thank you--I want the paperback which is out of stock for now, so I'm on the wait list, but the Kindle version is available. I also posted on my BlueSky account!
Thank you, Jane, for gently reminding us folks to BUY from LOCAL small businesses. I personally am cementing my attention to not buy ANYTHING, as much as realistically possible, from big corporations and nothing from the many big corporations that donated solely to Trump (i. e. GEICO, Tractor Supply, Smuckers, L L. Bean, and so many more).
Let's support our communities, and even if it seems like a mere gesture, eschew big business that cares not a whit about us.
There is an app called Goods Unite Us that lists Republican vs Democrat % contributions of many companies. LL Bean and Tractor Supply both give more to Republicans
I should have, D, found a local bookstore, but we don't have one in Calvert Co., MD. I could have looked for a local bookstore near me but didn't think of that before ordering from Penguin Random House. Darn!
Powell's has a great online ordering site; they were one of the first independent bookstores to go online. They also shelve used with new, so you can sometimes get a bargain!
Eileen, as an atheist/agnostic, I get troubled whenever I hear the expression "god is on their side". It's been used to justify inhumanity for centuries. Trump himself said in his 2nd inaugural rant that he was saved from death by god after his ear was nicked.
I watched the good bishop's homily on YouTube, and found it powerful.
If there is a god, I hope that the felon is soon raptured or otherwise taken from us.
Doug, she has good on her side. I would love to see many people raptured including that abusive drunk candidate for Defense who is now praying with his wife. Vomit. As for death star, I very seldom wish to see someone depart this earth, but there are a few exceptions.
"Taken from us"? No.., I hope he gets replaced. I like to "hope" he and his SICK-O-FANtzzzz have their (R)noses rubbed in his crap, while the collateral-damage is shoved up their elephant butts. That clown needs to be held accountable. He belongs in Leavenworth.., Lock him up!
Thanks Dave. I was never a big Dylan fan but always loved his lyrics. I hadn't heard that song in quite a while, but listening to it again I was in awe at his guitar strumming — frenetic at times, slow at others. As one who has played guitar since 1968-ish (and who should be much better than I am) it stuck out as much as his lyrics did.
True grit.., she's got it! I'll bet "The Bishop" doesn't need to own a FanJet Falcon and fly up to 38,000 feet to speak directly to God, either. Religious hypocracy has been a player and payer bolstering this totally bull-s--t administration and MAGA-bowel-movement. More importantly, she spoke directly to The Hypocrit in Charge, even tho it went in one ear and out the other.
If so, you may be able to find it on the app Libro. I recently downloaded an audiobook by George Lakoff through the app. They use local bookstores if you want physical books.
The last time something like this happened on this scale, someone wrote a book. Although Viktor Frankl’s entire family was murdered in the holocaust, he managed to survive by setting himself the task of understanding why otherwise ordinary people supported leaders who acted callously, inhumanly, and without any limitations of conscience. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, originally published in 1946, he came very close. His insights made him one of the giants of the first century of the new field of psychology, and a target for criticism within his own community of holocaust survivors for daring to try to understand evil.
From a hindsight perspective, Frankl has probably gotten closer than anyone, but he was at a disadvantage. It was not until the 1980s that Benjamin Libet would conduct the most important experiment in the short history of the field of psychology, and since then, the collective that is the field of psychology has failed to put the pieces together. As a result, in our war against evil, we’ve been treating the symptoms when we should be curing the disease. Curing the disease means understanding its root cause.
To read Frankl’s book, and I’m sure the same is true of Bishop Budde’s book, is to gain insights into the importance of the task at hand and the enemy we face, but they are both operating at the level of symptoms in lieu of cause. We still have a small window of opportunity to fix this. We need a collective understanding of the root cause. If someone out there knows what that is, please let us know. But if you're buying and reading Bishop Budde’s book, I'm suggesting you also do something less expensive and time consuming.
I’m not charging a subscription fee for my newsletter. I am publishing a weekly series of short (< 1,200 word) essays explaining the root cause of the authoritarian disease. Yesterday’s edition describes Libet’s experiment, which in turn describes what might appear to be the limit of our scientific knowledge of how the human mind works.
If all you want to do is complain, then pardon the interruption. If you think I’m delusional, and you’re smart enough to pass high school biology, then please subscribe, identify the flaw in my simple logic, and let me know. I’m all ears. Otherwise, if you want to cure the authoritarian disease, then please subscribe and let’s talk.
James R. Carey -- Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning", has been on my bookshelves since the 1970s. Time to read it again! (For maybe the 4th or 5th time.)
Having been a toddler in Germany when my dad was stationed there from 47 to 1950 (during the Nuremberg Trials and Berlin Airlift). I grew up with some memories and stories from my mother, in particular, about visiting Dachau. Some of the history passed on was about Viktor Frankl but it was years after she passed that I read the book and found out more of his history, enough for me to consider him the suicide counselor in Nazi death camps, keeping people from giving up despite the horrendous situations they were in.
I mentioned it to a criminal psychologist I knew, who was known for using yoga to help inmates turn their attention to knowing themselves better and substantially reducing recidivism. He seems to have been able to help many with very long prison sentences, also. When I mentioned Frankl, he kind of melted, and told me how much he was in awe of him. He had one very depressed inmate serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Well into the session that was not going well, the prisoner was distraught and was allowed to call Viktor Frankl collect. Frankl accepted the charges and talked to the prisoner (and a bit to the psychologist) for over two hours. It became apparent to the psychologist that Frankl did that often.
This is a superb post James. Your few likes here reflects our sometimes pause at lengthy ones. Dr Frankl’s family was shot while he was forced to watch. I like Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman too for a look at hot trumpet gained such enormous appeal. All here might check your blue light exposure if you’re losing sleep. Strong hearts, brave hearts, we step in to the fires.
I bought my husband a book for Christmas about Germany from after the war to I think, 2022. I may be wrong about the date. It is an excellent book about guilt and shame and how some Germans have handled their past. I will also in a vote for the works of Timothy Snyder who also does online commentary.
Joan, thank you for bringing Gabor Mate to my attention. He does add plenty to our understanding. However, as I assumed, he is doing what everyone in the field of psychology does. They try something they hope will work. If it works, then they keep doing it and iterate. If something doesn't work, they (hopefully) stop doing it. What they don't do is understand the real root cause because they misunderstand the most important experiment is the history of the field of psychology. Or I'm overlooking something simple that no one is bothering to bring to my attention.
James, your approach is far too academic for my abilities. I prefer to look at history, social and political history of why do people do what they do. Why does a person take a selfie stand g at a cliff and fall off?
My understanding is that birth sides of a political struggle tango and both sides become damaged. If the society is well off, more then likely it will moderate itself. Germany chose a dictator on account of the punishment meted to the nation from the WWI Versailles Agreements. In our nation we have suffered under several inferior leaderships that has cost the US dearly. We invaded not one but two nations under W Bush. His daddy invaded another in the Golf War. Our foreign policies have destabilized the Middle East and now it has destabilized Europe. The Reagan period ushered in less regulation and opened the door to savage quest for riches by the wealthy.
The democrats have pushed so far to the left we don’t even realize how far we have gone. The Democratic Party was once the party of the working class and largely white working class but we have abandoned them and we don’t even realize it. So they turned to the party that does not have their interests at all. Zero.
Trump is not conservative or liberal. He has no ethics. He will sell his dead mother for peanuts if she was worth such peanuts. Money is his only quest.
