Bishop Mariann Budde asks Trump to show mercy
Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered a powerful and compassionate sermon at a national prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday. While President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance sat in the sanctuary, the bishop challenged the new executive orders harming vulnerable communities, including immigrants and LGBTQ+ Americans.
Predictably, Trump took to Truth Social to denounce the “so-called Bishop” as a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” and accusing her of bringing “her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way.” He dismissed her sermon as “nasty in tone,” “boring” and “uninspiring,” going so far as to demand an apology from her and her church.
Her compassionate sermon does not represent some left-wing fringe of American Christianity.
Neither Budde nor her church should apologize for following Jesus. Despite President Trump and his allies attacking Budde, it’s important to recognize that her compassionate sermon does not represent some left-wing fringe of American Christianity. Budde’s words reflect the values held by a majority of American Christians — a fact that Trump’s divisive rhetoric seeks to obscure.
“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country,” Budde proclaimed. “And we’re scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families — some who fear for their lives.”
Trump and Vance might have been surprised to hear such a strong embrace of LGBTQ rights by a bishop, because the far-right evangelical and Catholic leaders who surround them are the chief purveyors of anti-LGBTQ hate. Yet they’re far from the norm. A strong majority of U.S. Christians — including Catholics and evangelicals — support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
Bishop Budde’s Episcopal Church has been a leader within American Christianity and the worldwide Anglican Communion in advancing LGBTQ rights. Bishop Gene Robinson was elected the first openly gay bishop of a major U.S. denomination in 2003. Robinson’s election must not have rankled Trump too much, because in 2005 he married Melania in an Episcopal church in Palm Beach, and his son Barron attended a private Episcopal school during the first Trump administration.
Bishop Budde also called attention to Trump’s executive actions targeting immigrants.
“The people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals,” she said. “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. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues and temples.”
Full Sermon
A few hours after the sermon, Trump revoked the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s guidance against arresting undocumented immigrants in churches. But as with LGBTQ rights, the president’s virulently anti-immigrant actions are deeply unpopular among American Christians, including Catholics and evangelicals.
Followers of Jesus are going to have to endure the president labeling us the “Radical Left.”
Seventy-five percent of U.S. evangelicals support potential immigration legislation that establishes a path toward citizenship, according to a 2024 survey by LifeWay Research; 91% of them support potential immigration legislation that respects the God-given dignity of every person; and 70% agree that Christians have a responsibility to care sacrificially for refugees and other foreigners.
Budde isn’t the only religious leader calling out Trump’s mass deportations agenda. Pope Francis has named a new Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Robert McElroy, who unequivocally declared mass deportations “incompatible with Catholic doctrine” in his first news conference earlier this month.
Budde’s message was a reflection of Jesus’ call to love our neighbors, to care for the oppressed, and to seek justice for the marginalized. The fact that it’s gone viral across social media is proof that mainstream Christians are hungry for truth-telling, justice-seeking Christian leaders to step up at this critical moment for our democracy and our faith.
Followers of Jesus are going to have to endure the president labeling us the “Radical Left.” Denigrating and attacking the Gospel is necessary for him to push his authoritarian agenda forward. Yes, he will continue to surround himself with court clerics and wave the banner of Christian nationalism. But Trump’s outrage is evidence that, far from being a champion of “religious freedom,” he will treat any attempt to confront his policies in the name of Jesus as a challenge to his authority.
At a time when political and religious divisions threaten to tear the country apart, Budde’s voice reminds us of the power of faith to heal and transform. Her sermon not criticized harmful policies but invited us to build a more just and compassionate society. For Christians across the nation, the choice is clear: to follow the path of fear and exclusion or to embrace the Gospel’s call to love boldly, act justly and stand with the marginalized. Bishop Budde chose the latter — and in doing so, she spoke for the majority of U.S. Christians.
Let her words resonate in our hearts and in our actions for the next four years: “May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and walk humbly with each other and our God.”
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, senior director of policy and advocacy at Interfaith Alliance