The 2025 Robert N. Bellah Lecture on Religion and Public Life

Welcome to the Robert N. Bella lecture on religion and public life. I'm delighted and honored to introduce the inaugural speaker. The Right Reverend Marianne Edgar Buddy is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC, serving as the spiritual and administrative leader of 86 churches throughout Washington DC and Maryland, including Washington National Cathedral. She is the author of three books, including the New York Times bestseller, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, published in 2023. And as we all know, she is brave.

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And she is not afraid to preach the good news to anyone anywhere at at any time, especially at her own house of worship. Bishop Buddy, the lectern is yours.

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Thank you truly and especially uh to all those that Dr. King mentioned who have um invited me to and have entrusted me with the honor and the responsibility of offering the inaugural Robert Bella lecture on religion and public life. Thanks to all the staff that have labored so hard, to members of the Bella family. Uh to Dean Malcolm Young and the leadership of Grace Cathedral, to my colleagues, my dear bishop colleagues Austin Rios and Megan Truckier. My husband Paul Buddy is also here with me as I knew he would be as soon as I told him I had received an invitation to speak in Berkeley. He's a Cal Berkeley alum. Yeah. PhD in mathematics that he earned several years before we met. But he told me often told me how formative a time it was in his life and thus I have great affection for the people and the place that helped him become the man I fell in love with. Paul will also tell you that I have been preparing for this lecture from the moment you reached out to me Dr. Kim. I had read habits of the heart when it was first published. I was in seminary at the time and I remembered how much it stirred in all of us preparing for ministry in those years. But you know I hadn't followed Robert Bella's work since then. So my plan was to read everything he had written. I had three months. How hard could it be?

First of all, I just would like to start by putting that quote in front of you because that's sort of the anchor of what I will be reflecting on. This is just the sampling of books that I checked out of the library. I didn't know that he had written enough to fill a library. Not to mention the countless journal articles. Suffice to say, I was overwhelmed overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of Bella's writings. But I, you know, I was also drawn in. I was so moved by his brilliance and fascinated by the arc of his life as told by so many who wrote about him. And in Matteo Bert Botalone's biography of him, which is just such a beautiful title, a joyfully serious man. I'd listened to some of Bella's lectures from his last years of his life that are available online and I I hear his voice in my head now. But at some point, I actually actually had to stop reading and listening and start preparing what I would offer to you. But I can assure you that I will continue my engagement with his work and that of his good colleagues and all who have continued in the courageous path he walked. And through it all, believe me, I've had to remind myself that I am only the first speaker in what will be an ongoing series of lectures given in his honor. And I stress that different aspects of his genius will be highlighted and amplified by others. And don't be surprised when you see me sitting where you are in future years.

As I cast about for a title for this address, I settled on following our north star in tumultuous times. The actual north star is, as you know, it's a fixed point in the night sky that our forebears used. They write light on it for navigation because it's the one thing in the sky that remains steady in the northern hemisphere, making it true north. It its constancy is what makes it a vital tool for guidance. And of course, metaphorically, our north star is whatever guides us, right? When we're not sure of the road ahead, it symbolizes whatever gives us a sense of direction or purpose. It's what we it's what we hold on to when we're feeling disoriented or overwhelmed. Now, in 2011, Robert Bell gave a lecture, the text of which regrettably I couldn't find, but the title was just so so compelling. What changes very fast and what doesn't change. His theme being explosive modernity and abiding truth. So, that's essentially what I hoping we will reflect on together in a time when so much is changing so quickly. What do we know to be true?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says to the Pharisee Nicodemus, who came to him by night, "We speak of what we know and we testify to what we've seen." And I would suggest to you that in this time, we are especially called upon now to speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen and to live as best we can according to the highest aspirations of humankind. revealed to us in our spiritual traditions, which are to recognize the inherent God-given dignity of every human being because everyone is created in the image of God, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and even Lord, help us to love our enemies, to share what we have, and to strive for an equitable and just society, to refrain from evil and refuse to hate. to hold our tongue when we have nothing constructive to say. That's a hard one. To live in hope. To be willing to sacrifice even our lives for the sake of love.

Now when I say we, let me be clear that I mean, those of us whose institutional expressions of Christianity and other faiths with whom we feel a particular solidarity that we who are seemingly no match for the ascendant political power now referred to as Christian nationalism, we must speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen. Because if the response to the sermon I preached on January 21st has taught us anything, it is that simply professing values that we all too inadequately strive to live by is like water in the desert now for parched souls. Right? It was a very basic sermon, right? It's not that different from what most of you would expect to hear on in your churches or houses of worship on any given Sunday and what many of you, I dare say, have preached with greater eloquence than I. And that such a sermon would cause so great a stir tells us where we are as a nation. That it would be a cause for such anger and even rage among some that it would be a source of hope for others. Right now what that response has invoked in me is a sense of responsibility to a religious worldview that seeks to promote the highest of human aspirations. what Jesus would call the kingdom of heaven, what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others called the beloved community. And it's given me hope that we we have a vital contribution to make to what needs to be a compelling and comprehensive alternative to the ascendancy of Christian nationalism. And that we are called in some way in some way to do our part to stop those at the helm of our country now who are determined to dismantle the institutions and destroy the guard rails of our democracy and accelerate the very trends we need to reverse for our species to survive. It's a big task.

