people who want to enter the United States to do so legally is “deeply troubling.”

Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the U.S. Conference of the Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration, added that Mr. Trump’s intention to keep his oath of office and preserve and protect our nation’s borders goes against the “fundamental right of every human person to be respected.”

Pope Francis added to the public flogging by calling the Trump administration’s actions a “disgrace.”

Social media pundits, too numerous to count, piled on. One named “Allan” had this to say about any conservative opposition to Bishop Budde’s homily:

“MAGA ‘Christians’ were exposed to the actual words and teachings of Jesus, of compassion, love, and mercy, and find the only way they can respond is with vitriol and spite.”

How should conservative Christians respond? Here’s a short list of questions we might ask of these leaders who apparently fancy themselves our spiritual betters.

Do you think it’s “vitriolic” to have compassion for the 300,000 children who have been trafficked by cartels into America’s heartland and are now missing?

Do you think it is “spiteful” to care about the quarter-million people who have been killed by fentanyl?

Don’t you think we should have “deep concern” for the tens of thousands of women who have been forced into prostitution?

What about the blue-collar folks in Springfield, Ohio? Do you feel “real pain” that they have lost their neighborhoods, their public parks, their local schools, their security and their fundamental property rights because of the thousands of vagrants overwhelming their town?

What of the working-class people in Aurora, Colorado? Did you call for an emergency webinar when they lost their safety at the hands of violent gangs who infiltrated their community and took over local hotels?

Do you feel “deeply troubled” for the ranchers in southern Texas who have lost cattle and other livestock and who are now afraid for their lives on a daily basis?

How about Laken Riley and the millions of other women who fear they could suffer the same fate? Have you written any official proclamations about the “anxiety” they feel when they simply want to go for a jog across their college campus or in a local park?

Then there are the residents of urban Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York — those who have suffered untold loss of their property, their freedom, their security and even their lives because of the foolhardy policies of the past four years — Do they have the “fundamental right to be respected?”

What about “compassion” for the surrounding rural communities of Colony Ridge, Texas, whose villages, schools and infrastructure have been overrun by 75,000 undocumented aliens and multiple drug cartels?

What have you said about any of this? Your silence on these issues seems rather odd.

Furthermore, if you’re so concerned about the “sojourner in our land” (which, by the way, the Bible does not define as a criminal who flaunts our nation’s laws), what have you done for him?

Have you torn down the fence around your backyard? Have you removed the locks from your front door? Have you posted a sign inviting everyone and anyone to live in your house, stay as long as they want and do as they please? Have you stopped locking your car doors? Have you offered your guest rooms to all comers free of charge? Have you opened your kitchen to anyone who wants to swing in and grab a snack?

And how about this: Is it “vitriolic and spiteful” to suggest that if you can’t answer yes to all the above, you’re really little more than a sanctimonious hypocrite who says, “Do as I say, not as I do?”

One final question: I’m just curious about those “same words as Jesus” you keep referring to. Was it the words where Jesus told us to ignore the plight of our neighbors who are suffering murder, rape and the loss of their property and their safety at the hands of evil politicians who ignore the law and refuse to enforce it? Funny, I can’t find anywhere where Jesus said any of this.

This article was originally published by The Washington Times.