Unity, Mercy, and Action: Answering Bishop Budde’s Call
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For me, the highlight of last week’s inaugural celebrations was the prayer service at the National Cathedral following. It was a beautiful, spiritual and hopeful service, with touching music and messages. Bishop Marianne Budde, the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, spoke. Her message calling for unity has been widely quoted. I hope you’ll watch it in its entirety in the YouTube player above. You can find an unofficial but accurate and complete transcript here.
Bishop Budde quickly got to her point: “As a country, we have gathered this morning to pray for unity as a people and a nation, not for agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division, a unity that serves the common good.”
Fully 13 minutes of her inspiring message were devoted to calling for unity. I’m not sure there is a better word than unity, but it appears rarely in the bible—only about half a dozen times. From her words, I believe she was referring to unity in the sense of peace and harmony—not unanimity. Peace is a more familiar word to students of the Judeo-Christian scriptures, appearing hundreds of times.
She acknowledged the divisions among us:
The culture of contempt that has become normalized in this country threatens to destroy us. We are all bombarded daily with messages from what sociologists now call the outrage industrial complex, some of that driven by external forces whose interests are furthered by a polarized America.
She continued:
I believe that unity in this country is possible. Not perfectly, for we are imperfect people and an imperfect union but sufficient enough to keep us all believing in and working to realize the ideals of the United States of America, ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, with its assertion of innate human equality and dignity.
She articulated three foundational aspects of unity:
“honoring the inherent dignity of every human being…, the birthright of all people as children of our one God.”
“honesty, in both private conversation and public discourse.”
“humility, which we all need because we are all fallible human beings.”
Most of those who quoted Bishop Budde have cited her direct appeal to the newly inaugurated President:
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.
And the people, 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, 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, wadara 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. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honour the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. The good of all people in this nation and the world.
She was speaking to President Trump. May I invite you to reread that closing appeal as if it were spoken directly to you? If it were, how could you implement its words?
In the last nine days, a multitude of nonprofit organizations around the world serving the disadvantaged have had their funding temporarily—or even permanently suspended. One obvious way for us to heed her invitation is to look for opportunities to step into that funding gap. We may not be able to do much individually, but collectively, we can make a difference for refugees, immigrants, members of the LGBTQ community and others who have been most impacted.
There are less obvious ways for us to help. It will be no surprise to members of the SuperCrowd that I think Investing via regulated investment Crowdfunding is another way to accept Bishop Budde’s call for mercy. We can also invest via Kiva in loans that have less commercial value.
For years, I have invested in Kiva loans. Calling this an investment is a tiny stretch. Kiva is exempt from securities regulations precisely because you cannot earn a profit, but you can—and typically do—get your Money back. By making loans on Kiva, the most vulnerable people on the planet, including refugees here in the US, can build businesses that provide income, allowing them to be self-reliant, fully realized humans with the dignity appropriately afforded beings with divine nature.
Each Monday, my colleague, , shares a post here on Superpowers for Good, listing all of the new Regulation Crowdfunding offerings featuring social impact, minority founders, women founders or LGBTQ founders. We can invest in them.
Today, I want to highlight the Bishop’s call to support the LGBTQ community. In the context of quoting extensively from a religious leader, please forgive a bit of religious commentary from me. I believe deeply that Jesus’s call to love our enemies gives religious people like me little room to deny kindness to anyone for any reason. I’m not always good at that. I strive religiously to do better.
Some fear endorsing “lifestyles” or “choices” made by LGBTQ individuals. In my opinion, these fears are overcome by the divine call to “love your neighbor as yourself,” explaining that the Samaritan, from a community differentiated from the Jewish community in ancient Israel in much the same way as the LGBTQ community here, was the perfect example of a neighbor.
In plain language, investing in an LGBTQ-owned business is not a sin. Instead, it is a profound way to show Christlike love for other children of God. We are called to love, not judge. The Savior’s admonition to visit those in prison makes clear that the love we are commanded to manifest is not subject to a worthiness test.
As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I am pleased that the church was instrumental in the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act signed by President Biden in 2022. The law requires all 50 states to recognize same-sex marriage. The Church publicly supported the law and appears to have influenced Senator Mitt Romney to lead a group of Republican Senators to support the bill widely supported by Democrats. The law protects churches from being required to perform unions. It was a compassionate compromise that may not have passed without support from the Church.
All that said, I firmly believe that everyone has the right to define impact for themselves. The principles of impact crowdfunding apply whether your impact focus is supporting environmental initiatives, veterans, refugees, women, minorities or members of the LGBTQ community. You choose your impact.
Please join me; please join the SuperCrowd in supporting the most vulnerable among us.
Note that I have included an assortment of links to relevant content from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout this article. As a member of the Church, I believe my coreligionists may benefit from familiar messages that echo some of Bishop Budde’s points.
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