And since January, I've been thinking a lot about, to borrow directly from the title of this lecture series, the role of faith in public life. And I'm trying to be very clear about at least my lane and others as well. But like what part of this is ours to do? And for those of us who are Christians, we start with the life and teachings of Jesus who is our northstar in our public as well as our private lives. We are doing our best to follow him. Now Jesus's northstar was the prophetic tradition of ancient Israel. He saw himself and his purpose in the sacred texts of his faith. And he gained increasing confidence in his identity and his vocation through a series of mystical encounters throughout his life. And in one version of how Jesus's public ministry began, this is from the Gospel of Luke. Remember, he felt the Holy Spirit descent upon him as a dove when he rose from the waters of baptism by John the Baptizer. And then that same spirit drove him or led him into a time of trial and temptation in the wilderness. And afterwards he returned to his hometown, hometown of Nazareth in the synagogue community that raised him. And he declared himself there in fulfillment of the words written centuries before by the prophet Isaiah. He saw himself and understood his purpose in light of the prophet's highest communal visions of equity and justice. To borrow a phrase from Roman Catholic social teaching, from the beginning, Jesus had a preferential option for the poor. And as the late Christian writer Rachel Held Evans would often say, you know, he didn't just come to die for us. He came to live for us too and to show us how to live and how to love true to the north star of his tradition. And it is to that vision of justice and loving kindness that Jesus calls us to a life understood as a humble walk with our God in the way of love.

Now, truth be told, we are known more for our failures in this than our faithfulness. We are we have a lot to answer for ourselves. But that does not negate God's call. And indeed, our failures continually remind us in the words of the Apostle Paul. And I actually this is one of the guiding texts of my life. I won't read the whole passage, but the last sentence says it all. We have this treasure in clay jars so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. So I speak to you tonight as one clay jar to another, doing my best to be faithful to the tradition that is mine, to Christ and his teachings in an exceedingly tumultuous time. But before going any further with my own thoughts, I'd like to bring Robert Bella's voice into the room and that of his colleagues, for we're here in his honor, seeking to draw upon his insights and to continue on the path he walked.

This is your cue. Hang on. I invited a few people other than my others who knew him and loved him to give this. This is from the journalist Matthew Rose writing in an article for Commonweal magazine in 2023. I'm going to read this one instead. Bella was the last major thinker on the American left to argue that shared religious beliefs are essential for democratic politics in an era that saw liberalism grow progressively more secular. He defended views that dissented from elite opinion and models of reality on which it rested. And I love this sentence. He argued that secularism is impossible, individualism is an illusion, and religious worship is inescapable. He believed and demonstrated in his multidisciplinary body of work spanning decades. We are innately religious beings. And by religion, he didn't mean one's personal beliefs about God or the supernatural, as important as that is, but rather something deeper. Deeper in the sense of like to the essence of who we are. that the way human beings make meaning of our world through symbol and sacred story and ritual. Now these religious impulses can and routinely are distorted in service to our self-delusions, the worst aspects of our collective behavior and the egregious forces of evil. We know this. But those same impulses deep within us put in the service of love and of community, they are what save us from ourselves and bring out the best of who we are. And religion is a big part of the American story and it always has been for good and for ill.

So we will begin now. Now is your cue with Bella. This now this is an early writing. This is early. This is 1967. What Bella and others identified as America's civil religion. While some have argued that Christianity is a national faith, few have realized that there actually exists alongside and rather clearly differentiated from the churches an elaborate and well institutionalized civil religion in America. This religion or perhaps better this religious dimension has its own seriousness and integrity and requires the same care and understanding that any other religion does. It has its own prophets and its own martyrs, its own sacred events and sacred places, its own solemn rituals and symbols. It is concerned that America can be a society as perfectly in accord with the will of God as men can make it, humans can make it, I think he would say now, and a light to all nations. Without an awareness that our nation stands under higher judgment, the tradition of the civil religion could be dangerous. Fortunately, the prophetic voices have never been lacking. And yet civil religion has often been used and is being used today as a cloak for petty interests and ugly passions. It is in need as any living faith is in need of continuing reformation of being measured by universal standards but is not evidence that is incapable or let me reverse those two negatives and say that it is evident that it is capable of growth and new insight.

Thank you. So that was in 1967. By the mid 1970s, Bella had lost faith in America's civil religion. He wrote in 1975 in a book entitled uh hauntingly the broken covenant. Today, the American civil religion is an empty and broken shell. We live at present in a third time of trial, at least as severe as those of the revolution and the civil war. It is a test of whether our inherited institutions can be creatively adapted to meet the 20th century crisis of justice and order and abroad.

And as time went on, Bella would become even more critical of our civil religion. And in the broken covenant, he also observed, and this is important for us now, that evangelical Protestantism and what he called enlightenment liberalism, classic antagonists in the religious and political landscape of this country, both contributed to an increasingly uncharacteristic American psyche that served to undermine communal life and the institutions upon which our nation depends. And he called it individualism, the ambition and deep desire to be free from all constraints and unchosen commitments. Yet Bella remained fascinated by the spiritual and moral underpinnings in our country. And in the 1980s, he joined several of his graduate students in a multi-year sociological study to better understand the motivations and the aspirations of the of middle class Americans. They traveled around the country interviewing Americans from all walks of life asking basically one question. How do you determine what is good? How do you determine what is right in your daily life? And what they discovered both alarmed them and further persuaded Bella and his colleagues of religion's essential role to counteract individualism's isolationist tendencies and lack of moral vocabulary. He actually argued that Americans were actually more moral than they realized, but they were losing we were losing our vocabulary to speak and understand why we made the decisions we we make. And alarming and this again very prescient. Alarming was the fact that the American public was becoming dangerously naive to the concentration of technology and economic power and the long-term consequences of growing economic disparities both here and around the world. Right? This is 1985.

