The Radical Power of Oneness
It happened quickly. Within the first two weeks of the new administration, the chaos was unleashed—not just through executive orders, policy announcements, and rhetoric but through something even more insidious: the attempt to silence spiritual voices that dared to challenge power.
After the President attended the National Prayer Service at the National Cathedral, where The Right Rev. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde called for compassion and mercy for marginalized communities, House Republicans introduced HR 59—a resolution condemning the sermon and the Bishop’s voice. it reads:
H.Res.59 - Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the sermon given by the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde at the National Prayer Service on January 21st, 2025, at the National Cathedral was a display of political activism and condemning its distorted message.
so far, 22 US House Republicans have signed on.
Let’s pause here.
In the year 2025.
In the United States of America.
A country that prides itself on religious freedom and free speech.
A nation whose founding documents claim to enshrine the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to all of its citizens.
And yet, here we are—watching government officials attempt to leverage their power to silence a bishop for speaking words of compassion, a message at the very heart of gospels themselves.
Since then, Elon Musk has attacked the Lutheran Church’s work in providing critical humanitarian services around the world and has called for the complete shut down of USAID. While Vice President JD Vance attacked Catholic Bishops for their work with immigrants. It would seem that this administration, voted in by the so called “religious right” is one of the most hostile administrations toward religion and religious freedom that we’ve ever seen.
This is not new. History has seen this before.
One of the most chilling examples of a government silencing religious voices was Nazi Germany, where religious leaders who spoke against injustice were threatened, punished, or eliminated. Eventually The playbook is old, and it is dangerous.
But perhaps this moment—the attack on a call for mercy, the overt hostility toward any form of expressing our moral call to be good neighbors, and decent people who honor and defend our differences—is the clearest evidence yet that what we believe has always been radical. And maybe that is exactly what we need it to be right now.
Maybe you didn’t think belonging to an inclusive, loving spiritual tradition anchored in Oneness (such as Unity, Religious Science, Science of Mind, New Thought, expanded consciousness ) was a radical thing.....