Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde made a heartfelt plea to President Donald Trump during a sermon at the National Cathedral Tuesday.
Budde, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, asked the president to “have mercy” on immigrants and LGBTQ children during the National Prayer Service.
“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said. “There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some who fear for their lives.”
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“The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals… may I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away," she continued.
By the look of discomfort on faces of the Trump and Vance families, who sat in the first two rows of pews, they perhaps weren’t expecting a public rebuke of the president’s policies.
Budde has been frank with Trump before. In 2020, during the George Floyd protests, the bishop wrote a scathing op-ed in The New York Times criticizing Trump for using tear gas on peaceful demonstrators and then posing in front of St. John’s Church for a photo-op.
“The President just used a Bible and one of the churches of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for,” Budde wrote.
Since 1993, the National Cathedral has hosted the prayer service the day after Inauguration Day. The multi-faith service is traditionally attended by the president and vice president.