So a few quotes now from habits of the heart. For most Americans we interviewed, freedom is very much understood as freedom from from people who have economic power over you, from people who try to limit what you can do or say. This ideal of freedom has historically given Americans a respect for individuals. It has no doubt stimulated their initiative and creativity. It has sometimes even made them tolerant of differences in a diverse society. and resistant to overt forms of political oppression. But it is an ideal of freedom that leaves Americans with a stubborn fear of acknowledging structures of power and interdependence in a technologically complex society dominated by giant corporations and an increasingly powerful state. The ideal of freedom makes Americans nostalgic for their past but provides few resources for talking about their collective future. Habits of the heart.

40 years ago, Bella and his colleagues were warning us all about the dangers of secularism, materialism, and a worldview detached from the moral and spiritual underpinnings of religious community. And they also saw the seeds of a resurging Christian nationalism. They wouldn't have called it that, but that's what the seeds were. Planted in the soil of an increasingly angry and disillusioned populace that felt it was being treated with contempt by the American elite. And they were also beginning to formulate their interpretation and critique of this relatively short period in human history, evolutionarily speaking, that they called modernity. That period of time marked by humanity's increasing mastery over the planet's natural environment, surpassing every previous limit on human productivity and growth, particularly with the production of energy by burning fossil fuels that has completely reshaped the conditions of human life and the global ecology essential for our survival. And while celebrating the many accomplishments and astonishing breakthroughs of the modern era upon which we all live our lives, he and his colleagues also argued this same modernist worldview left unchecked would lead to our demise.

Okay, one more big quote and then we'll move on. But this this you're with me now, right? This is so good. This is so it's why we're here. Without derrogating our modern technological achievements, we now see that they have had devastatingly destructive consequences for the natural ecology. We are engaged in an effort to mitigate and reverse the damage and regain an ecological balance whose complete loss could prove fatal. Modernity has had comparable destructive consequences for social ecology. Human beings have treated one another badly for as long as we have any historical evidence. But modernity has given us a capacity for destructiveness on a scale incomparably greater than in previous centuries. And social ecology is damaged not only by war, genocide, and political repression. It is also damaged by the destruction of the subtle ties that bind human beings to one another, leaving them frightened and alone. It has been evident for some time that unless we begin to repair the damage to our social ecology, we will destroy ourselves long before natural ecological disaster has time to be realized.

A sober assessment to say the least of where we were headed as a nation, where we are headed, prescient in its time. Now, Bella went on to publish what would become his magnum opus, a nearly 800page book entitled The Religion in Human Evolution published in 2011 about which others will surely speak in subsequent lectures. Uh, I could never do it justice. It's a work of extraordinary ambition in which he goes all the way back to the evolution of life on this earth and of humankind to describe the origins of religion across the globe. He was reminding us, his colleagues later wrote, as if we need reminding, that the fate of all humanity, indeed of all life on earth is shared and that religion and the experience of the sacred is at the center of human existence.

Now, now let me simply say that by listening to him speak because I downloaded some lectures that he gave toward the end of his life. listening to him speak about this book and I was talking to you remember Megan I was talking to you we had this conversation I was trying to like on a walk trying to explain this book to my colleague it was it was extraordinarily hopeful for me I can't say why but it just it just filled me with hope and in the end I would I would say that Bella would describe himself as a man of cautious hope remember he was a seriously joyful man and he was a man of faith. I'm not optimistic, he would say, but I'm hopeful. People who believe in something beyond the immediate social struggle can go on fighting. And he found his hope in the human enterprise and the spiritual teachings and communal rituals of religious life. And in that mysterious spiritual power that enables any of us, all of us, to keep going and not only to keep going, but sometimes to do what feels impossible. The whole of human history, he once wrote, is about attaining the impossible.

In the conclusion of habits of the heart, he wrote, I asked that some of Bella's colleagues would read these, which is why you're hearing their voices. We will need to remember that we did not create ourselves. That we owe what we are to the communities that formed us and to what Paul Tillich called the structure of grace in history that made such communities possible. All right, I'm going to read this one. This is from a collection of his later writings in which he leaned really hard on his Christian roots. And I'm sorry I don't have it all on the screen for you. If we truly listen to the beatitudes, he said, 'We will hear them as a call for us to recover the integrity of our own faith and its lived expression. But here's the warning. But if we only go through the motions of our religion while closing ourselves off to its real meaning, if we do not discover that the kingdom of heaven is our only true home, the place that defines our most essential identity, we will be lost in the wilderness of decayed traditions and vulnerable to the domination of modernity suicidal infatuation with power. the exact opposite of the gospel message. And then this, our greatest contribution to the world is by grace to try to be who as Christians we are. That will never be easy and it will probably bring upon us rejection and even persecution, but it will also make us exceedingly glad.

