[Episcopal News Service] Iowa Bishop Betsey Monnot on June 9 released a letter she sent to U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst after her recent comments drew extensive public coverage. It was posted on the diocesan website and social media.
In the letter she notes that while they both describe themselves as Christians, “you and I understand what that means very differently,” Monnot said.
Pew Research Center identifies Ernst as Lutheran.
Monot sent the letter to Ernst’s office on June 4 but hasn’t received a reply, she told Episcopal News Service.
The senator’s first comment came during a May 30 town hall meeting in Parkersburg as Ernst was explaining proposed cuts to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), and Medicaid in the federal budget bill that has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives but awaits action in the Senate.
At one point a person in the audience shouted, “People will die,” to which Ernst said, “People are not … well, we all are going to die.” As the crowd groaned, she added, “So, for heaven’s sakes. For heaven’s sakes, folks.”
Monnot said she found Ernst’s comments “very dismissive of some really important issues that are central to the Gospel,” but she didn’t think they rose to a level that required her to respond.
That changed after Ernst’s second comments, this time made in an Instagram video in which she seemed to apologize for her town hall remarks before noting that she wasn’t aware that everyone there didn’t understand that “we all will perish from this earth,” adding that she was glad she didn’t have to bring up the tooth fairy. She then added that for those who wanted “eternal and everlasting life,” she encouraged people to “embrace my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
“At that moment, the senator crossed over from her lane to my lane,” Monnot told ENS. “My lane is the Gospel lane.” And as bishop and the chief evangelist of the Diocese of Iowa, “I couldn’t not respond to somebody from Iowa with a national platform being, as I said in the letter, unkind, and claiming that as part of her faith in Jesus Christ.”
In her letter, Monnot said that as a Christian, Ernst certainly is aware of the times Jesus healed those who were sick. “He did it without asking whether they were eligible or deserving of his care,” she wrote. Noting the Gospel stories of how Jesus fed people, she added, “For Jesus, no one was unworthy of being fed. Again, that’s because that is who Jesus is.”
Recalling Ernst’s video invitation to people to “embrace Jesus Christ,” Monnot wrote, “Your recent comments at a town hall meeting, followed by your unkind video, indicate to me that you have forgotten what it means to truly embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You are not showing care for the people who Jesus called ‘the least of these who are members of my family.’”
While assuring Ernst of her prayers, Monnot closed by saying, “Today I call upon you to turn again to Jesus whom you claim as Lord, to embrace him, and to serve all people as you would want to serve him. Because it is by your works, not by your words, that Jesus and the world will know your faith.”
So far, responses to the letter have been positive, Monnot said. After posting it to her personal Facebook page, she received 53 comments all in support. The letter drew three comments on the diocese’s Facebook page, all positive.
This isn’t the first time she has spoken publicly on important issues. That’s because she said she sees it as her responsibility as bishop “to respond with the voice of the Gospel to things that are happening” in the world.
In February Monnot testified at the Iowa Capitol against an anti- trans bill, and in October 2024 she addressed a gathering in Des Moines organized by Interfaith Alliance, a group that fights Christian nationalism.
— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.