Unless you’ve been in a coma, you’re no doubt aware of the sermon Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde gave at a “Service of Prayer for the Nation” held at Washington National Cathedral Jan. 21.
The bishop preached a gospel message and appealed directly to President Donald Trump on the second day of his presidency to “show mercy” to people who live in fear of his political agenda. Trump and his allies went berserk over the sermon, and there’s a Republican-backed bill pending in Congress to censure Budde for her sermon — a bill that’s an unthinkable violation of the Constitution and freedom of religious expression.
Mark Wingfield
One month later, it is obvious Bishop Budde didn’t go far enough. She rightly appealed for mercy for immigrants and LGBTQ people but didn’t know she should have mentioned federal workers, educators, South Africans, Ukrainians and so many others Trump and his minions have no mercy toward. It turns out the only people Trump doesn’t want to scare are those who do his bidding.
The bishop was not wrong. She just cut the list too short. Because as cruel as we feared a second Trump presidency would be, it has turned out to be far worse. Unimaginably worse. In just one month.
A few questions for any Trump voters who might stumble across this piece:
- Did you really intend to ally the United States with Vladimir Putin and Russia against all our democratic allies in the world? Did you want us to become the crazy drunk uncle of the free world?
- Did you really intend to ally the United States with the legacy of apartheid in South Africa and against the freedom work of Desmond Tutu?
- Did you really intend to fire FAA air traffic controllers when there’s already a shortage and planes are falling out of the sky?
- Did you really intend to fire the workforce that handles our nuclear arsenal?
- Did you really intend for violent January 6 rioters — who murdered and maimed police officers — to be set loose in the world without consequence?
- Did you really intend to wreck the research infrastructure that helps us live healthier and longer lives?
- Did you really intend to expel 2 million Palestinians from their homeland — again — in order to build a beachfront Taj Mahal on the sands where 40,000 Gazans were murdered?
A month ago, you all said, “Oh, he won’t actually do any of that stuff! He just talks big.” But it turns out he really meant what he said — and a lot more.
“If you’re still upset with the bishop, understand how much more she could have said.”
Appealing for mercy for immigrants and the LGBTQ community was just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re still upset with the bishop, understand how much more she could have said.
She began her sermon with this statement: “Joined by many across the country, we have gathered this morning to pray for unity as a nation — not for agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division, a unity that serves the common good.”
That alone should have been controversial to the Trump acolytes seated in the cathedral because they already knew that’s not the kind of unity Trump and Vice President JD Vance had in mind. They knew they were on a mission toward forced conformity, not democratic unity.
Bishop Budde continued: “Unity, in this sense, is the threshold requirement for people to live together in a free society, it is the solid rock, as Jesus said, in this case upon which to build a nation. It is not conformity. It is not a victory of one over another. It is not weary politeness nor passivity born of exhaustion. Unity is not partisan.”
No wonder JD Vance already was smirking by this point. The words of the gospel were falling on deaf ears already plotting evil.
Before she ever got to the direct appeal to Trump, the preacher issued a call to action: “Our Scriptures are quite clear that God is never impressed with prayers when actions are not informed by them. Nor does God spare us from the consequences of our deeds, which, in the end, matter more than the words we pray.”
And there’s where the uproar should have happened in response to the sermon, but it did not. “God spare us from the consequences of our deeds, which, in the end, matter more than the words we pray.”
“And there’s where the uproar should have happened in response to the sermon, but it did not.”
The unimaginable hell America is beginning to experience — which is not a “Golden Age” by the way — is the consequence of our deeds. Our deeds of greed and self-interest and ignoring the truth of Scripture are bearing rotten fruit.
The bishop hinted at this but we could not imagine how prophetic she was: “It goes without saying that in a democracy, not everyone’s particular hopes and dreams will be realized in a given legislative session or a presidential term or even a generation. Not everyone’s specific prayers — for those of us who are people of prayer — will be answered as we would like. But for some, the loss of their hopes and dreams will be far more than political defeat, but instead a loss of equality, dignity and livelihood.”
Bishop Budde was not just a preacher; she was a prophet that day.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality.
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