Thank you so much for inviting me to a three-month crash course on the life and work of Robert Bella. What it's done for me seriously is strengthen my conviction that the realm of the sacred is real. That the mystery of God, the mystery that we call God is real. and that we were created to be a meaning-making species. And though I am a Christian to the core and Jesus is my north star, I share with Bella his appreciation for the many ways the sacred mystery we call God is revealed and has been revealed and experienced across time and culture. The diversity of humankind indeed of all creation suggests that our God really loves diversity. Loves it. Loves it. And there is nothing more powerful than when practitioners of different faiths find common cause for the good of all. Nothing. Think of Martin Luther King inspired by Gandhi. The friendship between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. The interfaith alliances across this country and the globe, they all suggest to us that we can indeed live together in solidarity and work together for the good of all God's people. We can do this and we must. We must.

So turning to where we find ourselves now, let me begin by saying that I would love to be anywhere but here. Not here in Berkeley, but here. Here with all that we're facing right now, barreling toward a future that none of us wants to leave to our children and our grandchildren. And we can't dispute the fact that human dignity is being trampled on. And in the public arena, contempt, hatred, disdain, and dehumanization is not only celebrated, it has become normalized. And the realignment and consolidation of political power of the last few months is it's head spinning. Right? That's where we are. And I know that I'm not alone in feeling grief at this and sometimes anger and sometimes helplessness. And it's also really interesting to pay attention to what gives us hope, right? Because it's usually another person who does something brave, right? Before I gave my sermon, I listened to the bishops of California speak out against the president's plan for migration and deportation. They were so clear and they gave me courage and I knew that I wanted to stand with them, right? And when I was preparing my remarks and I was kind of testing it out with people who were, you know, my thought partners and trusted mentors, they would fill things in reminding me of the people that gave us hope. And I wanted to stand with them, right? And I believe that if Robert Bella were here, he would tell us that we have the potential to take an enormous evolutionary leap for the good. Now we have it. Our forebears have done it in the past. They have done the impossible in the past and we can do it now. And it's to that potential that God calls us. I believe that. I also know that it's not a sure bet, which means we live in that existential reality. And like many in this room, I'm in the pulpit every Sunday. And in preparation and study of our sacred texts, which is where I start, and I ponder the world and our place in it, and I consider the particularity of the community to which I speak, at the heart of this practice week by week is a simple question. What does God have to say to us? What does this mystery God have to say to us? And our sacred texts and traditions speak with so many voices and perspectives. The strongest, clearest, most consistent message from those sent by God who speak on God's behalf is this. Fear not. It's not a promise of rescue, although I wish it were. It has a hint of chastisement like, "Why are you afraid?" But we needn't hear it that way. It's a reminder that we can turn to our God in in our fear and seek the reassurance and grace of God's presence. And when we long for more than that, as I do, it's hard to imagine how God's mere presence could possibly be enough until that's all we have. And it's enough. What else does God have to say to us? The Christian faith is founded on the simple premise that all human beings are God's beloved. That the words Jesus heard at his baptism are for all of us. And when the Apostle Paul wrote that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, he meant it. That doesn't mean that we always act, God knows in loving ways. We don't treat others, for that matter, we don't treat ourselves as the beloved of God that we are. But that doesn't change God's love for us. In addition, our sacred texts are filled with stories of ordinary people called to do extraordinary things for which by the way they are not equipped and feel illprepared. And what I hear in those stories and in my own prayer life is this. Some version of what do you got? You know, offer it up, right? Think of Jesus disciples. Nothing but a few loaves and some fish. and their offering wasn't nearly enough to meet the need. But Jesus asked for it anyway. And through it, there was enough with some to spare.

But I've been thinking recently about this relationship, our relationship to the sacred. I've been thinking about it from God's side. And I wonder what we would say to God. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm saying all sorts of things. I can't help it. You would argue that all my expressed feelings are not necessary before God to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid. But there is something grounding in acknowledging my sin and praying for help and for guidance, which I do every day. I usually start with something along that and that. But there's something too, and I'm coming to the end here, but there's something too I think that needs to be said about our willingness to stay in the game when times are hard, right? That we're not going anywhere. There's a story from the Gospels that I'm thinking a lot about now, and it tells of a time when Jesus was at prayer near the end of it of his life. It's not the more familiar story that we'll commemorate in Holy Week when Jesus is in the garden praying that if possible the cup of suffering would pass him by. It's similar, but it's a maybe even a different version of the same prayer because this is from the Gospel of John and Jesus is in Bethany, a small village outside of Jerusalem where he is preparing for his final entry and his prayer is this. Now my soul is troubled and what shall I say? Father, spare me from this hour. No, no, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And when we pray with that kind of resolve, we're basically telling God that we're here. It's for this hour, for some reason, that we're all here. And no matter what happens, we're still here. And we will do our best to embody. We will do our best to embody what we have seen and know. And one final thought on what we can say to God and to ourselves at this moment. We will respect the dignity of every human being in what has become a culture of contempt. We will respond with dignity. In a world of mean-spiritedness, we will act with kindness and love. At a time when it is very easy to be cynical and despairing, we will choose hope. This is a time for us, my friends, to show up in as many places as we can with all that we've got, everything we've got, every ounce of compassion, vulnerability, and courage. It's a time to invest in the things we believe in, to find, if we can't find common cause with those we differ, we can at least find shared ground, as a friend of mine described it, being willing to work with anyone toward common goals, even for different reasons. We are to meet contempt with kindness and to speak up for the inherent belovedness and dignity of others. And to do this is a big deal. We not only need to be grounded in our own belovedness daily, but we need each other. We need the community of the faithful. There's a lot at stake now. But I think we can rise to it because for Christians, this is not original to me. I heard this from a man who was negotiating the peace trying to negotiate a peace process in in Rwanda before the genocide. He was a peacemaker who said hopelessness for Christians is not an option. We have our northstar.

