Washington National Cathedral / YouTube | Inset: Anna Moneymaker / Shutterstock.com

An Episcopalian bishop who pleaded for mercy from President Trump on behalf of LGBTQ+ and immigrant individuals is being skewered and praised for her sermon. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington delivered the sermon for the Service of Prayer for the Nation, which was attended by newly inaugurated President Trump and Vice President Vance and their families. After speaking on unity and referencing Matthew 7:24-29, Budde turned her attention directly to the President. “Let me make one final plea, Mr President,” she said. “Millions have put their trust in you. As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families who fear for their lives.”

She also referenced those that might be impacted by Trump’s push against illegal immigration. “The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat-packing 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,” she said.

The prayer faced immediate backlash, with Trump criticizing it on Truth Social. “She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart,” he wrote. He noted that the bishop had ignored illegals that had committed crimes in the US since their arrival. He also added that, “Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!” “Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She’s the first woman to hold the position,” wrote Charlie Kirk of TPUSA. “She was given a great honor today, a chance to unify America around a Christian message at the dawn of a new administration. Instead, she disgraced herself with a lecture you’d hear on CNN or an episode of The View. What an embarrassment.”

Budde appeared on “The View” to discuss her decision to address the President. “My responsibility that morning, yesterday morning, was to reflect, to pray with the nation for unity…And then I also realized that unity requires a certain degree of mercy, mercy and compassion and understanding and so knowing that a lot of people, as I said, in our country right now, are really scared, I wanted to take the opportunity in the context of that of service for unity, to say we need to treat everyone with dignity, and we need to be merciful,” she said. “I was trying to counter the narrative that is so, so divisive and polarizing and in which people, real people, are being harmed.”

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