Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The Washington, DC, pastor who delivered a liberal sermon during a church service attended by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance is facing strong backlash from fellow pastors as well as criticism on social media for “arming ” the pulpit instead of promoting 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 was given a great honor, the opportunity to unify America around a Christian message in the ‘dawn of a new administration. , dishonored with a lecture you’d hear on CNN or an episode of The View,’ posted Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk X.
Catholic Vote, a conservative nonprofit, added to X: “Liberal Protestant pastor Mariann Edgar Budde blindsides Trump and Vance, weaponizing her sermon to attack them in front of their families saying they should ‘have pity” of gay, lesbian and transgender children. . Unbelievable”.
Trump and Vance, along with their respective families, participated in a long presidential tradition of attending the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral the day after the inauguration. The National Cathedral, an Episcopal Church, has hosted the prayer service the day after the presidential inauguration since 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in.
TRUMP TRIALS ‘A NEW ERA OF NATIONAL SUCCESS’, SAYS AMERICA’S ‘DECLINE IS OVER’ IN INAUGURAL ADDRESS
President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Service at 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 were allegedly “fearing for their lives” and that Trump should “have mercy”, before leading the their attention to illegal immigrants living in the United States.
Trump and Vance seemed visibly upset by the comments, as Trump looked to his sideas Vance took 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 fearing for their lives.” Marianne Edgar Budde claimed in the office of the church.
President Donald Trump and Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
REVEREND ASKS TRUMP TO ‘STOP’ IMMIGRANTS, LGBTQ CHILDREN WHO ‘FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES’
“And the people who harvest our crops, clean our office buildings, work on poultry farms and in meatpacking plants, who wash dishes after eating in restaurants and work night shifts in hospitals, may not they are citizens or have the proper 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 the Democrats’ desperate attempts to bring America back into the pernicious hands 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)
“The fact that President Trump demanded that God continue as America’s foundation should have received nonpartisan praise from all of our nation’s clergy. We are addressing DEI and awakening in our government and businesses as well it is time to address the awakening in the churches,” he said.
Pastor Rob Pacienza of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida and founder of the Faith and Culture Institute 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 its awakened ideology. Unity can only be achieved through a commitment to biblical truth, not with cultural assimilation. His sermon was indicative of the heresy taught by the main denominations. Our nation was founded on the truth that God exists, and he alone defines good and evil.” say
Chicago pastor Corey Brooks added that he “would like to know … why the previous administration didn’t call for mercy for these trans children and immigrants.”
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde arrives as President Donald Trump looks on during the National Prayer Service at 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 children and trans immigrants? Where was he when counted. We have children so young that they do not know the ways of this world and yet we are doing irreversible damage to their bodies, damage that many have lamented ever since opened the borders and allowed cross millions of people who knew they were breaking the law,” Brooks told Fox News Digital after the sermon.
Pastor Corey Brooks speaks on Fox News. (Fox News)
A LOOK AT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S FIRST FULL DAY IN THE WHITE HOUSE
“We knew a day of reckoning was coming. Yet where was their plea for compassion then. What the previous administration did was not compassion but ideological malpractice. They operated on children for ideology. They allowed the ‘entry of people from other countries for ideology. This was not compassion, first of all, it must be for our citizens.
Other critics of the comments blasted Budde on social media for what they described as an attack on Trump and his policies.
The pastor of Kings Church in New York City, David Englehard, added in a commentary on Fox News Digital that “when compassion is divorced from truth, it becomes a counterfeit, easily manipulated, shallow and destructive virtue.”
“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 to the authority of law and justice, for his throne is established upon Justice; without these, 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 say to you that all sins and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Matthew 12:30.”
John Rich performs at Flagstock in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Labor Day Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Trump demanded an apology from the pastor in a Truth Social post Wednesday morning, describing his tone as “disgusting.”
“The so-called bishop who spoke at the national prayer service Tuesday morning was a hardline Trump hater from the radical left. He brought his church into the world of politics in a very nasty way. He was a unpleasant tone and was not convincing or intelligent he did not mention the large number of illegal migrants killed in prisons and mental institutions Apart from his inappropriate statements, the service was very boring and not very good. inspiring She and her church owe an apology!
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
His message followed after Budde joined CNN, where he explained that he was speaking directly to Trump in the sermon.
“I was talking directly to him. I was also, frankly, as you do in every sermonspeaking to everyone who was listening through that one-on-one conversation with the president. Reminding us all that in the people who are afraid of our country, the two groups of people I mentioned are our own kind, and that they have been portrayed, throughout the political campaign, in the harshest light that.. . I wanted to counter as gently as I could with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our community,” he said.
