Fundamentalist influence, opposed Redskins team name: 7 interesting facts about Bishop Budde

By Michael Gryboski, Editor Thursday, January 30, 2025

2. Credits fundamentalist Christianity with giving her 'first conscious experience of Christ'

The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde speaks to 'The View' co-host Joy Behar on Jan. 22, 2025. — The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde speaks to "The View" co-host Joy Behar on Jan. 22, 2025. | Screengrab/X/The View

While a notable religious and political progressive, Budde has credited theologically conservative Christianity with what she once called her “first conscious experience of Christ.”

In an interview with The Washington Post in 2011, Budde briefly talked about being a teenager whose faith was empowered by her connections to a conservative Christian community.

“They had a clear, 'This is how you accept Jesus, this is how you become baptized, this is how you invite him to be your Lord and savior' thing. I didn't know what all that meant, but I wanted that,” she recalled. “My heart was a lonely place. And the idea that Jesus would want to come into my heart — that was life-changing for me.”

Nevertheless, Budde continued, “I could not make sense of what they were saying: that there was one narrow path to salvation, and if you didn't take it, you'd be denied.”