In my opinion, our side (I do identify as liberal/conservative) must change our obtuse ways or we will be condemned to continue making the same mistakes. And frankly, I don’t think we will make the necessary changes to return to significant majorities to rule for the foreseeable future. I have been specific with positions needed to be made and I have been thoroughly castigated for them which leads me to believe that we are unable to understand what is taking place and to make accommodations in order to bring us back to a degree of sanity. I don’t see this happening anytime soon. It’s human nature to continue making the same missteps.
Bill, if it helps for me to keep it simple, here you go: Love yourself despite your faults, and love your neighbor in the same way. That is the true nature of being human. We are misguided when and because we've convinced ourselves our true human nature doesn't work. That's my simple conclusion. That is not how the conclusion was drawn, which is a bit more complicated.
"This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.
I lingered but a moment at the mirror: the second and conclusive experiment had yet to be attempted; it yet remained to be seen if I had lost my identity beyond redemption and must flee before daylight from a house that was no longer mine; and hurrying back to my cabinet, I once more prepared and drank the cup, once more suffered the pangs of dissolution, and came to myself once more with the character, the stature, and the face of Henry Jekyll.
That night I had come to the fatal cross-roads. Had I approached my discovery in a more noble spirit, had I risked the experiment while under the empire of generous or pious aspirations, all must have been otherwise, and from these agonies of death and birth, I had come forth an angel instead of a fiend. The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine; it but shook the doors of the prison-house of my disposition;"-- Robert Louis Stevenson
I fear that you are correct in your assessment. However, much of Congress May get the picture and persuade a move to invoke 25. At least we can push for that. Getting out of the climate accords is suicidal!
One never knows for sure in a complicated system where even a small change is going to lead. I have been "flabbergasted" for decade each time the Neo-"GOP" has crossed a line of indecency that they managed to evade persisting consequences time after time (surely in part because of the corrupting power of money). Maybe THIS time???
King Trump and Herr Musk are so juvenile that they are squandering their "honeymoon" period just pissing people off; and provoking resistance from many quarters, instead of relative passivity. A smoother criminal would scare me even more.
“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions." -- Lincoln
I think it is likely that inherently the hardest thing for human beings to do is to fully understand the nature of our own awareness; understating the nature and limitations of our own understanding observed and processed of necessity though the limitations our own understanding. that said, I think there is some very useful work out there, Frankl's included. Also much that is questionable. I claim no special expertise, but think we need to pay a lot more attention to our own systems of values, at our own inherent narcissism and how it can both serve and become toxic and the necessity for the preservation of our species of conscience and compassion.
At a particularly low point in my life, I decided to occupy my mind with an assignment, to keep my mind from going to even darker places. The assignment was to compose a listing of 15 statements describing my thoughts about Life – my truths, if you will. Each statement could contain no more and no less than 15 words. It took weeks to finish the assignment, which I titled "Fifteen Times Fifteen."
Your comment reminded me of one of those statements, found in the very center of the piece I wrote.
"In people, in things or in ideas, the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness."
I am not sure I fully agree, but I think that there is truth in that. Every choice brings limitations and vulnerabilities, though some choices seem more fruitful than others. I certainly think the choice of Neo-Republicans to win by lies and treachery is both their super-power and their greatest vulnerability. I hope to see it send them sprawling yet, without, I hope, too much "collateral damage". What we do next will matter.
Joan, I'm sure it does. I'll check it out. However, my argument is that adding "plenty to the understanding" built on an unstable foundation is not what we need in this moment. What we need in this moment is the stable foundation. See my first (351 word) newsletter:
I'm not arguing; I'm investigating, and I appreciate science while knowing that the instruments for monitoring and quantifying (and legitimizing) some kinds of brain functions are lagging behind this time of stimulated neural functioning. Seeing the brain as parts in slow motion is unlike seeing the potential of an intuitive artist in the midst of creating (one example). The computing power of monitoring brain functioning isn't up to speed, even while it's surging ahead. I spent several hours at Harvard's Lichtman Lab years ago, where I began comprehending glia while watching Google-funded equipment try to capture the micro-dynamics of our chemical and electrical systems. I now have a better grasp of what I do not know.
As it applies to our social behavior, nothing beats self-reflection, but wounds skew our abilities to focus. I recommended Gabor Mate because he's done so much work with humans in pain, in the grips of addiction, ruled by trauma -- I'm not idolizing, I'm saluting his ability to be present as a compassionate witness which is a needed skill for complementing more mechanistic models for understanding.
Bringing psychedelics into the conversation makes sense because many billionaires in tech (some of whom are now holding political power up front and behind the scenes in our country) have admitted to using them; they shift consciousness and I'm guessing, often bypass polarized concepts like left/right brain and conscious/unconscious functioning.
James, I have not yet read your linked post, but I will, and expect that I will become a subscriber.
I have read Mary L. Trump's book, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," and it filled gaps in my prior knowledge about Donald and his family, gained from years of reading NYC-based publications. (I am an ex-pat New Yorker interned in a hillbilly state, presumably as punishment for all the bad things I've done in my life.)
Donald was born with severe mental defects into a dysfunctional family headed by a sociopathic father, himself the product of a dysfunctional family headed by a pimp. Donald's mother was a self-absorbed hypochondriac who spent more time in the hospital than at home. Neither Fred nor Mary Anne had even a vestige of a moral compass. Donald's early boyhood was the equivalent of a dog being chained to a tree in the backyard. His mental disabilities metastasized into psychological and emotional disabilities.
In summary, Donald was so unloved that he didn't even have a concept of what love is. His psychosis was exacerbated by and glossed-over by Fred's enormous wealth, which also isolated Donald from extra-familial relationships that might expose him to genuine love.
Donald's entire life has been dominated by his search for the love that was denied him from birth. But he has no idea what it is. With no models to inform him, he mistakes wealth, fandom and obeisance for love. Even when he acquires these things, they still leave him empty and craving something more. This, I believe, is what creates an autocrat.
What causes multitudes to fall under an autocrat's spell is beyond my understanding or imagination.
"This, I believe, is what creates an autocrat. What causes multitudes to fall under an autocrat's spell is beyond my understanding or imagination." It may be beyond your current understanding and imagination, but it is certainly not beyond your capacity. Your comment tells me you already understand more complicated things. IMHO, the only question you need to ask yourself is whether you want—or would prefer not—to know.
I am sure Frankl's strength of mind helped him survive. But survival in the camps depended greatly on chance, luck, and an extra few calories of food.
That said, those so brutalized and traumatized that they became fatalistic were termed 'Muselmanner.' And had an higher incidence of death.
"Viktor Frankl, who survived internment in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, wrote in his memoirs that the term was first used by camp's prisoners to refer to the Kapos –prisoners assigned to supervise forced labor by the SS guards− as to them, the term "Muslim" carried a connotation of barbarism.[5] On the other hand, Eugen Kogon, who survived internment in Buchenwald, wrote that the term originated from Nazi staff-members, who ascribed the Muselmann's apparent apathy to their circumstances (likely the result of weakness and acute hunger) to Islamic fatalism."
You are correct. Part of Frankl's survival was due to luck and the other part was due to his pragmatic optimism. Authoritarians don't care if we're naively optimistic or cynically pessimistic, but pragmatic optimism is their kryptonite.