I'm going to leave you now with a quote from Bella's colleagues written in the collection of essays trying to continue the work he would have completed had he lived. If Bella were alive today, he would certainly have raged against the forces of authoritarianism, greed, and political cowardice that seems to dominate our world. But he had a profound faith that we can overcome despair, anger, and hopelessness to find the courage and conviction we need to come together to confront the common threats and pursue the common goods that shape our fate. Our greatest contribution, he said, is to be as Christians, as people of faith, as people of good will who we are. What a great picture. And in that faith and in his legacy, we will go on because it is for this hour, dear ones, that we are here. Thank you so much.

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Bishop, buddy. Buddy, you're knocked out. knocked it out of the ballpark. Uh, if Bob Bella was here, he would give you an A. [Applause] Oh, he would be so proud not only to hear his voice throughout your talk and to feel like he helped you write your presentation. And so the two of you together I think have done a splendid job of not only raising some of his central ideas but also lifting our spirits in this dark time to have this voice of courage and inspiration I think inspires us all. Well, thank you so much for questions or good. [Applause]

So, now we have time for questions and uh Harlon Stelmock, my co-chair of of the uh Berkeley Legacy Group and Sam uh was the co-chair, he was the director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union. uh we'll feel the microphones and if you'd line up on either side uh to ask your questions and just questions please and while you're doing so please you know be brave go ahead and I'm sure Bishop Buddy would love to hear from you so please come and line up behind Bob and by uh Harlon and uh and Sam and also let me say something about Bob Bella who you so graciously and beautifully summarized some of his central ideas and we have the Bella Legacy Group came together after his death. We were colleagues and friends of Bella. Praise the Michael. We're colleagues and friends of Bella to to have a series of lectures and other events that would not only honor him but also continue his spirit. But he was profoundly concerned about the moral dimension of public life, particularly in this country, but around the world. and you so marvelously articulated that not only in your talk but in your life and for that we're enormously pleased and proud and I'd like to recognize some of the my members of the group that are here Harlon I already mentioned to you and the people who read the quotations are all from that legacy group Rich Woods and then three members of the uh the group who co co uh wrote with uh with Bella habits of the heart an Sidler uh Dick Madson and Bill Sullivan. So, thank you for being here, folks. And we also were co-sponsored this event with the Center for the Study of Religion at at Berkeley with Carolyn Chen is here, the director of that center. Uh, and of course with Harland, the uh and with Uriah the Graduate Theological Union, who's really done a wonderful job in organizing everything. And so, we're so pleased that members of the Bella family were here, Holly, Bella, and Jennifer. uh Bob's two daughters and their family and we're so proud that they have also been a part of the sponsorship of this event. So, thank you all very much. Do we have people who were asking It's okay if you don't have any questions. That's fine, too. I know it's hot in here, but Well, Haron and Sam, you're going to have to start it off. So, we got someone here. Just come come down the aisle. Yeah. And we have our first question here and others Yeah, feel free to come down. Yeah. First, I would like to make a comment. I read what the pope said. This is the first time that I heard a pope mention a name directly to Trump. And I was so happy that he talked to the bishops that lead the flock. And the only other pope was the Polish one that got involved in politics and it worked out okay. I came here. I was not at the church. I I'm not a Christian. But you speech did something to me. I had to see you. And my friend made arrangements for me to come. He uh whoever was Vance or somebody said they wanted an apology. I don't understand apology. When do you say apology? It didn't fit to what was going on. How did you respond to that? I tried to say as politely as I could that I could not apologize for the teachings of Jesus. Yes. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Can't apologize for the gospel.

