Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde was picked to give a sermon at a prayer service in which President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their family members were in attendance and it has been making rounds on the internet ever since. And not for good reasons. Budde chose to deliver a message with the theme of unity, but ultimately strayed away from that and decided to push Marxism from the pulpit instead.
First off, before we dive into Beth Brelje’s article from The Federalist on this topic, it must be clearly stated that the Bible, specifically St. Paul, along with church tradition, forbids a woman from holding positions of leadership and authority within the Body of Christ. To allow a woman to take such a role is a grave sin. So there’s the first mark against Budde’s sermon. She shouldn’t have been preaching one to start with.
Brelje’s piece starts off by pointing out that the “bishop’s” sermon began as a message that was really one aimed at the president, who was sitting front row in National Cathedral with the first lady, his vice president, and the second lady.
“In a democracy, not everyone’s particular hopes and dreams can be realized in a given legislative session or a presidential term, not even in a generation,” Budde preached. “Not everyone’s specific prayers … will be answered in the way we would like. But for some, the loss of their hopes and dreams will be far more than political defeat, but instead, a loss of equality and dignity and their livelihoods.”
If you weren’t sure that Trump was the intended target for the message, Budde took the extra step of actually calling him out while standing at the pulpit.
“Mr. President … In the name of God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. We’re scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” she added with more than a touch of melodrama.
“Is she saying, in front of God, that because Trump is in office, the LGBTQ community is going to die? That is not a unifying message; it is outrageously untrue. It is made more shocking considering that moments before this statement, Budde’s sermon offered thee cornerstones of unity, and one was “honesty,'” Brelje wrote.
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“When we know what is truth, it’s incumbent upon us to speak the truth, even when, especially when it costs us,” Budde stated. Yet the very chat she’s gave in that moment was sowing even more discord between groups of people, and doing it all in the name of God, as Brelje aptly noted.
Trump has made executive orders the LGBT community may or may not care about, including acknowledging the biological truth that men’s bodies are different than women’s bodies; and that people should be promoted based on the merit of their work, not their race, gender or sexual identity. These are actually unifying concepts. No one is going to die over them.
God does not smile when church leaders use his name to lead people astray. But Budde continued her plea to the president, pushing for open U.S. borders by mischaracterizing the problem.
“The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor 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,” Budde said in the sermon.
“Oh my. Another lie. She is ignoring the truth that entering the United States illegally is a criminal offense. Trump has no quarrel with immigrants. It is illegal aliens he is addressing, and all are criminals. It’s right there in the name: illegal aliens,” the author of the article said.
Budde then pleaded for the president to have mercy on those who are trying to escape war zones or from persecution in their own countries, trying to manipulate emotions by mentioning children being afraid their parents might get taken away.
“Like too many preachers, Budde is using the power of her position to promote her personal ideas, and that is a hellish crime because people who seek God are looking for eternal answers. When you dress up like a pastor and stand in a church, folks think you are going to tell the truth. The Truth is, Budde can’t keep her dislike for Trump far from the surface,” Brejle continued.
“In the immediate aftermath of the National elections, you wonder if there might be a Christian community for you,” starts a post from Budde shortly after the November election. It was an invitation to worship at the National Cathedral. An aftermath is the time after something bad happens. The word choice was not an accident, coming from a highly educated scholar like Budde.
She then goes on to reveal she’s demonically influenced by Marxist ideology by stating in the post that the church she leaders is one where the individual gets to decide what’s true, not God, our Creator.
“We don’t ask our people to agree on matters of politics, theology, or biblical interpretation. Instead we rely on God’s grace to unite us when we gather at Jesus’ table,” she said.
Sure, this is a good way to get people to fill up pews, but there won’t be any true gospel rootedness nor life transformation. All you really have is a gathering of souls damned to hell rather than people being saved by God’s grace.