James, you might try looking at laziness (sloth?) as a starting point. Eve was too lazy to ask permission re: eating an apple and Adam was too lazy to check things out when offered said apple. Racism is largely a result of lazy thinking. Despotism, weather in a small group, a town, or a nation, is just a bunch of people trying to take a short cut to real leadership and power. The same can be said about cult members and their leaders. Of course, there is far more involved than this in the genesis of evil, but I believe this is where it starts.
Your description is accurate, but what is the obvious and effective cure for laziness? If you don't know how to cure what you've identified as the cause, then you've identified a symptom. If you've identified the root cause, then what needs to be done is obvious. In other words, at least to me, laziness is just one of many symptoms.
Thank-you, James, for posing this question, and for making me think. There are a couple of concepts that come to mind. The physical notion of inertia, that we tend to keep doing what we do until some force is applied, or Buckminster Fuller's idea of a basic shape making up everything - in his case a tetrahedron, as a way to look at the basic building blocks of everything. What is the 'tetrahedron' of human interactions? What forces act on them? One school of thought is that all thoughts and actions are either an act of love or a cry for it. Is my reply to you a loving act or the admission of the need for love? Being able to identify this in ourselves is key, as is the correct loving response. Responding to someone's cry for love with our own cries builds strife, as does an an act of love that does not address a crier's need - this in fact can be quite damaging.
Am I still describing symptoms? Probably. I doubt I can solve this problem/dilemma on my own. Maybe we can get farther together.
Yes. By my count, about 400 generations (aka 100 centuries), but our species is much older. To the best of our knowledge, our species emerged roughly 12,000 generations ago, and hunter-gatherer bands are invariably egalitarian in lieu of authoritarian. So, proportionately, our species is like a 13-year-old trying to adjust to a new reality less than half a year after childhood's end.
Without getting into specifics, only a few people are smart enough to be brain surgeons and rocket scientists, but literally everyone is capable of being sufficiently wise, and that's all that is necessary.
It's better go slow in the right direction than to go fast in the wrong direction, and it is likewise better to be wise with a low IQ than to be Elon Musk.
Excellent post! BTW, I once was in charge of organizing a workshop focused on mental retardation(70's). There were 4 psychologists at our hospital/school. Getting them to agree on anything was like herding cats!
Bishop Budde is a polemicist of just the right kind in reactionary America which is being unfurled in T 2.0 . Here also is a short bio on her.... Mariann Edgar Budde: A Bishop of Justice Defending LGBTQ+ and Immigrant Rights Kindle Edition
Per the WaPo: “ In a break from years past, Tuesday’s service was planned last summer, so that the readings and speaker list would be more or less the same regardless of who won the presidency. “That was very much by design,” said cathedral spokesperson Kevin Eckstrom. ‘This is a service for the nation, it is a service for all Americans. Not for a particular person.’ “
As the Bishop of Washington, DC, Bishop Budde is the logical person to preach at the National Cathedral in Washington for this traditional Service of Prayer for the Nation held on the day after a presidential inauguration. The Bishop is the head of the Episopal Church in that diocese, and the Cathedral is the "seat" of the Bishop .
Yes, we can all be glad that she is the Bishop there for "a time such as this."
I think she spoke because she is the Bishop of Washington (DC) which is the top person of the Episcopal Church in that area (her Diocese). The National Cathedral, where the event took place, is an Episcopal Cathedral. Many other clerics spoke as well (from different faiths) but she was the host. Proud Episcopalian here.
lol well she tops Presbyterians in the USA - the Washington DC cathedral. but her record sure speaks for itself! I gather the Ts haven't got their claws on presidential prayer breakfasts, but I'm sure they'll work hard. As far as american presbyterians are concerned, i hope they back her and her sentiments
Frank, my sister is an Elder in her tiny Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Oregon (First Presbyterian on Second St. as they say.) It is an incredibly progressive church (all 14 of them).
makes me think of United Church of Canada, and i guess we could now say the more progressive wing of the Anglican Communion, the parent of American Presbyterians i do believe.
I don’t know if the Presbyterian Church, USA has made any statements about the election, but I’m an elder in a local PCUSA Church, and the denomination is pretty progressive. Unfortunately, there are several other iterations of Presbyterian churches that are far more conservative. Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) for example. For now, let’s celebrate a woman who spoke God’s truth, as she sees it, to power, in the most brave and lovely way possible. She is a hero to me and many others.
God works in ways we will never fully understand.........he answers prayers.........there must be many living in fear now and looking to heaven for protection from the demonic satanic forces unleashed Jan 20.
I began reading Heather's letter today with my usual cup of coffee and bowl of blueberries. I started tearing up 🥲 with the first paragraph and was bawling into my blueberries by the time I finished reading. As WJB says, I am living in fear, and I'm not an immigrant or a DEI hire fearing for my life and/job. With the stroke of a pen, Donald Trump, along with the creators of Project 2025, are trying to strip us of our peace, our security, and of course our freedoms that we never thought we'd lose. I know I can't wallow in my fear and anger. I'm so appreciative of the lawyers and others who will fight for these injustices to be righted. I am surrounded by Trump cultists and if I hadn't found Heather, Meidas Touch, Anthony Davis, Tennesee Brando and other truth tellers, I would be in a depression. I feel when watching these posts that I'm not alone in my astonishment, disillusionment, disappointment, and anger at what has come upon us. I have tried talking with Trumpers. I have sent letters and emails to legislators in my district and state. Nobody seems to want to hear the truth about Trump- one of the most arrogant, despicable men who's ever lived. That these people can't see this truth is what's so frustrating to me.
Oh well. I will get a fresh bowl of blueberries, another cup of coffee, and try to keep my chin (chins- I'm 76 ☺️) up.
Thanks to all on this post who see the truth and are trying to share it.
The struggle is real Pam. I had to put myself on a news blackout during daytime hours and focus on my work, at age 70 I still have to work to afford to keep a roof over my head.
Pam, I don't know where you are in the country, but like you, I am a morning reader here on the west coast, even when Professor Richardson posts before I am in bed.
I'm off to get cup number 2, and although I am 10 years behind you, it's not chins but belly fat that I am fighting.
Ally, as you know I am reading here some miles up the road from you. I always start my am with cup of coffee and Heather and the usually great comments here. We live in a diverse neighborhood and also too many Rs. We have a Hispanic family right across the street and i fear for them and anyone else who, I have no doubt, will be turned in by someone. Yesterday a city bus hit a pedestrian here in Salem and the person died. A couple of the comments cautioned about speculation, but too many were comments about how awful things are with the implication that it's those libs. We have stopped watching the national news and go straight to supper and a series. I might also add that living in blue, but not in all places, Oregon, does not make me feel better.
Interesting because a lot of people in Arizona, at least the ones I know, are seniors. I do wonder if they are now going to enjoy more for their prescriptions and the price of eggs is not going to go down. But hey, we don't need to be informed about bird flu or any other possible pandemics by the national agencies who are supposed to do this. Oregon is only blue because of big population centers are. Because of redistricting, both of my state legislators are Rs; the one in the House is a total nut case and the one in the Senate, just an old time greed.
"Nobody seems to want to hear the truth about Trump- one of the most arrogant, despicable men who's ever lived."
It defies explanation that that roughly half the population can be so alarmingly disgusted with him while the other half re-elected him? And we all live in the same country.
The sad part about "god" for me is that phrase you used works well for the insurrectionists who thought apparently that "god" would help THEM. Personally I would wish everyone to stop worrying about "god" so much and start acting like decent human beings.