Thank you so much for your words. As we may be facing much more severe economic um struggles in this country, it's very easy for us to fall into categorizing things as well what what about you know this other thing and othering people who are not just like us. How do we as faithful people regenerate and regain the abundance of spirit that allows us to work together in communities to move our societies forward? It's a really good question. I I don't know the complete answer. Of course, I do wonder if we are moving into a time when we will need to tend very carefully to local community and and pay attention to caring for our communities. And I don't mean in an isolated way. I'm I'm very haunted by a passage in Habits of the Heart where um that Bella and and all of you mentioned the the the notion of loving our neighbor being so restricted to our own little enclaves that we let the rest of the world burn. I don't I don't mean it that way, but that we may we may be in for a ride, right? We may be in for some really hard times. And in that way, we're probably joining 90% of the planet. And so we need to think about what sustains us in hard times. That's not an easy road for anyone. It's it but it is it may well be our this isn't going to where wherever this is headed. It seems like it's going to be with us for a while. So I think we're going to have to make some sense of our I don't want to say peace with it, but we're going to have to adjust to a to a world that we did not choose. Um a kind of exile in our own land, if you will. and how we function there really depends on our capacity to draw from the strength of the wilderness and the exilic traditions and to find ways to build community again. And I don't know how to do that any more than anyone else. But I I feel like we're going to learn together. And the poor in our midst have way more to teach us on this than than perhaps some of us who have lived most of our lives in relative comfort. No. And those of you who are living in hard times know you probably now you probably are the ones who are going to teach us how we do this. And uh I think we just have to brace ourselves for the potential of that. There's a lot of emphasis now on nations on nations nations America and other countries and I wondered if you could talk about how nationalism and countries fit into the vision that you're talking about here. It's a really good question too. I I mean the gospel and faith traditions call us to another kingdom, another land. our loyalties are are split as Augustine said. So we have that kind of dual reality. Um we are we are being encouraged now to see ourselves once again as as exceptional and to be protected against all others. And I think that flies in the face of the gospel. I think that that is pretty clear. At the same time, we have particular responsibilities as citizens of this country and I think a particular responsibility as citizens of this country and so I don't feel like I can we can walk away from that either. So in that tension I suppose is where an answer or a series of answers would be found. Um and I would be writing them down just alongside everybody else. Thank you. Got a few over here for you. So why don't we take about two of them at a time and then you could so we make sure we get people's questions. So make your questions very crisp and clear. Thank you for your talk, Bishop Buddy. Um I'm currently a postulant for the priesthood in the diocese of California and I'm also 24 years old which means that I'm Gen Z. Many of my friends are either irreligious, raised without religion, or have consciously left the face of their birth. Many of them, like myself, former Roman Catholics. Could you please speak a bit a bit to the rising skepticism and aversion to toward institutions in general, both government and religion, but especially in terms of the United States and to the experience of what you've had with young adults across your years of ministry? Hang on, one more. One more question. Well, since he just asked the question I was going to ask, I better go in a different direction. Uh, thank you for what you represent to all clergy with you represent to Baptist preachers like myself. A couple years ago, uh, by discontinued teaching sociology, not because I'm not interested in the subject, but because my students stopped laughing at my jokes. Uh, they're old and dated. Uh, that was the question. Uh, now that's goes to Zenzi Jenzie question. Uh, but I I had a question in Bella's book on the good society. uh he sets up this kind of a warning so to speak at least when I read it um that if we don't you know get back to some of the good society um ideas values that were in the early days and if churches kind of get and communities get co-opted by the by the structures um worried about ordinations or worry about pension plans worry you know uh that we can be controlled what word would you give to Um, we clergy who who have to struggle with reality of retirement plans and things. Okay, we've got two good questions about the youth and about your own institution for the clergy. Well, I'm 65 years old, so I'm the last person who would be an expert on Gen Z. I would turn the question around to you. And I mean you are an anomaly in the peer group that you described. And so it would be I think really interesting for you to gather a group of your colleagues and your friends and your peers and we would have a talk, right? I mean that's where it has to begin. I mean it's not as if you know it's as as you can tell. I mean I'm I'm all in, right? I'm a big believer. I'm I'm in. Right. But I I'm also persuaded that that we have to listen and understand. So that's where I'd start there, right? And I'm glad you're here. And I believe in institutions because I want you to have a job, right? I'm serious. I believe in institutions. We have to reform them. God knows the church is needing uh all kinds of change. I'm a big believer in that too. But I don't believe in starting with a wrecking ball, right? That's the difference. I don't believe you. I mean, I just don't and I never have. Well, maybe I did once, but I don't anymore. Um, now you're absolutely right. We can become utterly preoccupied by that. And our values are offbalance. They are institutionally. We have to look at that. But I I want them to be there for the likes of you. And I'm actually doing everything I can right now to make sure that that's and not just for you, but for for those coming up behind you, right? That's what institutions do. That's what institutions do. Thank you. We'll take a couple questions here as well. Uh thank you, Bishop Buddy, for coming here. Um I'm a student at Berkeley. Hi. Uh your speech um was very very welcome for me as an international student for someone to speak on my on my behalf and it does feel in this climate and day that I fear to speak because of what it might happen to me and my family and my friends and my family and for you to speak up just want to say thanks. Um I'm a Gen Z uh student also. Um the question I have is I see a lot of folks around me um who are regaining their faith in Christianity, born again Christians. Yes. Um what you said Christian nationalism and so on and so forth. How do we welcome them into environment which is welcoming and char like that professes in faith and compassion rather than in derision and hatred because I see my own family. I'm not sure I understand your question. How do I welcome those who would not welcome you? How do we welcome them into our practice of loving commission? Ah, right. Turning them against Christian nationalism in rather to church. Right. Okay. So that's question one. Question one. Angela, please. You guys are a tough crowd. Hi. Thank you so much for coming. Give you a Oh, thank you. Um, I'm a Buddhist studies student at GTU and a member of our board, the student member of the board. Um, I wondered if you as a person of faith, you would talk about the role of wealth and fear in our society and how it's driving all these changes. For instance, I see um law firms for money not being willing to pursue their cases anymore against Trump or our top research universities, really lofty research universities telling their faculty um not to have lectures titled Black Marxist Women in America because it could inflame that happened at UC Berkeley because it could inflame um the um president against UC Berkeley. Everyone's afraid seeming like they're worried about their money. Um and how as people of faith, how should we be thinking about our money? Speaking as you know, there's so many so many areas of knowledge. I mean, I don't know what it's like to be a university professor now, right? I don't know what the pressures they're up against and the realities they're trying to protect. I don't know what it's like to be the head of a law firm that has I mean I just don't know. So on the you know looking from the outside you know you we'd all wish that they stood firm and did I mean I I want that but I don't know so I don't want to judge um that are is there a capitulation? It feels like it to me but that's what it feels like from the outside. Right. Everything is more complicated from the inside. So, I just want to say that um and I would recommend to all of us that we lay a little low for a while. There's just no need to, you know, Mayor

Bowser, Mayor Bowser of Washington DC, she had to basically allow Black Lives Matter Plaza to be completely painted over, right? She did. She said very bluntly, "I've got bigger fish to fry. I'm trying to keep my city alive." We're in a very strange time.

