Bishop Marian Edgar Buddwho angered Donald Trump and his conservative allies with his National Prayer Service Sermon Urging the new president to “have mercy on the people who are now afraid in our country,” she speaks in the contemplative and compassionate language of faith. Through it, it seeks to open people to a deeper examination of how their stated beliefs and actions relate, in the great tradition of… Bible commandment To love your neighbor as yourself.
But the caring nature of the spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington did not prevent her from speaking hard truths in difficult times.
Two years into Trump’s first presidential term, Bishop Budd joined other leaders at Washington National Cathedral in criticizing “an escalation of racist rhetoric from the President of the United States.” In a stark statement, Beware Which, He added: “When such violent, dehumanizing words come from the president of the United States, it is a clarion call and gives cover to white supremacists.” In June 2020, when authorities cleared the way during a Black Lives Matter demonstration so that Trump — a vocal critic of the protests that erupted in the wake of the killing of George Floyd Jr. by a Minneapolis police officer — could hold a Bible aloft outside the parish at a home. St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square near the White House, Bud issued a statement on behalf of the diocese, who said, “We do not in any way support the President’s inflammatory response to a wounded and grieving nation. “In devotion to our Savior who lived a life of nonviolence and sacrificial love, we stand with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd.”
The bishop explained that he “took the sacred symbols of our tradition and stood in front of the House of Prayer fully expecting it to be a celebratory moment,” and said, “There was nothing I could do but speak out against it.”
It was an equally sincere urge to say what needed to be said that prompted the bishop to make a moving appeal to the 47y President on Tuesday, when Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance attended the traditional National Prayer Service at the cathedral. At the conclusion of the roughly 15-minute sermon, which was filled with biblical references and what she described as a “prayer for unity,” Bishop Budd looked toward the president and said:
“Let me make a final plea. Mr. President, millions have placed their trust in you. As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of God I ask you to have mercy on the people of our country who are now feeling afraid. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in democratic families Republican and independent, some of them fear for their lives and for the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who work in our poultry farms and packing plants. Meats, who wash dishes after eating in restaurants, and work night shifts in hospitals, may not be citizens or have the proper documents, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are loyal members of our churches, mosques, and synagogues And our gurdwaras and temples.
“I ask you, Mr. President, to have mercy on those whose children in our communities fear their parents will be taken from them, and to help those who are fleeing zones of war and persecution in their lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us to be merciful to the stranger, because we were all strangers in This earth. May God give us the strength and courage to respect the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, to walk humbly with one another, and to be our God for the good of all people. All people in this nation and the world.
Trump’s initial reaction was dismissive. “I don’t think it was good service” He said, They feel that they “could do much better.”
But as the hours passed, Bishop Budd’s sermon went viral. It has been widely circulated on social media by prominent religious leaders such as Rev. James Martin, SJ, A Jesuit priest who works as editor-at-large for the Catholic magazine America. “This is my Christianity,” the journalist declared. charlotte Clymer, Who often writes about issues of religion. Singer and songwriter Bill Madden He praised Budd’s sermon as “a sermon for the ages.” Wednesday, Joy Behar He interviewed the bishop on ABC The view She said she had shown “more courage than anyone in Congress right now.”
The response was not good with Trump.
In a social media post Tuesday evening claimed that, He said: “The so-called bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was from the radical, hard-line, Trump-hating left. She brought her church into the world of politics in a very inappropriate way. “She had a bad tone, and she was not convincing or intelligent.” After repeating his criticism of the immigrants, the president concluded that “aside from her inappropriate remarks, the service was extremely boring and uninspiring.” She’s not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!
Trump has quarreled with religious leaders before. When Pope Francis criticized the president’s 2016 proposal to build a wall along the southern US border – the pope said: “The person who only thinks about building walls, wherever he may be, and not building bridges, is not a Christian…” – Trump denounce She called the Pope’s letter “disgraceful” and accused the Mexican government of “using the Pope as a pawn.”
Just this week, Pope Francis vetoed Resolution 47y Presidents’ proposals for mass deportation of immigrants Saying that, “It makes poor, miserable people with nothing foot the bill,” they add. “That won’t work! That’s not the way to work things out. That’s not the way to work things out.”
In the United States, there is a long history of pastors criticizing presidents. In several of his last great sermons, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: He preached against the policies of the Vietnam War For former President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat who stood with Dr. King in support of civil rights. In 2006, when former President George W. Bush attended the funeral of King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, Pastor Joseph Lowry, A prominent figure in the civil rights and anti-war movements recalled, “She called on nations to study war no longer… and lamented the terror caused by our smart bombs on distant missions.”
As the president, whose administration three years ago led the United States into war on the grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, sat a few feet away from him in the sanctuary of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta, Lowry said in a growling voice: “I know now that there were no weapons.” Total devastation there. But Coretta knew, and we know, that there were weapons of diversion here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For the war, billions more, but no more for the poor.
Pastor Lowry has been criticized for his funeral sermon. “I certainly didn’t mean it to be bad behavior,” he replied. “I meant to draw attention to the fact that Ms. King spoke truth to power. This was an opportunity to show how she spoke the truth to power about this war and all wars.
Bishop Budd offered a similar thought about her choice to make a call for mercy in her sermon. When asked on Wednesday if she thought her message had been “misunderstood and politicized,” she said: I asked, “How can this not be politicized, right? We are in an overly political climate.”
But, then, the bishop explained, “One of the things I warn against is the culture of contempt in which we live which immediately rushes to the worst possible interpretations of what people say and puts them into categories – like the ones I have just described. This is part of the air we breathe now.” “I was trying to tell the truth that I felt needed to be told, but to do so in as respectful and kind a way as I could, and also bring other voices into the conversation, voices that had not been heard in the audience space for some time.”