Bishop asks Trump to ‘have mercy’ on LGBTQ children, immigrants

STORY: :: A bishop appeals directly to Trump for ‘grace’

to LGBTQ children, undocumented immigrants

:: January 21, 2025

:: Washington, DC

:: Mariann Edgar Budde

Episcopal Bishop

:: “In the name of our God, I ask you for mercy on the people in our country who are afraid now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives. And those people , the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who work in poultry farms and meatpacking plants… who wash up after we eat at restaurants and work, the night shifts at the hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques, gurdwaras, have mercy on you, with those in our community whose children fear their parents will be taken away and that you help those fleeing war zones and persecution in their own countries to find compassion and welcome here, Our God teaches us that we should be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.

A day after declaring in his inaugural address that there were only two sexes in America and signing executive orders to crack down on immigrants, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde implored Trump, from the pulpit, to show mercy to people who was “afraid” of what is to come.

On Monday, Trump launched a sweeping immigration crackdown that ordered the US military to help border security, issue a broad ban on asylum and take steps to limit citizenship for children born on US soil.

Trump did not seem pleased by the remarks and dismissed them when asked for a reaction later.

“Not too exciting,” he said of Budde’s sermon.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a staunch Trump ally, also slammed Budde’s remarks in a post on his social media platform, X. “She got the waking mind virus really bad,” he said.