![]() With newly inaugurated President Trump in attendance, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde delivered a sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington on Jan. 21. |
DONALD TRUMP'S inaugural ceremony featured the kind of Christian minister he approves of — the kind who is besotted with him. The Rev. Franklin Graham, who had appeared at Trump rallies during the campaign and prayed aloud for his election, delivered an invocation before Trump took the oath of office on Jan. 20 in which he equated the president's victory with God's blessing.
"Mr. President, the last four years there were times I'm sure you thought it was pretty dark, but look what God has done," Graham exulted. Then he addressed the Almighty: "Father, when Donald Trump's enemies thought he was down and out, you and you alone saved his life and raised him up with strength and power by your mighty hand."
One day after the inauguration, the quadrennial interfaith worship service at the Washington National Cathedral featured the kind of Christian minister Trump disapproves of — the kind who calls on him to heed the better angels of his nature and to remember, even as he orders dramatic changes in federal policy, that empathy and mercy are important ideals.
In her homily, the Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, spoke mostly about the need for unity in our polarized society and for resisting the temptation to "mock, discount, or demonize those with whom we differ." Just before concluding, she addressed Trump directly. Acknowledging that millions of Americans have put their trust in the president, she implored him "to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now." She spoke in particular of undocumented migrants facing deportation. Most "immigrants are not criminals," she added. "They pay taxes and are good neighbors."
Budde's tone was respectful, even deferential, but the implied criticism, however brief and gently worded, was more than Trump could abide. He took to social media late that night to slam Budde as a "Radical Left hard line Trump hater" who was "nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart." For good measure he insulted the entire two-and-a-half-hour service, calling it "very boring and uninspiring" and said both Budde and the church "owe the public an apology."
As they always do, Trump's loyalists rushed to amplify his abuse.
Todd Starnes, a host on Newsmax, called Budde a "blasphemous bishop" and the National Cathedral a "sanctuary of Satan" that should be stripped of its tax-exempt status. Representative Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican, recommended that Budde (who was born and raised in New Jersey) be "added to the deportation list." Another Republican, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, accused her of spewing hate. In the New York Post, columnist Miranda Devine fumed that "an egomaniacal female Episcopal bishop sabotaged the Inaugural Prayer Service with a left-wing rant from the pulpit." Robert Jeffress, the right-wing pastor of a Dallas megachurch, accused Budde of having "insulted rather than encouraged our great president" and provoked "palpable disgust."
A few observations.
Budde's politics are undoubtedly left-wing. On issues ranging from gun control to Israel's war against Hamas, she is firmly in the progressive camp. It has been clear for years that she is no fan of Trump's.
A reasonable argument can be made that Budde should have kept her remarks free of anything that smacked of politics. The inaugural-week interfaith service, which has been a tradition since the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, is not meant to be a partisan event but a religious service at which voices from many faiths join in praying for the nation and its leaders in the years to come.
Many people — I am one of them — believe that a house of worship is no place for divisive politics and that clergy risk trivializing the word of God by trying to make it fit a partisan template. After all, there are religiously devout liberals and religiously devout conservatives. They can often be found sitting in the same pews and listening to the same sermon, and they know that God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. When they gather for worship, they don't need or want to hear a political message.
But there is an equally reasonable — and far more venerable — argument to the contrary.
Since antiquity, religious leaders have felt compelled to hold the powerful to account, often at great personal risk. The Bible, of course, is replete with such episodes, like the prophet Nathan confronting King David over his sin with Bathsheba and Elijah condemning King Ahab for his corruption and cruelty. In later centuries, the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas spent decades exhorting the Spanish Crown to end the brutal enslavement and mistreatment of indigenous peoples in the Americas. The Puritan minister Roger Williams challenged the Massachusetts Bay Colony's leadership on issues of religious liberty. Martin Luther King Jr. repeatedly appealed to Judeo-Christian values of justice and mercy as he led the moral fight against racial segregation and the authorities who sustained it.
Nothing is more normal than the invocation of God in our public life. "In God We Trust" appears on all US currency. The Almighty is acknowledged in every state constitution. Every president mentions God in his inaugural address — including Trump, who declared, with typical conceited bombast, "I was saved by God to make America great again."
For anyone who takes religion seriously, the right of a bishop in a church, especially on an occasion charged with political significance, to plead for the vulnerable or to urge those in authority not to lose their humanity ought to be unquestioned. My political views on most issues are far from Budde's. But I cannot fault her decision to take 90 seconds — that's all it was — to gently remind the new president of a teaching as old as the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."
The vitriol directed at Budde from MAGA loyalists reeks of hypocrisy. None of them objected when Trump perverted his inaugural address to heap scorn on the outgoing president to his face. None uttered a word of criticism when Franklin Graham fawned over Trump during the benediction. If Budde had praised a Trump executive order during her homily the following day, they would have applauded her sagacity. But because she suggested that his sweeping new orders ought to be combined with compassion, they berated her. They weren't offended that she brought politics into the pulpit. But her message wasn't Trump-approved, and that was intolerable.
Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.
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