Ally, I like the idea of a universal energy. It allows me to realize how small a piece I am of the universe and to appreciate and basically wallow in nature. I confess i have a hard time with true hatred and wishing certain individuals dead, but credit death star and his ilk for that.
Wouldn't that be nice. My attitude is to call the ones who use their religion for nefarious purposes, hypocrites and those, who do good as part of their faith, good people. The most grounded person I know whose presence is just calming is a practicing Christian. I don't believe in blanket condemnations.
One of the first betrayals of Jesus that "Christianity" committed was turning his life and teachings into a cult of belief instead of a way of living. The Creeds of the church ignore all Jesus taught.
Seems to me that you condemned the bishop in a way for being a person of faith. I am not telling you to believe otherwise than you do and I do wish nonbelievers would just understand that. People have made all kinds of assumptions of what I believe or not based on the fact that I will not issue a blanket condemnation of people of faith. I am saying that I refuse to lessen people of faith in any way who are good people just because they are people of faith. Yes, you did praise her, but your final sentence mitigated your praise. I think we need to put this to bed now.
Fair enough. I will just say that I may not have been particularly clear or careful in what i said. I do not in any way denigrate Ms. Budde's view point but I feel using a position like hers to amplify and give credence to what she said (as if being religious makes it more important than other viewpoints) always bothers me given my disdain for religion. No one except other atheists ever give atheists credence for their views and ib probably might feel differently if this was more balanced. Hope that helps.
Jon, being austensibly a Nation under "God" the human-factor seems to have been somewhat disenfranchised. But, right now we're busy watching 'human-nature' as the MAGAtts poop in their pants.
The "under god" part came very late in our history, I think in the 1950s during the red scare tactics of McCarthy and Roy Cohn. We are still supposedly a nation that is secular believing in separation of church and state.
I don't think she was "chosen", they just went to her church. She's a bishop, that's pretty high up there, right? (I know zip about organized religion and while I certainly respect what she said, her position discounts it for me.)
Exactly so, Jon. The National Cathedral is an Episcopal church. Her Grace is the Presiding Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, D.C. She wasn’t the one out of place, he was.
Because I discount all religion as a mind numbing concept which turns hopefully intelligent people into sheep.
I am well aware that most people in this country will disagree with me and of course I fully approve of the idea that people are free to believe whatever they want to believe if it doesn't harm anyone else so I am fine with people supporting her beliefs but I don't have to agree (and I should be free to do that too).
I hear that you discount religion, but you have somehow condemned her for being religious. Yes, you are free to believe whatever, but I object to blanket condemnations of people who happen to have faith. I have had this argument many times with people. I salute all good people, those with faith and those without it. And if a person's faith gives a foundation for being a good person, that's OK with me. And just so you know, I am not a person of faith.
I am a "devout" atheist (I'm not sure the word devout is totally appropriate in that context LOL) and I consider people who speak on behalf of religion to be somewhat discounted in my mind. Using religion, particularly a position of authority like a bishop, as a means of amplifying a position, even a good one, feels wrong to me. For me it implies the use of "god" as a justification of that position and as I do not believe in any notion of "god" in any way at all, it definitely diminishes in my mind the importance of the position taken.
That said I do support Ms. Budde's position re: Trump and I hope more people, atheist and religious alike, support her views as well. I just can't go along with making it a "god"- driven position.
Jon, to put a somewhat finer point on it, as a Christian in a position of authority in the church, she has been called by God to help the helpless. She wasn’t posturing, she was, literally, doing her job in that moment. It matters nothing what others think of her, or of what she said.
Just FYI Audible is a subsidiary of Amazon. As is Kindle. We and our representatives have let this monopoly happen. Unregulated capitalism is not good for anyone.
You can purchase the book directly from the publisher.
Audible is owned by Amazon so not a good alternative for me. It’s probably available on Libby or Hoopla, the digital version from our local library system.
Thanks Rhonda - In North Carolina we have a lot to fight for-need to be brave and bold! Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin will not be allowed to bypass a state trial court in his effort to block 65,000 or more votes from counting in his election against Democrat Allison Riggs. The state’s highest court issued an order Wednesday sending the case back to Wake County Superior Court to address his election challenge.
The 5-1 decision prompted four justices to write separate opinions. The North Carolina Supreme Court acted as the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals prepares for oral arguments Monday dealing with the same dispute.
gawd no, please do not put one more dollar into Jeff Bezos’ pocket (one reasonably presumes these days that “I ordered the book” usually means “I clicked on an Amazon link”).
Please visit your local bookstore with the book's info: they are nice people who deserve our support, who can get it to you fast —or they might just have copies sitting on the shelf.
I was able to find the real book, not an ebook, written by Bishop Budde and ordered it. I hope the publisher realizes the thirst others have to speak out as Bishop Budde did and starts publishing it again.
She accomplished a great deal! It's amazing how many people, some of whom have never heard of the Episcopal Church, have seen at least the last few minutes of her Sermon and are either celebrating or outraged!
Bishop Budde has actually written a book called, “ How to Be Brave” . She put that into action from the pulpit on Tuesday. I just ordered the book…
thank you--I want the paperback which is out of stock for now, so I'm on the wait list, but the Kindle version is available. I also posted on my BlueSky account!
I will order Bishop Mariann Budde’s book and the bio FROM my LOCAL bookstore today.
Thank you, Jane, for gently reminding us folks to BUY from LOCAL small businesses. I personally am cementing my attention to not buy ANYTHING, as much as realistically possible, from big corporations and nothing from the many big corporations that donated solely to Trump (i. e. GEICO, Tractor Supply, Smuckers, L L. Bean, and so many more).
Let's support our communities, and even if it seems like a mere gesture, eschew big business that cares not a whit about us.
Kitterman. Consumer boycotts of big is one of our most effective tools,
Please order the book from your local book store or a well known great bookstore in Portland OR, Powell's.
D Kitterman, is there a list somewhere of the corps that supported 45/47 FELON/
There is an app called Goods Unite Us that lists Republican vs Democrat % contributions of many companies. LL Bean and Tractor Supply both give more to Republicans
Thanks DEW4523, there's some real suprises on it.
Disappointing to hear LL Bean supports Rs. Might have to end my purchases from there.
Thank you for posting this. I just downloaded it. :)
Thank you for your comment to support our communities, I am in solidarity with you 100%. Together we stand strong!
I should have, D, found a local bookstore, but we don't have one in Calvert Co., MD. I could have looked for a local bookstore near me but didn't think of that before ordering from Penguin Random House. Darn!
Powell's has a great online ordering site; they were one of the first independent bookstores to go online. They also shelve used with new, so you can sometimes get a bargain!
Jane -- Not supporting those who directly put small bookstore owners out of business. Thank you!
The Bishop is brave because she is right. Trump only has his rattling tongue which only spouts lies. The Bishop has God on her side.
Eileen, as an atheist/agnostic, I get troubled whenever I hear the expression "god is on their side". It's been used to justify inhumanity for centuries. Trump himself said in his 2nd inaugural rant that he was saved from death by god after his ear was nicked.
I watched the good bishop's homily on YouTube, and found it powerful.
If there is a god, I hope that the felon is soon raptured or otherwise taken from us.
Doug, she has good on her side. I would love to see many people raptured including that abusive drunk candidate for Defense who is now praying with his wife. Vomit. As for death star, I very seldom wish to see someone depart this earth, but there are a few exceptions.
Michele, I fully agree with all of this.
