Hearing Trump’s inauguration speech, she felt compelled to call for mercy & compassion
- Kathy Baldock
- Jan 23
- 5 min read
RENO, Nev. | Rarely do sermons go viral. This week, however, a sermon spoken by Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, has been heard around the world.
Bishop Budde directed a plea toward President Donald J. Trump during the Service of Prayer for the Nation, a traditional post-inauguration day service held each year at the Washington National Cathedral.
Near the close of her fourteen-minute sermon on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, Bishop Budde took a noticeable pause and looked directly at President Trump. She appealed to his leadership and began,
“Millions have put their trust in you. As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.” She continued, “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” With a gentle tone and slow cadence, the Bishop spoke about “gay, lesbian, and transgender children” and their families “who fear for their lives.”
She also made a plea for immigrants who “may not be citizens or have the proper documentation” but nonetheless labor in poultry farms, meat-packing plants, restaurant kitchens, fields, and hospitals. She reminded President Trump,
“They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara and temples." Bishop Budde asked President Trump to also have mercy on those fleeing wars and persecution who want new homes in the United States.
As she spoke, the cameras focused on President and Mrs. Trump, Vice President and Mrs. J.D Vance, and several members of the Trump family. Their collective tension and irritation were quietly visible. President Trump glanced down and away from her gaze. Her closing words were clear paraphrases lifted directly from the Bible,
"Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land. May God grant us all the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, speak the truth in love, and walk humbly with one another and our God for the good of all the people of this nation and the world."
I knew praise and backlash would be quick in coming. I’ve spent over four decades in the evangelical world. As a young woman, I homeschooled my children, led Bible studies, and voted straight Republican tickets. For the past two decades, however, I’ve been an educator and activist for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in churches. I’ve known the ultra-conservative
Evangelical and the progressive, inclusive evangelical worlds; the two have become deeply polarized over the past decade.
Along with thousands I align with, we applauded the bravery and directness of Bishop Budde’s words. Most of us see her as a courageous prophet who spoke truth to the world’s most powerful political leader. The conservative branch I was once part of has migrated into Christian Nationalism around President Trump. He is surrounded by religious leaders who support and encourage his policies which, for Christians in the more progressive sectors, are antithetical to the ways of Jesus.
The sides quickly and sharply divided on social media platforms.
Asked about the service, Trump told a reporter, “I don’t think it was a good service, no. She (Bishop Budde) was nasty in tone and not compelling or smart.” Later that evening, Trump did the predictable. He lashed out at Bishop Budde on Truth Social He labeled her a “so-called Bishop.”
Bishop Budde was ordained in 1989. She served in Episcopal churches in Minnesota before being elected Washington’s first female bishop in 2011. Her church home and base are the National Cathedral, a cathedral of the Episcopal church.
In his Truth Social post, Trump added that the Bishop “was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater.”
Bishop Budde and President Trump have crossed paths before. Following the murder of George Floyd, protests took place in Lafayette Park, directly north of the White House. On June 1, 2020, Trump ordered the police to clear the park by force with tear gas. He then paraded with an entourage to a position in front of St. Johns’s Episcopal Church, posed for reporters with a Bible in his hand, saying, "We have the greatest country in the world. Keep it nice and safe.” Then, the entourage left. No warning had been given to the clerics at the Episcopal church, nor had permission been sought.
Bishop Budde was visible amongst the clergy, objecting to the incident and supporting the protesters in the following days.
Trump continued his Truth Social rant, calling the Bishop’s tone “ungracious” and “nasty,” declaring her “not compelling or smart” and the service “boring and uninspiring.” He called for her and her church to publicly apologize.
In interviews following the sermon, Bishop Budde discussed her sermon preparation. The planning began during the summer before it was known who would win the election. Bishop Budde outlined three foundations she wanted to talk about to unify the country: honesty, humility, and a call to honor the dignity of all people. After hearing Trump’s Inauguration speech the night before, she felt compelled to add a call for mercy and compassion in the hours before the sermon.
Bishop Budde did not anticipate the level of rage and attack directed at her. Her character, Christian status, physical appearance, sexuality, motives, education, and right to be a member of the clergy were attacked. One Republican congressman called for her to be deported. Trump-supporting religious leaders, including Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas, Franklin Graham, Todd Starnes, and assorted podcasters, worship leaders, and pastors, demanded the bishop be fired, repent, and step down. Their followers skewered Bishop Budde in their comments on social media.
A Jesus-like call directed at Trump for compassion and mercy extended to LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and asylum-seekers sparked both outsized contempt for Bishop Budde and exuberant praise. Not only is the US dangerously divided along political lines, but the US Christian church is gradually splitting into factions of Trump Christian Nationalists, progressive Christians who aspire to inclusion, compassion, and mercy, and a middle sector who struggle with both camps.
Who could have imagined that a 65-year-old, gray-haired female Episcopalian bishop’s gently spoken words calling for mercy and compassion could be explosively controversial within the Christian community?
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Kathy Baldock, is the Executive Director of Canyonwalker Connections, based in Reno, Nevada.
She is the author of “Walking the Bridgeless Canyon: Repairing the Breach between the Church and the LGBTQ Community”
Kathy’s research and story are featured in the film, 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture.
