The Bishop of Washington has stood by her comments after making a heartfelt appeal to President Donald Trump during his inauguration.
Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde delivered a 15-minute sermon on January 20, coinciding with the Republican’s re-election, where she took a moment to urge the 78-year-old to show compassion toward the LGBTQ+ community.
The bishop has made it clear she sees no reason to apologize to the president, though she does continue to pray for him.
During her sermon, Right Rev. Budde addressed Trump by saying: “Mr President, 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 upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.
“And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labour in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals – they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”
Trump responded to her remarks after the service, dismissing it as ‘not too exciting’ and stating, “They could do much better.”
He also criticized Budde on his social media platform Truth Social, demanding that she and the church apologize to the ‘public’.
In response to the criticism, Budde appeared on NPR (National Public Radio) to discuss the matter.
“I don’t hate the president, and I pray for him,” the bishop stated. “I don’t feel there’s a need to apologize for a request for mercy.”
“I regret that it was something that has caused the kind of response that it has, in the sense that it actually confirmed the very thing that I was speaking of earlier, which is our tendency to jump to outrage and not speak to one another with respect,” she elaborated. “But no, I won’t, I won’t apologize for what I said.”
In his first 24 hours in office, Trump signed several executive orders, including one stating there are ‘only two genders’ and others aimed at restricting migrant entry into the US.