Budde, 65, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC, was chosen to deliver the message Tuesday at the National Cathedral. Near the end of her message Budde, with Trump, Vice President JD Vance and their wives feet away, had lots to say to the new administration about her version of mercy:
Budde: “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. 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 meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals … 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.”
Budde has since made the media circuit, granting interviews to multiple news outlets and appearing on ABC’s left-wing daytime talk show, “The View.”
Trump unimpressed, wants an apology
The National Cathedral, officially known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is an Episcopal cathedral. The setting seemed ripe for this type of confrontation given the Episcopal Church’s longtime embrace of pro-LGBTQ issues, most recently the plight of transgenders in the U.S.
A prominent Southern Baptist pastor contends the bishop's accusations were misguided.
“It’s just foolhardy to blame President Trump for causing fear among LGBTQ children. All he’s done is say that there are two genders, male and female; and then he’s accused of being an immigration ogre for simply enforcing [immigration] laws that are already on the books,” Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, told AFN.
Jeffress – one of the first evangelical leaders to endorse Trump almost 10 years ago – delivered the sermon at the inaugural prayer service in 2017 as Trump began his first term.
Trump offered a few comments to media upon leaving the service on Tuesday then said more on his platform Truth Social later in the day.
“Apart from her inappropriate comments, the service was very boring and uninspiring,” he wrote. “She is not very good at her job. She and her church owe the public an apology.”
No apology but not my enemy
Budde has not offered an apology but told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she will continue to pray for Trump. “I don’t consider him an enemy,” she stated.
Perhaps not, but while lecturing Trump on the virtues of illegal immigrants – many of them no doubt true – Budde failed to mention the violent criminals, the flow of dangerous drugs, or enemies of America – who have had easy access to the country as millions poured across the southern border during the Biden administration.
The U.S. House just this week passed the Laken Riley Act which would give Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers greater authority to detain illegal immigrants. The bill is named for Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was killed by illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra last February. Ibarra, who has since been sentenced to life in prison, had been previously arrested but was never detained by ICE.
Allen Mashburn, a pastor and conservative media contributor, reacted today on American Family Radio.
“You cannot read the Bible and not see God's involvement in political affairs of men. Obviously, he established civil government, and he calls us to be engaged in civil government. That's salt and light,” the pastor shared.
Where Budde missed the boat was with her sources of information, according to Mashburn. They aren’t scriptural, he told show host Jenna Ellis.
“Those views have to be formed and have a foundation in the Word of God. You’re never going to get up and be a proponent of anything that is contrary to the Word of God. If you allow the Lord to lead the narrative, he will never lead any one of us to preach or teach or be a proponent of anything that is contrary to His Word.”
Trump declared in his inauguration address on Monday that “it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
Not her first Trump-bashing
Budde had been critical of Trump before Tuesday, describing his views and behavior as opposite those of Jesus.
In 2020 as Budde led her congregants in support of those protesting the death of George Floyd while in the hands of Minneapolis police, she told ABC News, “I’ve given up speaking to President Trump. We need to replace President Trump.”
Violence marked many of those 2020 protests nationwide.
Since he first ran for president, Trump’s life has been on public display more than ever before. It’s not hard to find behavior Jesus Christ would oppose – nor is it hard to find where God’s Word stands on gender.
Trump’s positions as a candidate and president have led to the support of many Christian voters in all three of his campaigns. “This so-called bishop should have used her message to encourage the president,” Jeffress argues. “Instead, she used it to insult him.”
The individual and the Episcopal Church’s position made it easy to intersect with controversy this week, Mashburn said.
There’s a “whole issue about where we’ve seen the Episcopal Church go and how it’s become nothing but a talking point. This was a paganistic act, what she did, when compared to the Word of God. This is abusing a time of national importance, and this is really infused by Satan himself,” he added.
