An Episcopal bishop asked Trump to follow Jesus. Conservatives saw that as an insult.
The right-wing reaction to Right Rev. Mariann Budde's sermon shows that only conservative Christianity matters to Republicans
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If you need any more proof that Christian Nationalism is on the ascendance in this administration, just look at the batshit insane overreactions to a progressive Christian’s Jesus-based sermon on Tuesday.
Speaking at the inaugural prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral, Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, asked Donald Trump and JD Vance to use their power for good.
"Let me make one final plea, Mr. President," Bishop Mariann Budde said in her 15-minute sermon. "Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now," said Budde, as she appeared to look towards the president.
"There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives."
…
"The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they – they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors," said Budde.
…
Towards the end of her sermon Budde said, "I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land."
In any other context, that wouldn’t have been a shocking sermon. Budde was asking the incoming president to care for the “least of these.” To find the humanity in everyone. To uplift instead of tearing down. To act like Jesus demanded during the Sermon on the Mount.
But because this is a Republican administration, a plea to be kind was taken as a personal attack, and Trump used his platforms to attack… Christianity and the woman who dared to speak without wearing a MAGA hat, I suppose.
The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology! t
Apologize for what? Asking the president to be thoughtful?
The idea that she brought the “church into the World of politics” is a joke because she never even mentioned specific policies. She merely asked Trump and Vance to consider the impact their dictatorial desires are going to have on countless families across the country. It was a plea to be kind, and Trump, telling on himself as always, took it personally. The irony is that Trump’s party has proudly and openly welcomed conservative Christianity into Congress. Only one side here is bringing church into politics: Republicans. (“Trump only likes Mass,” Jimmy Kimmel joked afterwards, “when it's followed by the word ‘deportation.’”)
Even if she did bring her religion into politics, it wouldn’t be unusual. If you remember Dr. Ben Carson, the only reason he was ever able to run for president (and later join Trump’s Cabinet) is because he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 and trashed President Obama’s policies from the stage while the president sat in the audience. The same is true of conspiracy theorist Eric Metaxas, who did something similar a year prior to that. Republicans love it when pastors bring up their personal beliefs in front of Democrats… as long as those pastors are sufficiently right-wing.
If they’re talking about Jesus, though, forget it.
And this is besides the point, but if any Democrat criticized any sermon about anything, the conservative media outlets would have a field day with it. But because this was an Episcopal bishop and not an evangelical preacher, Trump will get away with attacking her very existence, denigrating her title, calling her dumb, and demanding an apology from someone just stating her religious beliefs.
She happened to be the wrong kind of Christian… because she’s citing the New Testament.
You could see it in their responses, too. Neither Trump nor Vance smiled, nodded, or applauded as she urged them to help others. They sat there stone-faced knowing full well that a request to not be monsters was directed right at them without her ever having to say their names.
It’s not like Budde’s sermon should have come as a surprise, though. Four years ago, when Trump held up a Bible in front of a church after his team used tear gas to drive away peaceful protesters, Budde published an op-ed in the New York Times urging Trump to open the damn book he was holding up for a photo-op:
Had the president opened the Bible he was holding, he could have read passages calling on us to love God and our neighbor, to seek God in the face of strangers and even to love our enemies. He could have read exhortations calling us all to the highest standard of love, which is justice. He could have even recited texts that warn faith leaders like me about the sin of hypocrisy. Scripture is clear that God is not impressed by prayers unaccompanied by sustained efforts to create a more loving world. “Let justice roll down like waters,” God says through the prophet Amos, “and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Scripture is clear: Justice, which is the societal expression of love, matters most to God. Justice is also what is most important to those who are exercising their right to peaceful protest. They are expressing what we all know to be true: It’s past time to fix a law that allows police officers and vigilantes to go unpunished for crimes against people of color. It’s past time to correct the gross disparities in health care that Covid-19 has revealed. It’s past time to change economic and educational systems that privilege white people.
But none of that matters to the sort of Christians who run the Republican Party. In fact, shortly after Budde’s sermon, Rep. Mike Collins tweeted, “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list.”
She should be deported to who-knows-where because apparently no one is allowed to criticize Glorious Leader anymore…? (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clapped back, “What about the guy who did a Nazi salute behind the presidential seal?”)
MAGA cultist pastor Robert Jeffress was equally outraged on Trump’s behalf, saying Budde “insulted rather than encouraged our great president.”
COVID super-spreader and Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht said in a video, “They should let Christians preach next time.” Pastor Jim Garlow said she was “anti-biblical as it relates to human sexuality” and equated her with a child abuser. Propagandist Matt Walsh cited her as Exhibit A for “why women should not be pastors, priests, or bishops.” There were plenty of others echoing those ideas, too.
Newly minted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Budde “spewed lies” and needed to apologize to Trump.
Then there was FOX:
This is how you know these people treat Jesus as an afterthought. His words are irrelevant; Trump’s power is all they care about.
Trump doesn’t care if white evangelicals like Jeffress bring religion into politics, which they do all the time, because they replaced Jesus with Trump years ago. Cruelty in the name of God is always justified in their minds. But using faith as inspiration to help others? That’s blasphemy.
Even if her exhortation didn’t work, though—since Trump is planning to conduct immigration raids, shut down the app used by asylum seekers, and already signed executive orders against transgender people—that doesn’t mean it was pointless. It’s more important than ever to call these moral monsters out to their faces. They need to know that their actions don’t appeal to decent humans and that no matter how much praise they get for it in their media bubbles, the vast majority of Americans oppose Republican policies (even if they don’t always vote). It’s ironic that the same conservatives who whine about protecting free speech are absolute babies when confronted by speech they don’t like.
Trump has made it a habit to surround himself with sycophants while threatening everyone who doesn’t fall in line. Budde had the chance to speak to him directly in a venue where she couldn’t be interrupted, and she made the most of it. That’s all we can ask of her. It’s not like the mainstream media is holding the Trump Administration’s feet to the fire, so her courage deserves to be applauded. Hell, if Trump actually attended this church, he would hear these words all the time and realize that the sentiments weren’t made just because he was in the audience.
May Budde be the first of many who don’t hold back in condemning this Republican administration at every turn.
Few things anger Donald Trump more than having someone speak truth to his face. Donald Trump has no more respect for religion than he does the Constitution and the rule of law. He will use the preachers as long as they're useful, and throw them under the bus the moment they're not. Who and what Donald Trump amounts to was quite clear long before he ever ran for office. There is no excuse for the country being in this mess, and it's only going to get worse.
A call for compassion = insulting Dear Leader. They probably wouldn't have reacted that way if her call for compassion was for billionaires and white Christian men. They would have lauded the sermon. But nope, the call for compassion was a call to have the bare minimum of decency toward all the people they hate. A call to not skip over Matthew 5 when reading their bibles. A call to be men and not monsters. And that offends them.