"Taken from us"? No.., I hope he gets replaced. I like to "hope" he and his SICK-O-FANtzzzz have their (R)noses rubbed in his crap, while the collateral-damage is shoved up their elephant butts. That clown needs to be held accountable. He belongs in Leavenworth.., Lock him up!
MadRussian, as happy as that would make me and millions of others, it ain’t gonna happen.
Which side God supports has been a question for quite a while:
https://youtu.be/5y2FuDY6Q4M?si=q6j3jlmFMKs2eab2
Let's just not discuss it here, please.
Apparently God is also deeply invested in the success of many Texas high school football programs.
Thanks Dave. I was never a big Dylan fan but always loved his lyrics. I hadn't heard that song in quite a while, but listening to it again I was in awe at his guitar strumming — frenetic at times, slow at others. As one who has played guitar since 1968-ish (and who should be much better than I am) it stuck out as much as his lyrics did.
True grit.., she's got it! I'll bet "The Bishop" doesn't need to own a FanJet Falcon and fly up to 38,000 feet to speak directly to God, either. Religious hypocracy has been a player and payer bolstering this totally bull-s--t administration and MAGA-bowel-movement. More importantly, she spoke directly to The Hypocrit in Charge, even tho it went in one ear and out the other.
Trump has the U.S. Army, currently deployed along the border with Mexico, on his. Thoughts and prayers are probably not going to win this one.
Audible and kindle are both subsidiaries of Amazon. The book is published by Avery a division of Penguin and you can buy directly from them.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705987/how-we-learn-to-be-brave-by-mariann-edgar-budde/
A lot of the rest of the world uses Kobo e-readers.
Nice to have a reader that doesn't involve Amazon
Thank you Eve--I just ordered from them. I live in a rural area with no local bookstore or I would do that!
It’s available on audiobooks.
If so, you may be able to find it on the app Libro. I recently downloaded an audiobook by George Lakoff through the app. They use local bookstores if you want physical books.
The last time something like this happened on this scale, someone wrote a book. Although Viktor Frankl’s entire family was murdered in the holocaust, he managed to survive by setting himself the task of understanding why otherwise ordinary people supported leaders who acted callously, inhumanly, and without any limitations of conscience. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, originally published in 1946, he came very close. His insights made him one of the giants of the first century of the new field of psychology, and a target for criticism within his own community of holocaust survivors for daring to try to understand evil.
From a hindsight perspective, Frankl has probably gotten closer than anyone, but he was at a disadvantage. It was not until the 1980s that Benjamin Libet would conduct the most important experiment in the short history of the field of psychology, and since then, the collective that is the field of psychology has failed to put the pieces together. As a result, in our war against evil, we’ve been treating the symptoms when we should be curing the disease. Curing the disease means understanding its root cause.
To read Frankl’s book, and I’m sure the same is true of Bishop Budde’s book, is to gain insights into the importance of the task at hand and the enemy we face, but they are both operating at the level of symptoms in lieu of cause. We still have a small window of opportunity to fix this. We need a collective understanding of the root cause. If someone out there knows what that is, please let us know. But if you're buying and reading Bishop Budde’s book, I'm suggesting you also do something less expensive and time consuming.
I’m not charging a subscription fee for my newsletter. I am publishing a weekly series of short (< 1,200 word) essays explaining the root cause of the authoritarian disease. Yesterday’s edition describes Libet’s experiment, which in turn describes what might appear to be the limit of our scientific knowledge of how the human mind works.
If all you want to do is complain, then pardon the interruption. If you think I’m delusional, and you’re smart enough to pass high school biology, then please subscribe, identify the flaw in my simple logic, and let me know. I’m all ears. Otherwise, if you want to cure the authoritarian disease, then please subscribe and let’s talk.
Here’s a link to yesterday’s newsletter: https://open.substack.com/pub/jamesrcarey/p/the-libet-experiment-e02?r=2nayrh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=post%20viewer
James R. Carey -- Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning", has been on my bookshelves since the 1970s. Time to read it again! (For maybe the 4th or 5th time.)
I was going to say the same thing. I'm pretty certain I read the book for the first time when I was in high school.
Having been a toddler in Germany when my dad was stationed there from 47 to 1950 (during the Nuremberg Trials and Berlin Airlift). I grew up with some memories and stories from my mother, in particular, about visiting Dachau. Some of the history passed on was about Viktor Frankl but it was years after she passed that I read the book and found out more of his history, enough for me to consider him the suicide counselor in Nazi death camps, keeping people from giving up despite the horrendous situations they were in.
I mentioned it to a criminal psychologist I knew, who was known for using yoga to help inmates turn their attention to knowing themselves better and substantially reducing recidivism. He seems to have been able to help many with very long prison sentences, also. When I mentioned Frankl, he kind of melted, and told me how much he was in awe of him. He had one very depressed inmate serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Well into the session that was not going well, the prisoner was distraught and was allowed to call Viktor Frankl collect. Frankl accepted the charges and talked to the prisoner (and a bit to the psychologist) for over two hours. It became apparent to the psychologist that Frankl did that often.
Also check Edith Egar, another Holocaust survivor who became a therapist and author and close ally of Victor Frankl.
This is a superb post James. Your few likes here reflects our sometimes pause at lengthy ones. Dr Frankl’s family was shot while he was forced to watch. I like Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman too for a look at hot trumpet gained such enormous appeal. All here might check your blue light exposure if you’re losing sleep. Strong hearts, brave hearts, we step in to the fires.
I bought my husband a book for Christmas about Germany from after the war to I think, 2022. I may be wrong about the date. It is an excellent book about guilt and shame and how some Germans have handled their past. I will also in a vote for the works of Timothy Snyder who also does online commentary.
I'll take a look and add that Gabor Mate's work, however you investigate it (books, YouTube videos, webinars) adds plenty to the understanding.
Joan, thank you for bringing Gabor Mate to my attention. He does add plenty to our understanding. However, as I assumed, he is doing what everyone in the field of psychology does. They try something they hope will work. If it works, then they keep doing it and iterate. If something doesn't work, they (hopefully) stop doing it. What they don't do is understand the real root cause because they misunderstand the most important experiment is the history of the field of psychology. Or I'm overlooking something simple that no one is bothering to bring to my attention.
James, your approach is far too academic for my abilities. I prefer to look at history, social and political history of why do people do what they do. Why does a person take a selfie stand g at a cliff and fall off?
My understanding is that birth sides of a political struggle tango and both sides become damaged. If the society is well off, more then likely it will moderate itself. Germany chose a dictator on account of the punishment meted to the nation from the WWI Versailles Agreements. In our nation we have suffered under several inferior leaderships that has cost the US dearly. We invaded not one but two nations under W Bush. His daddy invaded another in the Golf War. Our foreign policies have destabilized the Middle East and now it has destabilized Europe. The Reagan period ushered in less regulation and opened the door to savage quest for riches by the wealthy.
The democrats have pushed so far to the left we don’t even realize how far we have gone. The Democratic Party was once the party of the working class and largely white working class but we have abandoned them and we don’t even realize it. So they turned to the party that does not have their interests at all. Zero.
Trump is not conservative or liberal. He has no ethics. He will sell his dead mother for peanuts if she was worth such peanuts. Money is his only quest.
