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He Washington, D.C., pastor who delivered a liberal sermon during a church service attended by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance is facing fierce backlash from fellow pastors as well as criticism on social media for “weaponizing the pulpit instead.” to promote unity”.
“Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She is the first woman to hold the position. Today she has been given a great honor, the opportunity to unify America around a Christian message at the dawn of a new administration. He disgraced himself with a lecture you would hear on CNN or an episode of The View. What a shame,” Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk posted on X.
Catholic Vote, a conservative nonprofit, added in gay, lesbian and transgender children. . Incredible.”
Trump and Vance, along with their respective families, participated in a long-standing presidential tradition of attending the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral the day after the inauguration. The National Cathedral, an Episcopal Church, has hosted the prayer service on the day after the presidential inauguration since 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office.
President Donald Trump attends the national prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
This year’s service, however, took a turn when the Protestant church’s bishop warned that gay and transgender children allegedly “fear for their lives” and that Trump should “have mercy,” before turning his attention to immigrants. illegals living in the US
Trump and Vance seemed visibly upset by the comments. while Trump looked to his sideas Vance shot a look at Trump.
“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people of our country who are now afraid. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some of whom fear for their lives.” Marianne Edgar Budde claimed in the church service.
President Donald Trump and Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
REVEREND ASKS TRUMP TO HAVE ‘MERCY’ ON LGBTQ IMMIGRANTS AND CHILDREN WHO ‘FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES’
“And the people who pick our crops, clean our office buildings, work in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, wash dishes after eating in restaurants, and work night shifts in hospitals may not be citizens or have the right conditions.” documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” he continued.
Pastor and former NFL star Jack Brewer told Fox News Digital that the sermon is “just the beginning of Democrats’ desperate attempts to bring America back into the pernicious clutches of DEI.”
Former Minnesota Vikings safety Jack Brewer speaks during a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“President Trump’s demand that God remain the foundation of America should have received nonpartisan praise from all of our nation’s clergy. We are addressing DEI and awakening in our government and businesses and it is time to address the wake up in the churches too,” he said.
Pastor Rob Pacienza of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida and founder of the Institute for Faith and Culture criticized the comment in a statement to Fox Digital.
“Ironically, the bishop used the pulpit and the service not only to lecture the president but also to promote a secular worldview and her woke ideology. Unity can only be achieved through commitment to biblical truth, not cultural assimilation. . His sermon was indicative of the “Heresy is taught by the mainline denominations. “Our nation was founded on the truth that God exists, and he alone defines good and evil,” he said.
Chicago pastor Corey Brooks added that he “would like to know… why you didn’t ask the previous administration to have mercy on these trans and immigrant children.”
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde arrives as President Donald Trump looks on during the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral on January 21, 2025 in Washington, DC (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“This bishop asked Trump and his administration to have mercy on trans children and immigrants. What I would like to know is why didn’t he ask the previous administration to have mercy on these trans children and immigrants? Where was she when she was necessary? We have children who are so young that they do not know the ways of this world and yet we are causing irreversible damage to their bodies, damage that many have regretted ever since. Where was she when Biden opened the borders and. allowed millions of people to do it? Did he know they were violating the law when crossing,” Brooks told Fox News Digital after the sermon.
Pastor Corey Brooks speaks with Fox News. (Fox News)
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“We knew the day of reckoning was approaching. However, where was their plea for compassion back then? What the previous administration did was not compassion but ideological negligence. They operated on children out of ideology. They allowed people in of other countries because of ideology. “This was not compassion. “Our compassion must be first and foremost for our citizens,” he added.
Other critics of the comments criticized Budde on social media for what they described as an attack on Trump and his policies.
the shepherd of Kings Church in New York City, David Englehard added in a comment provided to Fox News Digital that “when compassion is divorced from truth, it becomes a false virtue: easily manipulated, superficial and destructive.”
“As Christ warned in John 8:44, the father of lies thrives where truth is discarded, turning good intentions into tools of hell. True compassion bows before the authority of law and justice, because its throne is established upon justice; without them, it is not compassion at all, but indulgence in sophistry that serves the enemy of God,” said Englehard.
Additionally, country music artist John Rich responded to the sermon by quoting Scripture. “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you that all sin and blasphemy will be forgiven the people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Matthew 12:30”
John Rich performs at Flagstock in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Monday, September 2, 2024, Labor Day. (The direct image for Fox News Digital)
Trump demanded an apology from the pastor in a Truth Social post early Wednesday morning, describing his tone as “disgusting.”
“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a left-wing radical who hated Trump. She brought her church into the world of politics in a very rude way. She had an unpleasant tone and was not convincing or intelligent, he did not mention the large number of illegal immigrants who came to our country and killed many people who were deposited in prisons and psychiatric institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the United States the service was very. boring and She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!
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His message followed Budde joining CNN, where he explained that he was speaking directly to Trump in the sermon.
“I was speaking directly to him. Also, frankly, like you do in every sermonspeaking to everyone who was listening during that one-on-one conversation with the president. Reminding us all that among the people who are scared in our country, the two groups of people I mentioned are our fellow human beings, and that they have been portrayed, throughout the entire political campaign, in the harshest light that… I wanted counter as gently as possible with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our broader community,” he said.
