Faithful Bishop Censures Woke Bishopess Who Abused Pulpit to Attack Trump
Nigerian-born Anglican prelate says he would discipline Budde for pulpit abuse and “cruelty and anarchy”
Bishop Felix Orji
The Right Reverend Dr. Felix Clarence Orji, OSB, is one of the most highly respected bishops in the U.S. Born in Nigeria, Orji served as priest with his mentor and theology professor, Dr J. I. Packer, at St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church in Vancouver British Columbia, and is author of the book Moral Leadership in the Church: A Normative Approach. Orji has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and multiple degrees in English, education, and theology.
Orji serves as the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of All Nations in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), which is part of the global Anglican Communion. He is also the Bishop Protector of the Order of St. Benedict in the diocese. Orji and his wife Lilian have four children.
The Stream’s Jules Gomes interviewed Bishop Orji on the outrage sparked by Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, after she attacked President Donald Trump during the inaugural prayer service from the pulpit of the Washington National Cathedral on January 21.
Jules Gomes: The cardinal rule of preaching is to revere the pulpit and never to use it for a political agenda — or even worse, use it to attack a member of the congregation. The Reverend Lorenzo Sewell, who prayed at President Trump’s inauguration, called it “theological malpractice.” As a bishop who oversees preachers, do you think Bishop Budde violated this rule?
Bishop Orji: Yes, Bishop Budde misused the pulpit for her personal and social justice agenda rather than using it for preaching the Gospel and teaching the Word of God. The Church is the pillar of Truth in the sense that we are called to live and proclaim Christ and His Truth to the world.
It is tragic and the height of irresponsibility when bishops and priests of the Church abandon and sabotage such an important divine responsibility. And it’s worse when a bishop publicly uses the pulpit to manipulate and mislead the president of the country and the public into encouraging immorality and gender reconstruction in confused teenagers or adults by abusing and misusing the biblical categories of mercy and compassion.
JG: How serious do you think her breach of pulpit ethics is, and what would you do to discipline her if she was under your episcopal authority?
BO: In our diocese, I would issue her a warning. If she repeated the practice, then her license to minister would be suspended or revoked.
JG: Rabbi Michael Barclay, the Orthodox rabbi who prayed at President Trump’s inauguration, has called this “a travesty on every single level.” Barclay says it was “an event that was more of a left-wing progressive political rally then a day concerned with faith, prayer, or God.” Do you agree?
BO: I’ve never bothered watching any of those services precisely for that reason. Washington Cathedral is simply a religious hotbed for the practice of liberal interfaith liturgy and politically progressive gobbledygook masquerading as Christian worship.
JG: How have woke Episcopalians like Budde and Catholics like Pope Francis hijacked the biblical vocabulary of “mercy”? What would genuine mercy entail?
BO: Recently, Bishop Budde pleaded with President Donald Trump to show mercy and compassion towards LGBTQ and transgendered people, among others. It is indeed a commendable thing to be merciful and compassionate.
But what does it mean to show mercy and compassion? According to the teaching of Christ, the first and foremost way we show mercy and compassion to people, including LGBTQ, illegal immigrants, racists, and all citizens, is to call them to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
The second way is to genuinely care about people in their dire predicaments and assist in meeting their material and social needs. Mutilating the body of a child or adult in the name of gender transitioning or encouraging people in their sin is not compassion at all. It is utter wickedness. Compassion never, ever means — or should ever mean — condoning a person’s sinfulness, self-mutilation, and lawlessness. That is not mercy, but cruelty and anarchy in the first degree.
JG: The Stream has reported how leftwing U.S. Catholic bishops make billions of dollars from the government by supporting human trafficking. Like Budde, they are now using the Bible to support illegal immigration and open borders. As an immigrant of Nigerian origin, could you explain what the Bible actually says about migration?
BO: There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to move to another country. But it is unethical and biblically indefensible to disregard or break the laws of a country when one wants to immigrate into that country. Religious leaders who aid and defend illegal immigration are violating Christian ethics, undermining the integrity of the Christian faith, and promoting lawlessness and political anarchy. That is unbecoming of both the Church and her leaders.
JG: Even though Episcopalians comprise 1.2% of Americans, the National Cathedral continues to be used for national services and represent Christianity during services of national significance. Do you think it is time President Trump strips the Cathedral of its “national” label?
BO: I do, because it neither represents the majority of Christians in America nor does it espouse Christian beliefs. So it’s oxymoronic to call it the “national cathedral.” One is tempted to ask: “National Cathedral of what?” Progressive left-wing Christianity is not Christianity at all. It is unbelief and rebellion dressed up in religious garb! We don’t need that, and it’s not good for America!
JG: Bishop Budde has refused to apologize to President Trump. How should Christians respond to her tirade against the president?
BO: Christians ought to correct her and make it clear that she doesn’t represent us. Cardinal Robert Sarah got it right when he said, “We are facing a real cacophony from bishops and priests. Everyone wants to impose their personal opinion as a truth. But there is only one Truth: Christ and His teaching.”
Budde failed to proclaim Christ and His teaching, and thereby missed a great opportunity to lift Christ on an occasion when she could have preached the Gospel to the globe. She failed the Lord at a very critical political moment, and instead proclaimed her social gospel agenda.
JG: Could you tell our readers what your relationship with Budde’s Episcopal Church is? Were you a victim of her intolerance?
BO: I was one of those that Bishop Budde’s so-called “merciful, gracious and compassionate” The Episcopal Church (TEC-USA) sued and punished for taking our congregation out of their rebellious denomination. They know how to hypocritically preach and feign grace, mercy, and compassion for the disenfranchised, but they don’t know how to show it to fellow Christians who disagree with their liberal theology and who don’t want to be part of their progressive left-wing ecclesial trajectory. Their mercy is essentially a condescending mercy bereft of divine grace rather than true mercy, which is why they can’t show it to conservative Christians. They refused to show mercy to us because they had the power!
Conservative Christians do show true mercy and genuine compassion to immigrants, LGBTQ people, the poor and disenfranchised around the world, but we don’t turn such mercy into a political weapon for the camera as many theological liberals love to do.
The Episcopal Church and her bishops and clergy have a lot to learn about genuine grace and compassion, and they should start by apologizing to people like me, whom they publicly humiliated and deprived of our buildings and other necessities simply because we left them without our assets to serve God in accordance with His Word.
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.