Who is Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop who interrupted Trump during an inauguration service?

Washington (AP) – The real Rev. Marianne Budde Made headlines this week after she angered President Donald Trump with her sermon during an opening prayer service.

It wasn’t the first time the pastor has publicly disagreed with Trump, but it became a striking moment in what is usually a bar Scripted event.

Here is more about the Episcopal Bishop of Washington that has continued Speak out in the wake of the president’s mockery.

What did Bishop Budde and President Trump say?

“Let me do it A final pleaMr. President,” the soft-spoken bishop said from the pulpit of the Washington National Cathedral.

“I am asking you to have mercy on the people in our country who are afraid now,” she said.

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

She said “the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” calling them “good neighbors” and “faithful members” of religious communities.

The Trump administration has already issued executive orders rolling back transgender rights and tough Immigration policies.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance looked visibly displeased at times as they sat in the front pew with their wives. Vance raised his eyebrows and said something to Second Lady Usha Vance who was staring straight ahead.

At the White House afterward, Trump said he “didn’t think it was a good service.”

He later called Budde a “radical leftist hardline Trump Hater” on his truth social site and demanded an apology for “her inappropriate statements.”

In one interview Speaking to The Associated Press on Wednesday, Budde said she would continue to pray for the president as is customary in Episcopal worship.

“I do not agree with many of his values ​​and assumptions about American society and how to respond to the challenges of our time,” she said. “I actually strongly disagree. But I think we can disagree. “

She is the first woman to hold her church position

Budde, 65, is the first woman to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, a position she has held since 2011. She oversees 86 churches throughout Washington, DC and Maryland with 38,000 members.

National spokespeople for the Episcopal Church called Budde “a valued and trusted minister.” They said: “We stand by Bishop Budde and her appeal to the Christian values ​​of mercy and compassion.”

Before her current post, she served as parish priest at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis for 18 years.

Budde grew up in New Jersey and Colorado, and for a time as a teenager she identified as an evangelical. Later, she returned to the Episcopal Church, the main Protestant denomination of her childhood.

She is a graduate of the University of Rochester and Virginia Theological Seminary, an Episcopal institution just outside of Washington.

“I am a mother. I’m a grandmother. I’m really interested in the people of our community,” Budde said.

Another kind of prayer service

She revised her sermon over and over.

Budde knew last summer that the theme of the inaugural service would be unity after a “divisive election season.”

“Couldn’t we just recognize that we can’t paint whole groups of people in one broad stroke? It’s the stuff of political campaigning. I understand that. But we run the country now,” she said.

And when she watched the dedication the day before she was to preach, she noticed that Trump-supporting pastors offered a different Christian perspective in their prayers than her own. She hoped to show another way of interpreting the world through the lens of faith.

More than a dozen religious leaders spoke during the cathedral’s interfaith service, including those from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

Notably absent from the pastors invited with speaking roles were conservative evangelicals, who are among Trump’s staunchest supporters and now among Budde’s loudest critics.

The strong reactions to Budde’s sermon fell largely along predictable political and religious lines. Progressive believers found in her an inspiring example of “ Speaking truth to power. Some conservative religious voices found her plea confrontational and disrespectful. Others questioned a woman in a powerful church leadership role that their traditions reserve for men.

Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas, a prominent Trump supporter, was at the service and posted on X that Budde “insulted rather than encouraged our great president” and “there was palpable revulsion in the audience with her words.”

Budde felt some of that pushback as she treated the cathedral aisle after the service. The President did not acknowledge her as she passed.

She believed that framing her words to the president as a plea for clemency “was a very gentle way of doing it because I recognized his authority and his power.”

“I guess I was wrong,” she said.

Budde has clashed with Trump before

The National Cathedral has long been the ceremonial home of High-profile political events. But in 2017 faces criticism From liberal-leaning Episcopalians to hosting Trump’s first inaugural prayer service. While Budde spoke at the service, there was no sermon that year at Trump’s request.

The content of Budde’s words this time should come as no surprise to those who have watched her career.

Budde has joined other cathedral leaders in reprimand Trump’s “racialized rhetoric” and accusation him for inciting violence on January 6, 2021, when A mob of his followers attacked the US capital in an attempt to keep him in power.

Most notably, she said she was “Outraged” In 2020, Trump staged an appearance in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, which is located near the White House. He held up a Bible after the area had been cleared of peaceful protesters.

In 2023, Budde published a book reflecting on the summer of 2020 after the death of George Floyd, when she criticized the sitting president. It is entitled “How we learn to be brave.”

“The capacity to react in such a moment does not fall from the sky, nor is its importance measured by a week’s worth of media coverage,” wrote Budde.

That kind of boldness, she argued, is preceded by countless smaller decisions that call for courage.

“Its ultimate meaning is determined by how we live after the moment passes.”

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Associated Press reporters Darlene Superville and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.

___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs cooperation With the conversation, we are with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. AP solely responsible for this content.