RETREATING TO AN EMPTY STRONGHOLD

Ms. Marian Edgar Budde, “A Living Rainbow Saint” According to the American Leftist Media for “Speaking Truth to Power”

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

In a move so predictable it borders on self-parody, the Left has returned to one of its oldest strongholds: the Episcopal Church. Following years of cultural capture in academia, media, and mainstream institutions, the progressives have pivoted back to their ecclesiastical Trojan horse, trotting out the now-standard arsenal of leftist dogma cloaked in stained-glass respectability. The timing couldn’t be more ironic, or more desperate. 

Take the case of Ms. Budde, a clerical figure of modest consequence, a “bishop” in name only, elevated to national hero status by liberal media after lobbing thinly veiled feminist bromides in the direction of the now triumphant conservative youth movement representative, Donald Trump. It’s telling that her most notable accomplishment was appearing on “The View”, that temple of unexamined platitudes, to lecture America on mercy and compassion while representing one of the most racially and economically exclusive institutions in the country: the Episcopal Church. A church, mind you, that insists on ideological purity (read: pledging fealty to LGBTQ+ activism to qualify for position within their “church”) over theological orthodoxy or the Gospel itself. 

This hollowed-out bastion of progressive piety has long ceased to resemble a serious Christian institution. It has hemorrhaged members, alienated global Anglicanism, and positioned itself as little more than a religious arm of the Democratic Party. Its clergy are often wealthy, White, and Ivy League-adjacent, sipping fair-trade coffee in multimillion-dollar rectories while preaching sermons on the evils of privilege in empty cathedrals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, situated on prime pieces of urban real estate. The spectacle of such figures attempting to shame young conservatives by a lack of “mercy” - many of whom come from Middle America and represent the working and middle classes - is as farcical as it is grating. 

But there’s a deeper irony here. While the Episcopal Church flails in its American affluence, the vast majority of Anglican Christians - millions across Africa, Asia, and the Global South - remain resolutely conservative, patriarchal, and deeply rooted in biblical orthodoxy. These are communities that champion traditional families, reject radical feminism, and view male leadership as integral to church and home. In other words, they embody everything the Episcopal elites disdain. The Episcopal Church’s insistence on lecturing these Christians, often from cathedrals emptied by decades of leftist activism, is not just hypocritical - it’s colonialist in the most ironic of ways. It is everything they claim to stand against, rich and powerful White people lecturing the poor, the unwashed, the under-educated, the Hillbillies, the Black and Brown people that they detest and believe to be inferior. 

A Political Cartoon Circulated by Several Online Allies of “Bp” Budde, Which is Not Only Deeply Racist, But Shows the Current Attitudes of Elites Towards the True Struggling Poor in America

This retreat to the Episcopal stronghold signals two things. First, the Left’s broader cultural project is faltering and has ceased to be convincing. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, and a cadre of other populist leaders have wrested the narrative from the progressive elite, as flawed and unreliable as they are as individuals. The institutions that once seemed invincible - universities, corporations, Hollywood - are now met with rising resistance, faltering bottom lines and increasing irrelevance. The Left’s attempt to return to its ecclesiastical roots and rally behind a “blue-haired social gospel” is a tacit admission that its cultural empire is crumbling. 

Second, it exposes the hollowness of their ideological framework. For all their rhetoric about diversity and inclusion, the Left cannot tolerate dissent, even within its own ranks. The same organization that spews platitudes about love and mercy also ruthlessly persecutes Anglicans who disagreed with their social activism, mounting nearly twenty years of incalculably expensive law suits against Conservatives who tried to draw the line, and acrimoniously selling properties to Muslim and Eastern Religious groups, rather than allowing them to fall into the hands of more conservative people. The Episcopal Church’s transformation into a progressive echo chamber, complete with signed loyalty oaths to leftist political causes, has rendered it a caricature of Christian faith - more interested in policing pronouns than preaching Christ. 

So here we are: a temporarily defeated Left clutching at its last remaining “respectable” institution, hoping no one notices the innate hypocrisy and racism of their stance. But the emptiness of their cathedral pews speaks volumes. The emptiness of their platitudes, contrasted with their actions, speaks even more. The cultural tide is turning, and the youth - those same young Americans Ms. Budde seeks to shame for voting in the anti-corruption, anti-globalist, anti-elite rightest political regime - are choosing life, family, faith, and hope over nihilism, division, and despair. 

The Episcopal Church may serve as a convenient soapbox for the Left for now, but it is no stronghold. While the Left may cheer for Ms. Budde’s passive aggressive and politically-correct sermon, a symbolic act against politicians they collectively dislike, they will not start attending services faithfully or enthusiastically become Episcopalians. The Episcopal Church is a mausoleum for ideas that no longer inspire, no longer convince, and no longer hold sway. The cultural tide has moved on. The cathedrals remain empty. And no Prayer Breakfast sermon or self-congratulation on “The View” can change that. 

Those of us who are young and hopeful, who love the English Patrimony, the Prayer Book, and Creedal Orthodoxy, must not falter or waver, even as current political leaders inevitably fall, fail, and disappoint. We must strive not only to “Make America Great Again” but also to restore the Anglican Patrimony - the great shared heritage of our English-speaking Christian tradition - to its rightful place. The first step toward this goal is a wholesale rejection of everything Ms. Budde represents in her theological leftism and self-congratulation, and a return to the conservative, patriarchal, anti-radical feminist, pro-family teachings of our Fathers in Faith, standing in solidarity with our Black and Brown brothers and sisters in Africa, Asia, and South America. Then, and only then, can we have a consistent and biblical approach to mercy and compassion, two cardinal virtues in our Christian worldview.