‘Desperate’: Pastors, conservatives criticize Episcopal bishop for ‘weaponizing’ pulpit against Trump

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 backlash from fellow pastors as well as critics on social media for “weaponizing” the pulpit instead of promoting unity.

“Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She is the first woman in that position. Today she is given a great honor, an opportunity to unite America around the Christian message at the dawn of a new administration. Instead, she embarrassed herself with a lecture you would have heard on CNN- on or episode of The View, what a shame,” Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk posted on X.

Catholic Vote, a conservative nonprofit, added on X, “Liberal Protestant pastor Mariann Edgar Budde blindsides Trump and Vance, using her sermon to attack them in front of their families saying they should ‘have mercy’ on gay, lesbian and transgender children. Unbelievable .”

Trump and Vance, along with their 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 a prayer service the day after a presidential inauguration since 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in.

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However, this year’s service took a turn when the bishop of a Protestant church warned that gay and transgender children were allegedly “fearing for their lives” and that Trump should “have mercy”, before turning his attention to illegal immigrants living in the US- in.

Trump and Vance seemed visibly annoyed by the comments, while Trump looked awaywhile Vance glanced at Trump.

“In the name of our God, please have mercy on the people of our country who are afraid right now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families, let them fear for their lives,” Mariann Edgar Budde claimed in the church service.

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“And the people who harvest our crops, clean our office buildings, work in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority immigrants are not criminals,” she continued.

Pastor and former NFL star Jack Brewer told Fox News Digital that the sermon was “just the beginning of a desperate attempt by Democrats to race America back into the destructive hands of DEI.”

“The fact that President Trump demanded that God remain the foundation of America should have received nonpartisan praise from all of our nation’s clergy. We are addressing DEI and vigilance in our government and businesses, and it is time to address vigilance in our churches,” he said. is.

Pastor Rob Pacienza of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida and founder of the Institute for Faith and Culture strongly condemned the comment in a statement to Fox Digital.

“Ironically, the bishop used the pulpit and service not only to lecture the president, but also to promote a secular worldview and her awakened ideology. Unity can only be achieved through commitment to biblical truth, not through cultural assimilation. Her sermon was indicative of heresy is taught by the major denominations. Our nation is founded on the truth that there is a God and that He alone defines good and evil,” he said.

Chicago pastor Corey Brooks added that he “wants to know … why she didn’t ask the previous administration to have mercy on these trans kids and immigrants.”

“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 the previous administration ask for mercy on these trans children and immigrants? Where was she when it counted We have children who are so young that they don’t know the ways of this world, and yet we are doing irreparable damage to their bodies — damage that many have since lamented. Where was she when Biden opened the borders and allowed millions of people who knew they were breaking the law to cross,” he said is Brooks to Fox News Digital after the sermon.

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“We knew the day of reckoning was coming. Yet where was her request for compassion then. What the previous administration did was not compassion but ideological malfeasance. They operated on children out of ideology. They let in people from other countries out of ideology. That was not compassion, above all, for our citizens,” he added.

Other critics of the remarks slammed Budde on social media for what they described as an attack on Trump and his policies.

The priest from King’s Church in New York, David Englehard, added in a commentary given to Fox News Digital that “when compassion is divorced from truth, it becomes a counterfeit virtue – easily manipulated, shallow and destructive.”

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“As Christ warned in John 8:44, the father of lies flourishes where truth is rejected, twisting good intentions into instruments of hell. True compassion bows to the authority of law and justice—for its throne is founded on Justice; without them, it is at all is not compassion, but indulgence in sophistry that serves the enemy of God,” Englehard said.

Additionally, country music artist John Rich responded to the sermon by quoting verses. “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I say to you: every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Matthew 12:30”

In a post on Truth Social early Wednesday morning, Trump demanded an apology from the pastor, describing her tone as “mean.”

“The so-called bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service Tuesday morning was a radical left-wing Trump hater. She brought her church into the world of politics in a very unkind way. She was nasty in tone, not convincing or She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants who killed people from prisons and mental institutions because of her inappropriate statements, the service was very boring and uninspiring. She and her church owe the public an apology!” he announced.

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His message came after Budde joined CNN, where she explained that she was addressing Trump directly in the sermon.

“I spoke to him directly. I also, frankly, as you do in every sermonaddressing everyone who listened to that private conversation with the president. Reminding us all that in the people who are afraid in our country, the two groups of people I mentioned are our fellow human beings, and that throughout the entire political campaign they were portrayed in the harshest light which… I wanted to reciprocate as gently as I could by reminding them of their humanity and their and their place in our wider community,” she said.