As expected, the angry reaction from the fundamentalist, conservative, Evangelical, Pentecostal/Charismatic wing has been predictable, finding ways to pick apart the values that Bishop Budde preached. Here's the bottom line. There wasn't a doctrinal or theological problem with anything the Bishop said, and in fact, they know she "correctly divided the word of truth." What some of them have come up with is a very twisted and manipulated interpretation of various Biblical texts, taking them out of the meaning that comes from understanding their historical context, and applying their own literalist standards to make the Bible's writers say something they didn't mean. They're good at that. In so doing, they've contradicted their own teaching, but they know most of their followers have absolutely no idea how to interpret scripture, and are dependent on these leaders to do it for them.

But there's another interesting response in here that tells us most of these so called "Christian" right wingers have a different gospel in mind, other than the one found in the New Testament, revealed by Jesus and recorded by his apostles. They perceived this as a public attack on their idol, Trump. Would their reaction have been so quick, so vitriolic and so angry if this had merely been a sermon preached from the pulpit of the Washington National Cathedral during a regular Sunday morning service? They would have passed this off as just another example of Episcopalian liberalism, and it's doubtful they would have torn into the contents, or into the character of the Bishop the way they did which, by the way, is a violation of the very scripture they claim to be defending.

This might all just sound like religious fiction and nonsense to those who don't profess the Christian faith, or who are not engaged in religious practice. However, in the political climate in the United States today, in which political power is quickly becoming entwined with a very real agenda and philosophy of government known as "White Christian Nationalism," the non-religious need to understand the roots of what is going on across the whole spectrum of Christian doctrine, thought and practice in order to unite with those Christians who understand the implications of all of this for the purpose of protecting our basic rights to freedom of conscience, our common freedom of, or from, religion, and especially to strengthen the wall of separation that exists between the church and the state, for the benefit of both.