In my opinion, our side (I do identify as liberal/conservative) must change our obtuse ways or we will be condemned to continue making the same mistakes. And frankly, I don’t think we will make the necessary changes to return to significant majorities to rule for the foreseeable future. I have been specific with positions needed to be made and I have been thoroughly castigated for them which leads me to believe that we are unable to understand what is taking place and to make accommodations in order to bring us back to a degree of sanity. I don’t see this happening anytime soon. It’s human nature to continue making the same missteps.
Bill, if it helps for me to keep it simple, here you go: Love yourself despite your faults, and love your neighbor in the same way. That is the true nature of being human. We are misguided when and because we've convinced ourselves our true human nature doesn't work. That's my simple conclusion. That is not how the conclusion was drawn, which is a bit more complicated.
"This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.
I lingered but a moment at the mirror: the second and conclusive experiment had yet to be attempted; it yet remained to be seen if I had lost my identity beyond redemption and must flee before daylight from a house that was no longer mine; and hurrying back to my cabinet, I once more prepared and drank the cup, once more suffered the pangs of dissolution, and came to myself once more with the character, the stature, and the face of Henry Jekyll.
That night I had come to the fatal cross-roads. Had I approached my discovery in a more noble spirit, had I risked the experiment while under the empire of generous or pious aspirations, all must have been otherwise, and from these agonies of death and birth, I had come forth an angel instead of a fiend. The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine; it but shook the doors of the prison-house of my disposition;"-- Robert Louis Stevenson
I think "misguided" is the key word here.
I fear that you are correct in your assessment. However, much of Congress May get the picture and persuade a move to invoke 25. At least we can push for that. Getting out of the climate accords is suicidal!
But do you understand what Title 25 is? The cabinet takes over. Do you know who is going into the cabinet? Think about it
A scary thought to be in a place where the Government will be worse than Trump if he is not at the head. Even so, I have to agree!
One never knows for sure in a complicated system where even a small change is going to lead. I have been "flabbergasted" for decade each time the Neo-"GOP" has crossed a line of indecency that they managed to evade persisting consequences time after time (surely in part because of the corrupting power of money). Maybe THIS time???
King Trump and Herr Musk are so juvenile that they are squandering their "honeymoon" period just pissing people off; and provoking resistance from many quarters, instead of relative passivity. A smoother criminal would scare me even more.
“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions." -- Lincoln
You got that right, brother.
I think it is likely that inherently the hardest thing for human beings to do is to fully understand the nature of our own awareness; understating the nature and limitations of our own understanding observed and processed of necessity though the limitations our own understanding. that said, I think there is some very useful work out there, Frankl's included. Also much that is questionable. I claim no special expertise, but think we need to pay a lot more attention to our own systems of values, at our own inherent narcissism and how it can both serve and become toxic and the necessity for the preservation of our species of conscience and compassion.
At a particularly low point in my life, I decided to occupy my mind with an assignment, to keep my mind from going to even darker places. The assignment was to compose a listing of 15 statements describing my thoughts about Life – my truths, if you will. Each statement could contain no more and no less than 15 words. It took weeks to finish the assignment, which I titled "Fifteen Times Fifteen."
Your comment reminded me of one of those statements, found in the very center of the piece I wrote.
"In people, in things or in ideas, the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness."
I am not sure I fully agree, but I think that there is truth in that. Every choice brings limitations and vulnerabilities, though some choices seem more fruitful than others. I certainly think the choice of Neo-Republicans to win by lies and treachery is both their super-power and their greatest vulnerability. I hope to see it send them sprawling yet, without, I hope, too much "collateral damage". What we do next will matter.
Joan, I'm sure it does. I'll check it out. However, my argument is that adding "plenty to the understanding" built on an unstable foundation is not what we need in this moment. What we need in this moment is the stable foundation. See my first (351 word) newsletter:
Link: https://jamesrcarey.substack.com/p/a-stable-foundation-e01?r=2nayrh
I'm not arguing; I'm investigating, and I appreciate science while knowing that the instruments for monitoring and quantifying (and legitimizing) some kinds of brain functions are lagging behind this time of stimulated neural functioning. Seeing the brain as parts in slow motion is unlike seeing the potential of an intuitive artist in the midst of creating (one example). The computing power of monitoring brain functioning isn't up to speed, even while it's surging ahead. I spent several hours at Harvard's Lichtman Lab years ago, where I began comprehending glia while watching Google-funded equipment try to capture the micro-dynamics of our chemical and electrical systems. I now have a better grasp of what I do not know.
As it applies to our social behavior, nothing beats self-reflection, but wounds skew our abilities to focus. I recommended Gabor Mate because he's done so much work with humans in pain, in the grips of addiction, ruled by trauma -- I'm not idolizing, I'm saluting his ability to be present as a compassionate witness which is a needed skill for complementing more mechanistic models for understanding.
Bringing psychedelics into the conversation makes sense because many billionaires in tech (some of whom are now holding political power up front and behind the scenes in our country) have admitted to using them; they shift consciousness and I'm guessing, often bypass polarized concepts like left/right brain and conscious/unconscious functioning.
James, I have not yet read your linked post, but I will, and expect that I will become a subscriber.
I have read Mary L. Trump's book, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," and it filled gaps in my prior knowledge about Donald and his family, gained from years of reading NYC-based publications. (I am an ex-pat New Yorker interned in a hillbilly state, presumably as punishment for all the bad things I've done in my life.)
Donald was born with severe mental defects into a dysfunctional family headed by a sociopathic father, himself the product of a dysfunctional family headed by a pimp. Donald's mother was a self-absorbed hypochondriac who spent more time in the hospital than at home. Neither Fred nor Mary Anne had even a vestige of a moral compass. Donald's early boyhood was the equivalent of a dog being chained to a tree in the backyard. His mental disabilities metastasized into psychological and emotional disabilities.
In summary, Donald was so unloved that he didn't even have a concept of what love is. His psychosis was exacerbated by and glossed-over by Fred's enormous wealth, which also isolated Donald from extra-familial relationships that might expose him to genuine love.
Donald's entire life has been dominated by his search for the love that was denied him from birth. But he has no idea what it is. With no models to inform him, he mistakes wealth, fandom and obeisance for love. Even when he acquires these things, they still leave him empty and craving something more. This, I believe, is what creates an autocrat.
What causes multitudes to fall under an autocrat's spell is beyond my understanding or imagination.
"This, I believe, is what creates an autocrat. What causes multitudes to fall under an autocrat's spell is beyond my understanding or imagination." It may be beyond your current understanding and imagination, but it is certainly not beyond your capacity. Your comment tells me you already understand more complicated things. IMHO, the only question you need to ask yourself is whether you want—or would prefer not—to know.
I am sure Frankl's strength of mind helped him survive. But survival in the camps depended greatly on chance, luck, and an extra few calories of food.
That said, those so brutalized and traumatized that they became fatalistic were termed 'Muselmanner.' And had an higher incidence of death.
"Viktor Frankl, who survived internment in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, wrote in his memoirs that the term was first used by camp's prisoners to refer to the Kapos –prisoners assigned to supervise forced labor by the SS guards− as to them, the term "Muslim" carried a connotation of barbarism.[5] On the other hand, Eugen Kogon, who survived internment in Buchenwald, wrote that the term originated from Nazi staff-members, who ascribed the Muselmann's apparent apathy to their circumstances (likely the result of weakness and acute hunger) to Islamic fatalism."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muselmann
You are correct. Part of Frankl's survival was due to luck and the other part was due to his pragmatic optimism. Authoritarians don't care if we're naively optimistic or cynically pessimistic, but pragmatic optimism is their kryptonite.
