Bishop who angered Trump with call for mercy says she will not apologize

 

The bishop at the National Cathedral prayer service in Washington on Tuesday who urged Donald Trump to “have mercy upon” immigrants and LGBTQ+ people, has defended her remarks and said that she will not apologize.

The Right Rev Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon on Tuesday garnered national attention when she made a direct plea to Trump to show mercy and compassion toward scared individuals, including “gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families”, as well as immigrants, and those fleeing war and persecution.

Following the sermon, the president attacked Budde online, labelling her a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” in a lengthy social media post early on Wednesday. He argued that she had “brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way” and described her tone as “nasty”.

Trump characterized the service as “boring” and “uninspiring”, and asserted that Budde and her church “owe the public an apology”. His allies quickly joined the criticism, with one Republican representative suggesting that Budde “should be added to the deportation list”.

In the past few days, Budde has given interviews about her sermon and the backlash it sparked. She told reporters she would not apologize for her remarks, despite the criticism from the president and his allies.

“I don’t hate the president, and I pray for him,” Budde told NPR. “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. But no, I won’t apologize for what I said.”

When asked by MSNBC about the hostility she had faced following her sermon, Budde emphasized her desire to “to encourage a different kind of conversation”. “You can certainly disagree with me,” Budde said. “But could we, as Americans and fellow children of God, speak to one another with respect? I would offer the same to you.”

Budde told MSNBC that she took the tone she did during the sermon because she believed we are currently in a “particularly harsh moment” when it comes to talking about immigrant populations.

“I wanted to make a plea, a request that he broaden his characterization of the people that are frightened now and are at risk of losing everything, and I thought that that would be the more respectful way to say it,” Budde said, adding that her appeal was to both the president and anyone who might be listening.

Budde said an interview with the New York Times that she felt her sermon offered a “perspective that wasn’t getting a lot of airtime right now” and a perspective of Christianity “that has been kind of muted in the public arena”.

“To plea for mercy is actually a very humbling thing to do,” she said. “I wasn’t demanding anything of him. I was pleading with him, like, can you see the humanity of these people? Can you acknowledge that there are people in this country are scared? … If not him, if not the president, could others?”

Budde thought her plea would be “taken differently”, she said, believing that it was an “acknowledgment” of Trump’s “position, his power now, and the millions of people who put him there”.

Budde told Time Magazine that she was “saddened by the level of vitriol” her sermon had “evoked in others” noting that “the intensity of it has been disheartening”. “I’m perfectly happy to be in conversation with people who disagree with me,” Budde stated, adding: “The level of attack has been sobering and disheartening.”

Ultimately, Budde hoped her intended call for “dignity, respecting dignity, honesty, humility and kindness” was “resonating with people” and said that amid the backlash, she had heard from many who say they are grateful for her remarks.

Budde said she did her best to “present an alternative to the culture of contempt, and to say that we can bring multiple perspectives into a common space and do so with dignity and respect”.

“And that we need that,” she continued, as “the culture of contempt is threatening to destroy us. And I’m getting a little bit of a taste of that this week.”

As of Thursday morning, more than 30,000 people had signed a petition supporting her sermon. The petition describes Budde’s sermon as “courageous” and “faith-filled” says it represents “the prophetic voice we desperately need right now”.

-The Guardian