The words that Episcopal Bishop of Washington Mariann Budde spoke were few. They weren’t shouted. They weren’t demanding. They consisted of insights and a request that might be heard anywhere at any time in a house of worship.
Because those words were spoken directly to the newly, second-time elected president of the United States during a widely covered prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral, they are likely to be remembered long after this administration has gone the way of the next election.
Hers was but one voice amid a growing chorus of religious figures condemning the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportation. Unlike others, however, she had the opportunity to address the president directly. The words have gone viral, but it is worth repeating them here:
“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. … The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking 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. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors.
“They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara and temples.
“I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”
What Budde did wasn’t just taking advantage of an opportune encounter with the commander in chief. What she did was something she was obliged to do as a disciple of Christ preaching the Christian message. She gave a human face to those who, in the approach of a heartless administration, are a faceless group, shamefully maligned and made into a national scapegoat. They have become the new enemy, the inhuman “other” upon which our social ills and anxieties have been heaped. 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.Bishop Mariann Budde
Some will disparage her words as a bit of performative preaching. Others will dismiss them because there will never be proof her words provided solace or safety for immigrants. Others will apply political calculus to her message and wonder which voters she might have affected or whether she merely solidified entrenched divisions in the Christian world as well as the wider culture.
All of that is irrelevant noise.
Was Jesus chastised for failing to accurately calculate the displeasure of Roman and religious leaders before pronouncing his next discomfiting truth?
If a Christian leader in her pulpit, addressing a president who voluntarily placed himself in that sacred space, cannot speak out of the heart of the Gospel, then we might as well turn our cathedrals, basilicas and other houses of worship into museums.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance spent months ginning up inordinate fear among immigrant communities and exploiting the lies beneath that fear for political purposes. Trump has pardoned violent criminals who attempted an insurrection. He has been celebrated by crude racists and those who would endanger the LGBTQ community.
If Budde had not addressed those fears and begged for mercy, the service would have been, at best, a disingenuous engagement and, at worst, an act of fraud and cowardice.
Given Trump’s general avoidance of worship spaces, it is unlikely that any other minister of the Gospel will have the opportunity to confront him as directly. It is gratifying then to know that, in addition to Budde, there is a growing chorus of Christian leaders condemning Trump’s intended mass deportations and his insistent lies that the immigrant population is made up mostly of criminals.
