The National Cathedral, The Establishment Clause, And The Lady Bishop

The intgriguing thing about Episcopalian Bishop Marianne Budde's homily at yesterday's National Prayer Service is how many people it confused. Just for starters, DeVory Darkins, the YouTube commentator in the clip above, says at 2:35,

I didn't know you could be a bishop as a woman, I'm just being honest here, I'm not too familiar with the Catholic religion, I'm a Christian. . .

The commenters quickly explained that Bp Budde isn't Catholic, she's Episcopalian -- but nevertheless, aren't the Episcopalians hitchhiking once again on Catholic prestige here? She's vested in a strange mishmosh of a surplice-cum-black-stole that's at least reminiscent of Catholic tradition, and the service is conducted in a faux Catholic-style cathedral with faux medieval stonework and a rose window, which calls itself the National Cathedral. Wikipedia says,

The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral or National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States.

Its website says,

Washington National Cathedral holds a unique place at the intersection of sacred and civic life. As the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, we strive to serve God and our neighbors as agents of reconciliation, a trusted voice of moral leadership and a sacred space where the country gathers during moments of national significance.

Wikipedia goes on,

From its earliest days, the cathedral has been promoted as more than simply an Episcopal cathedral. Planners hoped it would play a role similar to Westminster Abbey. They wanted it to be a national shrine and a venue for great services. . . . Contrary to popular misconception, the government has not designated it as a national house of prayer.

You'd better bet it hasn't -- the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". Declaring that there's a national house of prayer that's part of The Episcopal Church. or indeed, any national house of prayer at all, would directly contradict the Establishment Clause. In effect, there's some sort of gentlemen's agreement that the National Cathedral is a sorta-kinda venue for presidential funerals and inaugural prayer services, but not every presidential memorial service has been conducted there, and not every president has had an inaugural prayer service there.

It's all sorta-kinda, not quite national, not quite Catholic, just maybe seems that way. But very prestigious.

Actually, the National Cathedral at this point is an artifact, as is The Episcopal Church. Wikipedia says,"Construction started on September 29, 1907, with a ceremonial address by President Theodore Roosevelt and the laying of the cornerstone." This was a period where The Episcopal Church was at the peak of its prestige, with wealthy and influential families like the Vanderbilts, the Morgans, the Harrimans, the Mellons, the Astors, the Roosevelts, and the Peabodys prominent among their numbers.

This has been part of the confusion that's been tolerated all along that, at least for a time, worked to the benefit of the Establishment and the Episcopalians. If there was a certain amount of confusion whether a bishop was Catholic or Episcopalian, or for that matter a priest, so much the better. If it was felt that the country's official spirituality was Episcopalian, so much the better. And especially when the official teachings of most Christian denominations on matters like marriage and sexuality, or even the ordination of women, were mostly consistent, it didn't matter too much.

But in Trump's second inaugural ceremonies Monday and yesterday, we're beginning to see the schism. We may assume that Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Dr Franklin Graham were specifically invited by the Trump team to deliver the invocations before the oath of office. Cdl Dolan has had nice things to say about Trump in the recent past, and Dr Graham specifically endorsed him. And as I watched the ceremony Monday, I noted that Rome's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith might have vetted each of their invocations for consistency.

They both preached on the subject of God as the source of wisdom. They urged our civic leadership to pray to God for wisdom, as figures from King Solomon to General Patton have done. There were no potential disputes over church governance, the number and nature of the sacraments, or the exclusive authority of scripture. Indeed, both were ordained and consecrated ministers of the gospel, and they were both male. The level of unanimity was simply remarkable. The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church might have been able to join them, at least several generations ago.

No longer. The following day, confusion reigned. There was a woman bishop who had nothing in particular to say about God, nor anything about prayer or wisdom, and nobody was quite sure what religion this was in any case. But most importantly, she spoke out for luxury beliefs:

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, and Democratic and Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.

This is peculiar indeed. In the face of increasing recognition that measures like life-changing surgery or puberty blockers are inappropriate for treating gender uncertainty in minor children, the bishop appears to be advocating just these measures, suggesting that withholding castration or mastectomy from these children is somehow ungodly. The standard line here is, after all, that unless transgender kids get surgery, they'll commit suicide. This also neglects the entirely reasonable view that parents who virtue-signal over their children's gender identities are engaging in Munchausen syndrome by proxy, making a self-serving display of their luxury beliefs.

Her sympathy for the immigrants who pick crops and wash dishes is also tempered by the fact that the elite families who employ these immigrants as domestics often don't pay their social security -- indeed, they can't if they're illegal. The current illegal immigration status quo simply enables exploitation of the poor by the wealthy and entitled, among whom are Bp Budde's flock.

According to the link,

Trump did not appear to take Budde’s words to heart. Upon his return to the White House, Trump told a reporter that the service was “not too exciting.”

There's an easy solution to this problem: eliminate the confusion. Follow the Constitution and don't attend any more inaugural prayer services at the so-called Natiomal Cathedral. One option would be to begin to rotate the venues for such services -- the chapels at American University and George Washington University could be other choices, or the Roman Catholic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception -- or an Evangelical facility in the area.

There'd be much less confusion in any of those venues and much more chance of hearing the gospel preached.