James, you might try looking at laziness (sloth?) as a starting point. Eve was too lazy to ask permission re: eating an apple and Adam was too lazy to check things out when offered said apple. Racism is largely a result of lazy thinking. Despotism, weather in a small group, a town, or a nation, is just a bunch of people trying to take a short cut to real leadership and power. The same can be said about cult members and their leaders. Of course, there is far more involved than this in the genesis of evil, but I believe this is where it starts.
Your description is accurate, but what is the obvious and effective cure for laziness? If you don't know how to cure what you've identified as the cause, then you've identified a symptom. If you've identified the root cause, then what needs to be done is obvious. In other words, at least to me, laziness is just one of many symptoms.
Thank-you, James, for posing this question, and for making me think. There are a couple of concepts that come to mind. The physical notion of inertia, that we tend to keep doing what we do until some force is applied, or Buckminster Fuller's idea of a basic shape making up everything - in his case a tetrahedron, as a way to look at the basic building blocks of everything. What is the 'tetrahedron' of human interactions? What forces act on them? One school of thought is that all thoughts and actions are either an act of love or a cry for it. Is my reply to you a loving act or the admission of the need for love? Being able to identify this in ourselves is key, as is the correct loving response. Responding to someone's cry for love with our own cries builds strife, as does an an act of love that does not address a crier's need - this in fact can be quite damaging.
Am I still describing symptoms? Probably. I doubt I can solve this problem/dilemma on my own. Maybe we can get farther together.
I am a part-time professor at a university in Montreal. This book is on my reading list. I will add Bishop Budde's "How to Be Brave"...to it today...
Noted, James, good for you. You likely well know that this sort of thing has a very long history in the annals of humankind.
Yes. By my count, about 400 generations (aka 100 centuries), but our species is much older. To the best of our knowledge, our species emerged roughly 12,000 generations ago, and hunter-gatherer bands are invariably egalitarian in lieu of authoritarian. So, proportionately, our species is like a 13-year-old trying to adjust to a new reality less than half a year after childhood's end.
More importantly? is human precociousness across the board. More likely an evolutionary quantum leap than just being a teenager.
Without getting into specifics, only a few people are smart enough to be brain surgeons and rocket scientists, but literally everyone is capable of being sufficiently wise, and that's all that is necessary.
It's better go slow in the right direction than to go fast in the wrong direction, and it is likewise better to be wise with a low IQ than to be Elon Musk.
Excellent post! BTW, I once was in charge of organizing a workshop focused on mental retardation(70's). There were 4 psychologists at our hospital/school. Getting them to agree on anything was like herding cats!
Interesting concepts here, James. Thank you. I look forward to learning more.
thank you, will check out your writing...
The book, “How to Learn to Be Brave,” is also available on Audible. Bishop Budde is the reader.
Bishop Budde is a polemicist of just the right kind in reactionary America which is being unfurled in T 2.0 . Here also is a short bio on her.... Mariann Edgar Budde: A Bishop of Justice Defending LGBTQ+ and Immigrant Rights Kindle Edition
I wonder how she was chosen to speak? Someone didn't do their research? That is kind of perfect!
Per the WaPo: “ In a break from years past, Tuesday’s service was planned last summer, so that the readings and speaker list would be more or less the same regardless of who won the presidency. “That was very much by design,” said cathedral spokesperson Kevin Eckstrom. ‘This is a service for the nation, it is a service for all Americans. Not for a particular person.’ “
As the Bishop of Washington, DC, Bishop Budde is the logical person to preach at the National Cathedral in Washington for this traditional Service of Prayer for the Nation held on the day after a presidential inauguration. The Bishop is the head of the Episopal Church in that diocese, and the Cathedral is the "seat" of the Bishop .
Yes, we can all be glad that she is the Bishop there for "a time such as this."
I think she spoke because she is the Bishop of Washington (DC) which is the top person of the Episcopal Church in that area (her Diocese). The National Cathedral, where the event took place, is an Episcopal Cathedral. Many other clerics spoke as well (from different faiths) but she was the host. Proud Episcopalian here.
lol well she tops Presbyterians in the USA - the Washington DC cathedral. but her record sure speaks for itself! I gather the Ts haven't got their claws on presidential prayer breakfasts, but I'm sure they'll work hard. As far as american presbyterians are concerned, i hope they back her and her sentiments
Frank, my sister is an Elder in her tiny Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Oregon (First Presbyterian on Second St. as they say.) It is an incredibly progressive church (all 14 of them).
makes me think of United Church of Canada, and i guess we could now say the more progressive wing of the Anglican Communion, the parent of American Presbyterians i do believe.
I don’t know if the Presbyterian Church, USA has made any statements about the election, but I’m an elder in a local PCUSA Church, and the denomination is pretty progressive. Unfortunately, there are several other iterations of Presbyterian churches that are far more conservative. Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) for example. For now, let’s celebrate a woman who spoke God’s truth, as she sees it, to power, in the most brave and lovely way possible. She is a hero to me and many others.
She is an Episcopal bishop.
God works in ways we will never fully understand.........he answers prayers.........there must be many living in fear now and looking to heaven for protection from the demonic satanic forces unleashed Jan 20.
I began reading Heather's letter today with my usual cup of coffee and bowl of blueberries. I started tearing up 🥲 with the first paragraph and was bawling into my blueberries by the time I finished reading. As WJB says, I am living in fear, and I'm not an immigrant or a DEI hire fearing for my life and/job. With the stroke of a pen, Donald Trump, along with the creators of Project 2025, are trying to strip us of our peace, our security, and of course our freedoms that we never thought we'd lose. I know I can't wallow in my fear and anger. I'm so appreciative of the lawyers and others who will fight for these injustices to be righted. I am surrounded by Trump cultists and if I hadn't found Heather, Meidas Touch, Anthony Davis, Tennesee Brando and other truth tellers, I would be in a depression. I feel when watching these posts that I'm not alone in my astonishment, disillusionment, disappointment, and anger at what has come upon us. I have tried talking with Trumpers. I have sent letters and emails to legislators in my district and state. Nobody seems to want to hear the truth about Trump- one of the most arrogant, despicable men who's ever lived. That these people can't see this truth is what's so frustrating to me.
Oh well. I will get a fresh bowl of blueberries, another cup of coffee, and try to keep my chin (chins- I'm 76 ☺️) up.
Thanks to all on this post who see the truth and are trying to share it.
The struggle is real Pam. I had to put myself on a news blackout during daytime hours and focus on my work, at age 70 I still have to work to afford to keep a roof over my head.
Pam, I don't know where you are in the country, but like you, I am a morning reader here on the west coast, even when Professor Richardson posts before I am in bed.
I'm off to get cup number 2, and although I am 10 years behind you, it's not chins but belly fat that I am fighting.
Ally, as you know I am reading here some miles up the road from you. I always start my am with cup of coffee and Heather and the usually great comments here. We live in a diverse neighborhood and also too many Rs. We have a Hispanic family right across the street and i fear for them and anyone else who, I have no doubt, will be turned in by someone. Yesterday a city bus hit a pedestrian here in Salem and the person died. A couple of the comments cautioned about speculation, but too many were comments about how awful things are with the implication that it's those libs. We have stopped watching the national news and go straight to supper and a series. I might also add that living in blue, but not in all places, Oregon, does not make me feel better.
Oh, being a resident of Oregon makes me feel better!
