“I will not apologize” for sermon: NPR

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

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

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

“To be united as a country with so many riches of diversity, we need mercy President.”

Your appearance on All in all comes after a prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington, where the bishop spoke directly to President Trump, who was seated in the front row next to Vice President Vance.

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President,” Budde said in her 15-minute sermon.

“Millions have placed their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you felt the divine hand of Providence. 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 her gaze to the president.

Trump and his allies quickly criticized the bishop’s comments. A Republican congressman said that US-born Budde should be “put on the deportation list”.

Despite the backlash, Budde told NPR that her comments were sincere and that she doesn’t regret bringing them to the president’s attention.

“I don’t hate the president and I pray for him,” Budde said. “I don’t think it’s necessary to apologize for asking for clemency.”

“I regret that it was something that provoked the kind of reaction it did, in the sense that it actually confirmed exactly what I was talking about before, which is our tendency to get outraged and not talk to each other.” Respect,” she continued. “But no, I won’t, I won’t apologize for what I said.”

Budde’s request came just a day after Trump issued a series of executive orders to make good on some of his most controversial campaign promises, including one that amounts to rejecting transgender identity, calling it a “false claim.” another that aims to eliminate birthright citizenship, which has already faced legal challenges.

Budde said these orders and Trump’s rhetoric have instilled fear among society’s most vulnerable.

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

“The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who work in poultry farms and meat processing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat at restaurants and who work night shifts in hospitals, they — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation . But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors.

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

“She has brought her church into the world of politics in a very unfriendly way. She had an evil tone and was neither convincing nor clever.”