‘I won’t apologize’ for the sermon: NPR

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde (left) arrives as President Trump looks on during the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral on January 21 in Washington, DC

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Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde joined NPR’s All things considered on Wednesday to discuss her hope that President Trump’s new administration would show compassion to vulnerable communities after a sermon she gave on Tuesday.

“I decided to ask him as gently as I could to have mercy,” Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, said of her plea to Trump, telling All things considered“how dangerous it is to talk about people in these broad categories, and especially immigrants, who are all criminals or transgender children are somehow dangerous.”

“To be united as a country with so many riches of diversity, we need mercy. We need compassion. We need empathy. And instead of listing it as a broad category, as you heard me say, I decided to appeal to the chairman.”

Her appearance on All things considered comes after a prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral where the bishop spoke directly to President Trump, who sat in the front row with Vice President Vance.

“Let me make one last prayer, Mr. President,” Budde said in his 15-minute sermon.

“Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people of our country who are afraid. now, Budde said, turning his gaze to the president.

Trump and his allies quickly criticized the bishop’s remarks, along with a Republican congressman saying that the American-born Budde should be “added to the deportation list”.

Despite the backlash, Budde told NPR that her remarks were sincere and that she did not regret bringing them to the president’s attention.

“I don’t hate the president and I pray for him,” Budde said. “I don’t feel there is any need to apologize for a request for mercy.”

“I regret that it was something that caused the kind of reaction that it has, in the sense that it actually confirmed exactly what I was talking about earlier, which is our tendency to jump to outrage and not talk to each other with respect,” she continued. “But no, I won’t, I won’t apologize for what I said.”

Budde’s plea came just one day after Trump rolled out a series of orders to fulfill some of his most controversial campaign promises, including one that corresponds to the rejection of transgender identitycalling it a “false claim,” and another who would apply to do away with birthright citizenshipwhich has already faced legal challenges.

Budde said those orders and Trump’s rhetoric have stoked fear among society’s most vulnerable.

“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some fearing for their lives,” Budde said.

“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 in restaurants and work night shifts in hospitals, they – they may not be citizens or have proper documentation But the vast majority Immigrants are not criminals, they pay taxes and are good neighbors.

Trump criticized Budde’s statements, writes after midnight Wednesday morning on his Truth Social platform: “The so-called bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service Tuesday morning was a radical left-wing die-hard Trump hater.”

“She brought her church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone and not persuasive or clever.”