I spend half the year living in Arizona. Near the little blue dot of Tucson, and with a new D Governor, it's still a red state.
Interesting because a lot of people in Arizona, at least the ones I know, are seniors. I do wonder if they are now going to enjoy more for their prescriptions and the price of eggs is not going to go down. But hey, we don't need to be informed about bird flu or any other possible pandemics by the national agencies who are supposed to do this. Oregon is only blue because of big population centers are. Because of redistricting, both of my state legislators are Rs; the one in the House is a total nut case and the one in the Senate, just an old time greed.
Agreed.
🤣
I'm with you, Pam. Every day I have to remind myself that there are many of us who feel the same way.
"Nobody seems to want to hear the truth about Trump- one of the most arrogant, despicable men who's ever lived."
It defies explanation that that roughly half the population can be so alarmingly disgusted with him while the other half re-elected him? And we all live in the same country.
Majority does not know best.
The best advice i ever heard on prayers is "God helps them who helps themselves"
The sad part about "god" for me is that phrase you used works well for the insurrectionists who thought apparently that "god" would help THEM. Personally I would wish everyone to stop worrying about "god" so much and start acting like decent human beings.
Jon, I have always said that I do not need an imaginary sky pilot to tell me right from wrong, or how to behave myself.
Bishop Budde is one of the good ones, as is John Pavlovitz, as was MLK, Jr.
Ally, I like the idea of a universal energy. It allows me to realize how small a piece I am of the universe and to appreciate and basically wallow in nature. I confess i have a hard time with true hatred and wishing certain individuals dead, but credit death star and his ilk for that.
Wouldn't that be nice. My attitude is to call the ones who use their religion for nefarious purposes, hypocrites and those, who do good as part of their faith, good people. The most grounded person I know whose presence is just calming is a practicing Christian. I don't believe in blanket condemnations.
I generally don't condemn anyone for beliefs, just actions. Believe what you want let me believe what I want.
One of the first betrayals of Jesus that "Christianity" committed was turning his life and teachings into a cult of belief instead of a way of living. The Creeds of the church ignore all Jesus taught.
I will also add that i am very annoyed that people seem to think the universal energy cares about the score in a ballgame.
Seems to me that you condemned the bishop in a way for being a person of faith. I am not telling you to believe otherwise than you do and I do wish nonbelievers would just understand that. People have made all kinds of assumptions of what I believe or not based on the fact that I will not issue a blanket condemnation of people of faith. I am saying that I refuse to lessen people of faith in any way who are good people just because they are people of faith. Yes, you did praise her, but your final sentence mitigated your praise. I think we need to put this to bed now.
Fair enough. I will just say that I may not have been particularly clear or careful in what i said. I do not in any way denigrate Ms. Budde's view point but I feel using a position like hers to amplify and give credence to what she said (as if being religious makes it more important than other viewpoints) always bothers me given my disdain for religion. No one except other atheists ever give atheists credence for their views and ib probably might feel differently if this was more balanced. Hope that helps.
Thank you for that comment!
agreed
Jon, being austensibly a Nation under "God" the human-factor seems to have been somewhat disenfranchised. But, right now we're busy watching 'human-nature' as the MAGAtts poop in their pants.
The "under god" part came very late in our history, I think in the 1950s during the red scare tactics of McCarthy and Roy Cohn. We are still supposedly a nation that is secular believing in separation of church and state.
My very Christian mother said that all the time.
I don't think she was "chosen", they just went to her church. She's a bishop, that's pretty high up there, right? (I know zip about organized religion and while I certainly respect what she said, her position discounts it for me.)
Exactly so, Jon. The National Cathedral is an Episcopal church. Her Grace is the Presiding Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, D.C. She wasn’t the one out of place, he was.
Isn't he always?
You betcha!
Jon, why discount her position. It allowed her a forum for speaking truth to power.
Because I discount all religion as a mind numbing concept which turns hopefully intelligent people into sheep.
I am well aware that most people in this country will disagree with me and of course I fully approve of the idea that people are free to believe whatever they want to believe if it doesn't harm anyone else so I am fine with people supporting her beliefs but I don't have to agree (and I should be free to do that too).
I hear that you discount religion, but you have somehow condemned her for being religious. Yes, you are free to believe whatever, but I object to blanket condemnations of people who happen to have faith. I have had this argument many times with people. I salute all good people, those with faith and those without it. And if a person's faith gives a foundation for being a good person, that's OK with me. And just so you know, I am not a person of faith.
Great point!
Jon, why does her position discount what she said for you?
I am a "devout" atheist (I'm not sure the word devout is totally appropriate in that context LOL) and I consider people who speak on behalf of religion to be somewhat discounted in my mind. Using religion, particularly a position of authority like a bishop, as a means of amplifying a position, even a good one, feels wrong to me. For me it implies the use of "god" as a justification of that position and as I do not believe in any notion of "god" in any way at all, it definitely diminishes in my mind the importance of the position taken.
That said I do support Ms. Budde's position re: Trump and I hope more people, atheist and religious alike, support her views as well. I just can't go along with making it a "god"- driven position.
Jon, to put a somewhat finer point on it, as a Christian in a position of authority in the church, she has been called by God to help the helpless. She wasn’t posturing, she was, literally, doing her job in that moment. It matters nothing what others think of her, or of what she said.
Totally agree. And I have no problem with it either. She said the right things re: the Trump cabal, and I support anyone who holds those views.
I checked my library and reserved the audio version. “It will be available for checkout in less than 5 YEARS”!😆
Just FYI Audible is a subsidiary of Amazon. As is Kindle. We and our representatives have let this monopoly happen. Unregulated capitalism is not good for anyone.
You can purchase the book directly from the publisher.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705987/how-we-learn-to-be-brave-by-mariann-edgar-budde/
Thanks, just bought it!
Audible is owned by Amazon so not a good alternative for me. It’s probably available on Libby or Hoopla, the digital version from our local library system.
I didn’t find it on Libby through the San Diego county library.
I’ve ordered her book too!
Thanks Rhonda - In North Carolina we have a lot to fight for-need to be brave and bold! Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin will not be allowed to bypass a state trial court in his effort to block 65,000 or more votes from counting in his election against Democrat Allison Riggs. The state’s highest court issued an order Wednesday sending the case back to Wake County Superior Court to address his election challenge.
The 5-1 decision prompted four justices to write separate opinions. The North Carolina Supreme Court acted as the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals prepares for oral arguments Monday dealing with the same dispute.
“I just ordered the book…”
gawd no, please do not put one more dollar into Jeff Bezos’ pocket (one reasonably presumes these days that “I ordered the book” usually means “I clicked on an Amazon link”).
Please visit your local bookstore with the book's info: they are nice people who deserve our support, who can get it to you fast —or they might just have copies sitting on the shelf.
It’s actually called “Learn How to Be Brave”…She most certainly learned well!!!
I was able to find the real book, not an ebook, written by Bishop Budde and ordered it. I hope the publisher realizes the thirst others have to speak out as Bishop Budde did and starts publishing it again.
I’ll do so as well. She’s also featured on a podcast on Faithful America, which is where I first heard her speak in 2023.
I just bought the hardcover from Penguin Random House for $28, no shipping cost.
She accomplished absolutely nothing neither did all the pearl clutching of the religious communities.
She accomplished a great deal! It's amazing how many people, some of whom have never heard of the Episcopal Church, have seen at least the last few minutes of her Sermon and are either celebrating or outraged!