Kyle Kellams: The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde is the bishop of Washington, serving as spiritual leader for the Episcopal congregations and schools in the District of Columbia and four counties in Maryland. She speaks to thousands in that diocese and thousands more as a guest speaker. Last month, the BBC invited the bishop to deliver a Christmas message on Radio 4. And many know her from her homily that she delivered after last year's presidential inauguration. That's when she asked the president, who was in attendance and his administration, to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.
She will speak at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, Saturday, Feb. 7 and Sunday morning, Feb. 8, as part of the church's Tippy McMichael Speaker Series. Her topic, “We Can Be Brave on Moral Courage in Turbulent Times”. She says courage can be expressed in myriad ways.
Mariann Edgar Budde: Oh my goodness, that's the whole arc of my life's work to recognize, both in our personal lives and in the wider public arena in which we all live. That courage is a quality of being, a way of facing into things that we've either never done before or that require of us qualities and attributes that we aren't sure that we have. And we are invited to step into those spaces. And I think it's innate in human beings, actually, I think it's part of what makes us who we are.
And we start learning, very young, that this is part of what it means to be a human being. It’s crossing threshold after threshold after threshold of life moments that require of us this thing called courage. And so absolutely, in every realm of life, in ways large and small. In fact, some of the most courageous things we're asked to do are things that maybe very few people see, but that are events or decisions that shape our character in ways that have long lasting effect.
Kellams: You mentioned that you think it's innate in our being, but then you also say decisions. I think we tend to see in popular fiction, courage just happens at the right time, and you do it without thinking. But often courage, I think, requires analysis.
Budde: Of course. Of course. I think it's at both ends. There are certainly those moments, we can all think of them, when we don't have a lot of time to do analysis. Just the moment arises and we have to respond. But even those moments, looking back on them, we can often see how we were being prepared, that life was somehow preparing us for that experience. You just don't step up to the plate and swing without having been practicing at the bat for a long, long time, to use that analogy.
At the same time, there are seasons of long preparation. Sometimes it feels like nothing is happening at all, and yet we are being, life is teaching us things through disappointment or failure or, stability. Perseverance. Through the thick and thin that are preparing us for those moments. And then maybe to your point, there may be seasons when we have to do some deep reflection and study that equip us for an act of courage that could not be possible if we didn't do that work.
Kellams: Can courage be contagious?
Budde: Yes. It's a phenomenon. Like many things, we actually pass it on to each other without realizing it more often than not. We study, we look at people who we admire for their courage, and we try to emulate them. We read the stories of people's lives. I think we read them because we're interested in the people and the decisions that they've made. And it's often astonishing to realize what made them who they became. Their life story, the things that taught them to be or, you know, formed them to be the people that they are. I draw courage from other people all the time, in fact, every day. And again, not necessarily the heroes that we might see in the news or on our social media feeds. But the people who do the brave, courageous work every day that keeps the world going.
Kellams: Can courage require patience?
Budde: Oh, you're teeing me up here. Right? Well, in my experience, patience is a quality of perseverance. I'm not by nature a patient person, so patience is something I have to learn by the reality that I can't, as one of my teachers say, you can't make a bean grow faster by pulling on it, right? I mean, there are some things that simply take time. I may want to do or say something that feels urgent to me, but the timing isn't right. And so my saying or doing it would be ineffective. And so there is a discernment that comes. When is the time to speak, when is the time to act? There are a lot of things in this world that we simply cannot control. And sometimes we have to allow those realities to have their day and then emerge from them in a position where we might be able to step into a space where we might do something for good.
Kellams: It's easier now to spread your opinions to many others quickly when you have what they call a hot take, right? I mean, it used to be, you could think something angry. Maybe there were only a couple of people around. Maybe only your bar mate. Now you can put it on social media and that can seem to inflame other instant angry reactions. Is it harder now, do you think, for us collectively to have patience?
Budde: Oh, sure. Yeah. We've been conditioned to think in immediacy. An email comes across my screen. I need to respond right away. Something happens. I mean, you and I are talking, in just a few days after that really tragic shooting in Minneapolis. And immediately people responded and interpreted the events as if they knew all the information and through their lenses. So we have this constant encouragement to respond immediately and sometimes to the point of your earlier question, the most courageous thing is to sit for a bit and to ponder and to pray and to reflect before taking action or spouting an opinion. And that is a measure of maturity, that is a hard one. But I think especially important in a time when we're all kind of flying off the handle and running at a pace that is probably not sustainable for a healthy life.
Kellams: I keep coming back to courage because it's a word I've just been thinking about for a while now. But do you think it has a relationship with hope?
Budde: I do, I do because hope… Now it depends on what you mean by hope. But you know, because hope can mean something very… I don't want to say superficial, but, like, hoping that somebody wins a game or hoping that I get an A on a test or things like that. But when you talk about a deeper hope, which is the capacity to live with your sights on a better reality than the one you're in now, and to believe that that reality is possible, even if the evidence before you would suggest otherwise. Right?
And to keep working for things that are of ultimate importance even if you aren't successful. And so courage, perseverance, hope, they're all part of a family of life virtues that allow us to live through hard times without being destroyed by them, and to live through those challenges without succumbing to the shadow sides of our nature, which are despair and cynicism and violence. We all have those capacities within us. And the virtues of courage and perseverance and hope are what allow us to live according to the the truest and highest aspirations of the human spirit, and and to provide a foundation, even if we don't get to live to see what it is we hope for, to provide a foundation that future generations, and certainly those that we love, that are coming up behind us, might be able to see. I draw inspiration from the people who did that for me. And now I'm at an age where I feel like that's my vocation for those for those coming up after me.
Kellams: When you're asked to speak, whether it's at a church in Minnesota or Arkansas or to a nation for a BBC address. What kind of responsibility do you take, whether it's 15 minutes or 60 minutes, when you're talking often to a group of strangers?
Budde: Well, it's a huge privilege and an enormous responsibility. And what I try to do is learn as much as I can about the context and the moment, and what it is that would be helpful for people to hear so that they can draw from the resources in their own lives and their own experiences to carry forth on the path that's set before them. So my goal is never to have people come away and say, oh, that was a great conversation or a great speech or the boy that was really terrible, but more that I can touch upon that part of them that's being called forth to live their lives. Then I feel like I've done my task, so to speak of moral courage in turbulent times. I'm not trying to impress people with my moral courage, but to say this is something we can all tap into, and it's a gift that God gives us to sustain us through life and allows us to live with joy even when life is really, really hard. And to celebrate the goodness of the human experience, even as we face the inevitable suffering and challenges that are before us.
Kellams: The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde is the bishop of Washington, serving as spiritual leader for the Episcopal congregations and schools in the District of Columbia and four counties in Maryland. She'll speak at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville as part of their Tippy McMichael Speaker Series. She'll be addressing, “We Can Be Brave on Moral Courage in Turbulent Times”.
Her first talk will be Saturday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. as a public lecture. She'll also speak Sunday morning, Feb. 8, during the church's adult formation hour at 10 a.m. Both are open to the public. Our conversation took place via Zoom in early January.
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