{"id":48950,"date":"2025-01-24T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=48950"},"modified":"2025-01-24T14:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T21:41:12","slug":"questions-about-bishop-buddes-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2025\/01\/questions-about-bishop-buddes-remarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions about Bishop Budde\u2019s Remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC has received a lot of attention for her remarks earlier this week at a prayer breakfast attended by the new occupant of the White House, which also drew a demand for her to apologize. The controversy raises a number of questions, I think, especially if you think she should not have made them.<\/p>\n

I had a lot of questions when I imagined if an LDS Stake President or Area Authority (or maybe even General Authority) had been asked to speak at such an event. What would or should he say?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, President Peter K. Christensen of the Washington D.C. Temple apparently WAS at the event and participated by reading one of the prepared prayers\u2014so he did not have the opportunity to give his own remarks.<\/p>\n

For context, here is the portion of Bishop Budde\u2019s remarks that have been quoted in the media and seem to have drawn the controversy.<\/p>\n

In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. We\u2019re scared now. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking 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. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara, and temples. 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 who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I must admit that I don\u2019t know what has been said in previous sermons given at this national prayer breakfast. I do believe it is held regularly, and I think that the new President attended them during his first term. Since Bishop Budde has served in her current position since 2011, I assume she also attended the prayer breakfasts during the first term.<\/p>\n

Were these remarks a departure from those at previous breakfasts? I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

So, here are my questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Is there anything in Bishop Budde\u2019s remarks that significantly contradicts the gospel? Without being specifically addressed to the president, could the same words be said in an LDS prayer in sacrament meeting?\n<\/li>\n
  2. Bishop Budde\u2019s remarks can be seen as an example of parrhesia, the term the ancient Greeks used for an individual speaking boldly to someone who had power over them, calling them out. For example, the Apostle Paul did this in Acts, speaking to Agrippa.\n

    However, in the LDS Church today we don\u2019t have a tradition of speaking out like this. Is parrhesia ok? Is it something that should be done when those in power aren\u2019t acting as they should?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. Is a prayer breakfast a good venue for this kind of speech?\n<\/li>\n
  4. Should leaders expect to hear pleas for mercy like this? Isn\u2019t hearing what those who disagree with you say part of the job?\n<\/li>\n
  5. Ideally, how would an LDS leader act in this situation?\n<\/li>\n
  6. What should we learn from this?\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Likely, those of you who read this also have questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC has received a lot of attention for her remarks earlier this week at a prayer breakfast attended by the new occupant of the White House, which also drew a demand for her to apologize. The controversy raises a number of questions, I think, especially if you think she should not have made them. I had a lot of questions when I imagined if an LDS Stake President or Area Authority (or maybe even General Authority) had been asked to speak at such an event. What would or should he say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":48957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought","category-news-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/IMG_2100.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48950"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48976,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48950\/revisions\/48976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}