OUTBURST #3 - CONTRADICTION TRUMPED

February 1, 2025

I confess to being somewhat behind in my blogging.  We spent a good chunk of January in Florida.

Of course, we paid attention to the Trump inauguration and events thereafter, and in particular, to the National Prayer service on January 21st – officially A Service of Prayer for the Nation – the “highlight” of which was the rebuke that the presiding clergy – “Bishop” Mariann Budde* – gave to the President about his apparent lack of “compassion” for various groups who tend to be favoured by the political “left” and the mainstream media.

What struck me about the rebuke – which I acknowledge was given politely, and what prompts me to write this – is the extent to which the ensuing controversy involves, at its roots, the Principle of Non-Contradiction.  Who would anticipate that!?

For example, “Bishop” Budde believes that borders are meaningless and count for nothing: that a non-border is the same as a border (i.e. normalizing the self-evident contradiction). Without real borders, citizenship, in the same way, counts for nothing: the non-citizen has the same legal standing as the citizen. 

(Note that this normalizing of the contradiction in view requires no mention that the government’s role in tolerating, if not encouraging, this necessarily involves a betrayal of its duty to its actual citizens.  Indeed, making this point will very likely get you labeled as “racist.”)

As for “gender-related” groups (LGBTQ++), I have outlined the normalizing of contradiction(s) related to “gender identity” earlier and am not inclined to repeat it here. 

The extent to which the new Trump Administration has put the Principle of Non-Contradiction in play in its early days is striking.  Most noteworthy, I think, is the Executive Order that makes it Federal government policy that there are only two genders!!  (I wish the EO referenced two SEXES.  “Gender” is a term that has been politicized, for the purpose of sidelining traditional/Biblical understandings of sex/male vs. female).  It is a harsh commentary on the state of our culture – and NOT the Trump Administration – that this should be necessary.

As for analyzing this incident through the lens of Non-Contradiction, my further thoughts are:

While the manner and tone of “Bishop” Budde’s rebuke to the President was civil, the content was nonsense.  Civility is to be highly valued as a virtue, but it is a secondary virtue to Truth.  Again, any belief, policy, or ideology based on self-contradictory assumptions is nonsense!  And even nonsense delivered civilly and eloquently is still nonsense!! 

The liberal bishop’s rebuke was not based on Biblical theology; it was part-psychology and part ideology: certain “marginalized” people feel “scared,” and feelings trump (I couldn’t resist the pun!!) all else.  The coinciding claim that people are scared, presumably for good reason and not on account of some irrational, baseless “phobia,” is a claim that needs to be supported by good evidence; this was left unaddressed.  What needed to be proven was assumed – another shortcoming that should have been fatal to the bishop’s message. 

Truth be told, temporal borders are strongly supported in scripture.  In relation to the territory that made up Old Testament Israel, see Numbers 13:3-12 and Joshua 13-21, for example.  Yes, hospitality was owed to guests within those borders, but guests were clearly distinct from Israel’s citizens.  The claim that illegal immigrants in the United States are no different than sojourners passing through ancient Israel is a false equivalence of the highest degree and an abuse of Scripture.

For an insightful analysis of “Bishop” Budde and her sermon, I commend to you this article by Sean Walsh from The Conservative Woman: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/beware-the-expedient-christianity-of-the-secular-left/

Next time: Antithesis

*	“Bishop” appears in quotes because the office, created in scripture, cannot properly be held by a woman.  Marian Budde is not, therefore, a legitimate bishop of real church.  And Yes, one can question whether the Episcopal Church is any longer a real church.