The Inaugural Sermon; Flipping the Script.

What if VP Harris had won?

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, DC, certainly had every right to say what she did to President Trump when she spoke in a prayer service at the National Cathedral on January 21st. The is the United States and clergy have that freedom. What she said was this:

"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."

She later said:

“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."

There is certainly a Biblical precedent to speak words of caution and compassion to those in power. A Christian clergy should call for mercy and love.

To speak these words to a president is in the long tradition of clergy having prophetic voices towards emperors, kings, prime ministers all those in positions of influence down the ages. Admittedly, those throughout history who did so were often met with persecution instead of popular acclaim. John the Baptist lost his head for opposing the marriage of Herod. Martin Luther King Jr. gives ample example of the price in modern times. There are countless others.

The praise, the awe, the delight in the message of the Right Rev. Budde have certainly made her a star for what they see as her courageous stand against the president..

And yet, as I thought about it I wondered, what if the script were flipped?

What if VP Harris had become President Harris?

What if the priest or pastor giving that message had been of a slightly different political or ideological tendency?

What if it had gone something like this:

“President Harris, as you occupy the highest seat in the land; some might say the world, I call on you to show mercy.

Show mercy to the millions of unborn children who will be killed during your term as president. Show mercy to the millions of mothers who are afraid to have children due to their social or financial situations.

Show mercy to the untold numbers of men, women and children trafficked and often sold into sexual slavery across a wild and unregulated border.

Show mercy to those remaining in the countries immigrants leave; the old, the poor and the weak who will be left poor and vulnerable.

Show mercy to the victims of drug addiction made worse by that border.

Show mercy to the victims of violent crime in a country where judges have stopped enforcing the law and officers of that law are fearful to enforce it.

Show mercy to the young people subject to unproven and unscientific procedures and drugs employed to attempt to change their gender; procedures and drugs that wreck their bodies and lives and often leave them infertile for life.”

How would the mainstream media have viewed that message? With less enthusiasm, I suspect.

In my opinion, a proper message to a president might be:

Mr. (or Ms.) President, I stand before you to remind you that we believe that God installs our leaders for a season and for his own reasons. So it is incumbent on you to humble yourself before him. It is your duty to defend freedom, mercy, justice, truth, safety, morality and prosperity wherever you can. It is your duty to bring the rule of law and punish evil.

And it is essential that you remember that one day, like all of us, you will stand before the righteous God who gave you this gift and there give account for your words and actions. That should be a terrifying reminder of your duty to all.

We should all remember that we tend to evaluate every political figure and their words and actions through our own filters.

We would be wise to remember that there’s always another side.