However, it is amazing what one act of courage does when Georgetown University just said, "No, we're not going to do that. It would go whatever it was that the Trump administration wanted them to do, they just said, "No, it would go against who we are." So, when it happens to support and encourage as much we can, right? That's what I would say.

And in terms of being in relationship with Christians or others who see the world very differently than we are, it's not easy. But it's at least worth trying, right? Even if it's just even if it's barely if it's just being in relationship because if we can't be in relationship if we can't be curious if we can't seek the dignity of the persons that whose whose ideas uphore us but we can't see them as more than that then we are becoming what we disdain and why would we do that right and as as you know and if we were all together in a drowning ing a morass of challenges in that moment would we ask one another well who did you vote for right what's your position on right can we find some grounds of humanity from which to begin and I like being in Christians who who don't think I am a Christian I really like being in conversation with Christians who don't think I'm a Christian right and I'm not because I'm going to argue with them I'm just going to try to love them, right? As Christ loves them and let them deal with that dissonance, right? I mean, seriously, how else do we change?

And it's always dangerous, and I have to say this, it's always dangerous when we try to get people to do something. We can never get anybody to do anything. We can't. But we can live our lives to the best of the light shining within us and let the spirit do the rest.

Okay, Bishop B. I'm Liz and I was practicing Episcopal priest. Now I'm just a street preacher on 16th in Mission. Bless you with San Francisco. No, no, no. Don't applaud. Don't applaud. Please don't applaud cuz that's not But what I what I wanted to say to you is that your word your word of liberation that you spoke at the at the National Cathedral reached the people of 16th and Mission. Yeah. Uh people who are unhoused, people who are Latino, people some who have papers, some who don't have those magical papers. And I was moved that when I referenced you in a sermon, they knew who you were. So now I know you speak to a lot of very important people. And I was wondering if tomorrow we're doing our service again. It's going to be um it's going to be we're a little ahead of schedule uh because it's our passion service. What can I tell? What message can I take to you directly to J D to MA to Maris to Tom the people who gather there who have been so spiritually abused by churches by the church they need I want to be able to say hey I saw her that woman that I mentioned I saw her and you know what she told me to tell you she told me to tell you. God loves you. [Applause]

Well, you already know because you live it every day, right? You embody the love of God for them. And I would do the same if I were there. So, it's it's um it's not me, it's all of us, right? It's all of us. I said what you would have said, right? I said what you would have said in that moment that we that these are human beings that are being discuss described as as criminals and perverts and dangers to our society. We know that's not true. So just do what you do and tell them I said hi. Right. So just to be clear, you said hi. Yeah. I said and you are not criminals. Don't believe what they say. Yeah. You are beloved. You are God's children. Yeah.

It Can I hold it? Thank you. All right. Hello. It's good to see you. I haven't seen you since Easter Vigil at the National Cathedral. And I have an Easter card for you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everything you say to us all in public. And um since then I walked to 2,460 individuals doors knocking asking to get out the vote in six swing states and we're just blocks away from where Kamala was a girl and I think I'm still grieving. I'm still grieving. We were so close to the beloved community somehow in the heart of our politics and I'm asking like what more should I do to put my grief down to give it to God so that I can be engaged as you so aptly describe.

Thank you. Grief is grief. It takes its time. I can't tell you to get over it, right? That's not how it works. I will tell you that um I don't I don't know the vice president well at all. I've had the pleasure of shaking her hand three times. Um, and the last time was at Jimmy Carter's funeral and which was the last real gathering real both sides of the aisle, Washington power community all showed up. They all showed up and uh the famous picture was of presidents Obama and Trump chatting it up before the service. But when she came in and she shook my hand, I just like you. I felt this just huge wave of grief, right? Like it should have been you. And she just looked me in the eye and she smiled and she said, "Merry Christmas." Right? So I had this sense, okay, she's going on. She's moving on. She's moving on. She looked great. She looked great and I thought, "Okay, we take our courage from one another and she gave it to me that day." Yeah.

Okay. Hello. Hi. I'm an Episcopal priest serving in the Dasis of California and as I like to say, a perpetual PhD student in comparative literature at Cal. So, a foot in three great institutions. I really appreciated the way that you looked at Bella's work over time and at different in different decades at different times of his life. And um I'm reminded of Margaret Miles in her recent writing on Augustine um recently published book called Beautiful Bodies in which she also looks at Augustine over time and and comes to realize that Augustine very late in life saw identity being with the collective the body of Christ. And so I'm really struck in this in this quotation that you you keep bringing to us from beginning to end about our greatest contribution being as Christians who we are. Exactly. And earlier also you you pointed to another quotation in which he says that we are we are made by our community. Um we're not individuals alone. Right. So I'm wondering if you could just say more pointedly. avoiding the temptation to say to find the I and the Wii. Oh yeah, it's who I am in that Wii. But no, our greatest contribution is who we are. How is we a theological category, a relational category, a category that is religious and political at the same time? It may be best religious and political. um maybe mirroring the I am of God. You have said it and beautifully. I could not even begin to improve upon that the exp that what you just said is all of it. Thank you. Thank you. I think we have time for I think one more question. How many more? We can have two two more questions. Two more questions here. Can ultimate. We'll finish up here. Go ahead.

First, I want to give shout out to our rabbi Kai Liby who's sitting right over here and all the members of the Netivote Shalom community of which there are at least 10 I've counted so far. And the St. Mark's Choir where I think there are probably 20 in the audience today because we go straight to choir practice. My question is based on a a comment I heard on Substack yesterday where somebody said, "What is this word solidarity that everybody keeps using these days?" Solidarity. as someone who spent most of her adult life working in the former Soviet Union, bringing countries into the European community, which grew from six from an idea and secret meetings between Germans and French during World War II, asking the question, how do we make war unthinkable as well as impossible? And it grew while I was working there from six countries to 27 with nine countries standing in line to enter. So what does solidarity mean to you in your context?

One more Sam and and briefly please. I actually only have a short comment. I came from Palo Alto. I'm a professor of Jewish studies at Stanford but an alum from the GTU but the reason why I'm standing here is I grew up in Germany in a liberal Christian Protestant um family community and I promised my sister that I would come and say how much she admires you uh and not her and just her but you gave so so many people in Germany in the liberal churches there. Um courage, first of all, courage to go on the streets and in the demonstrations against the ultraight in the recent elections, but also I hope that there is still another America uh with a public face. And um lastly, I want to lift up another name uh which is Dietri Bonhuaha who uh the today is the 80th anniversary of his murder. His murder. Yes. The Nazis and many people in Germany connect you now with the legacy of Bonhifa. Thank you. Thank you. Mhm.

Again I would say to the first person who spoke about solidarity, the example that you gave is an extraordinary expression of solidarity. Um seeing ourselves um seeing each other seeing our destinies wound up in one another. seeing our thriving in the thriving of others and finding ways to um bridge what feel to be an insurmountable differences in working toward a common vision and you described that and I want to thank you and and thank you also for the greeting from Germany which means a lot and we have two two quick questions two quick questions here I'm not I don't think you guys do quick questions just saying haven't heard one yet, but um my question is quick, but first I want to say Barbara Lee, no, hear me on. Barbara Lee was our is was our congresswoman in this area for a long time. Yeah. She had a slogan that we always saw on the political signs. Barbara Lee speaks for me. And I think I speak on behalf of everybody in this room, Mary and Bud speaks for us. Yeah. [Applause]

A lot of what you've said is from the pastoral side of the Christian faith. How do you approach the possibility that Christian nationalism is based on heresies? And how do you address the evil actions that we have seen from certain recent administrations? Quick but big. And one more question. I'd love you to answer that. Thank you.

Uh firstly, peace to you and peace to everyone that's here. I believe that there is an alignment here. And I'm very sensitive when I'm in spaces that don't feel aligned. So I mean that sincerely. I like the Apostle Thomas because I have a lot of doubts. I would like to ask you as a person from the Caribbean, colonized by the Anglican Church, that has a very deep knowledge of the history of your faith and of the behaviors of your predecessors and the wealth that continues. use to to grow exponentially on the backs of my ancestors. How do you speak to two things in the name of everything that the son of a carpenter who had nothing? How do you speak to two things? The fear that people have of me without even knowing who I am just by seeing me walk down the street and the privilege to be able to jump from one side to the other and to say I'm your brother and sister in one breath but not on my lawn. Thank you.

Good questions. Yes, Bishop Buddy. racism, white privilege, the accumulation of wealth by the slave trade, and other forms of embodied oppression are the legacy of our church. And that over generations, bit by bit, many of our ancestors have tried to overcome that or to acknowledge it. And every generation has its task. and uh we're in the midst of one right now which is a reckoning and a conversation about reparations. Right? So we're doing that work. Um it's not enough. It's but to do nothing is is such a because it's not enough is a similar response to every other impossible situation that we that we face right now. So thank you for that. It's similar to the s the first question about evil. Um the evil is daunting. None of us are innocent, right? We know that. I mean we may be enjoying the solidarity we have uh and the feelings of I don't want to say disdain but maybe it's disdain, confusion, contempt, disgust that we feel for those who are at the helm of all the things that are at work now. But none of us are innocent. none of us, at least none of us that look like me in institutions that I serve. So, there's a lot of humility and a lot of um reckoning that I suspect is still in our future, but I'm up for it. Um I think that's just what we do. And in terms of the acknowledgement of of racism and fear and speaking out on evil, I don't think you can do that pastorally, right? I think you actually have to do that headon. But it's nice. I often what I try this and again this is me, right? Everyone has, you know, I I'm not doing it all, right? I'm trying to do what I can do. And I feel like one of my goals is to be heard. Not just to say what's true, not just to be right, but to be heard. And sometimes that means speaking pastorally, if it's that the right word, or speaking human to human as best I can, but it doesn't work all the time and it's not for every situation. And so there are lots of ways, a lot of tools that we need in our toolbox, a lot of there's a broad repertoire of responses. And there's a place for rage and there's a place for protest and anger and all of those. I just feel like we all have to decide, go deep within ourselves and to be in our communities and decide which lane is ours for this moment and be in solidarity with a whole bunch of other people because none of us are going to do this alone. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Thank [Music] you. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause]