There was widespread fallout from Bishop Budde’s plea on Tuesday for President Grievance to show some mercy to vulnerable people, some of which might not be immediately visible amid the ongoing effort to flood the zone with bullshit.
MAGA Republicans offered an unconstitutional solution:
Bishop Budde is an American citizen, born in New Jersey in 1959. A Member of Congress threatening to deport her because he dislike her views violates the First Amendment, which protects our freedoms of religion, speech, & expression. That should merit censure, but Speaker Johnson won’t do so.
— Alexander Howard (@digiphile.bsky.social) 2025-01-21T22:56:02.094Z
Please don’t be like Mike Collins. Nobody wants that.
Other MAGA Republicans though National Cathedral itself should be punished:
Republicans are talking about boycotting the National Cathedral over a bishop speaking up to Trump in defense of LGBT people and immigrants
Yes, that’ll teach the cathedral a lesson: a bunch of people who don’t attend events or services there, and who don’t financially support the church will continue to do the same. Also, Congress chartered National Cathedral to hold this type of national event.
Other MAGA Republicans decided to take on Bishop Budde and got out over their skis:
Barr’s own Episcopal bishop had a different take:
And despite all the criticism, Budde’s message has resonated with a broader audience of supporters. In fact, lawmakers chastising Budde may have run afoul of their own local religious leaders: When RNS reached out to the Rt. Rev. Mark Van Koevering, the bishop who oversees the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, where Barr resides, the prelate said he respected the congressman as a “faithful Episcopalian” but voiced strong support for Budde’s preaching.
“I support Bishop Budde’s gospel message of unity at a time when our nation continues to be so deeply polarized,” the bishop said. “Her heartfelt appeal to President Trump to show mercy toward the stranger and the vulnerable is not partisan politics, but the genuine witness of a pastor for her people. Our people. The people.”
It’s a small Episcopal world—Bishop von Koevering was the assistant bishop for West Virginia for a while and has been to my parish several times.
Franklin Graham had to get involved too, and in a delicious twist, made himself look like a fool:
Incredible stuff. Evangelical leader Franklin Graham spent yesterday blasting Rev. Budde and claiming the cathedral had been “taken over by gay activists” — unaware that Trump had frozen a refugee program that Graham supports, and was one of the things Budde was referencing in her sermon.
— Robert Downen (@robertdownen.bsky.social) 2025-01-23T06:11:50.477Z
Bless his heart.
The other obvious, and larger, religious opposition is rooted in the Catholic Church. The Pope has recently criticized President Grievance’s deportation policy:
A day after calling incoming President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan for migrants “a disgrace,” Pope Francis said Monday he hopes the United States under the new administration will avoid “hatred, discrimination or exclusion.”
— The Salt Lake Tribune (@sltrib.com) 2025-01-22T04:28:01.096Z
And Catholic bishops in the US have spoken out against President Grievance’s deportation plans:
Catholic advocacy groups, southern border dioceses and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are expressing deep concern after President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders targeting immigration on his first week in the Oval Office.
[deletia]
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso criticized Trump’s executive orders on immigration, describing them as measures that “deeply affect our local community and raise urgent moral and human concerns.”
Seitz, whose Texas diocese is on the U.S.-Mexico border, denounced the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to permit immigration raids in schools and churches, stating that it “strikes fear into the heart of our community, cynically layering a blanket of anxiety on families when they are worshiping God, seeking healthcare, and dropping off and picking up children at school.”
The El Paso bishop also condemned the reinstatement of the Remain in Mexico policy and the “indiscriminate” closure of the border to asylum-seekers, describing the actions as “violating due process and restricting the few legal options available to the most vulnerable who knock on our door seeking compassion and aid.”
“Whatever your faith and wherever you come from, we make your anxieties and fears at this moment our own,” Seitz said, speaking directly to immigrants at the border. “We stand with you in this moment of family and personal crisis and pledge to you our solidarity, trusting that the Lord, Jesus Christ, will bring about good even from this moment of pain.”
The Diocese of El Paso said it will respond to Trump’s new policies by educating immigrants on their rights, providing legal services and offering humanitarian aid. The diocese also said it is preparing to deliver additional aid to migrants stranded in Ciudad Juárez, across the Mexican border from El Paso.
American Christianity is far from monolithic, and the Catholic Church is the largest single denomination in the country (Protestants fall into individual denominations under that header; and the Episcopal Church is neither Protestant nor Catholic). This opposition is significant, both numerically and culturally, and is something to watch going deeper into the Grievance presidency.
I’ll close with a song the president has never heard:
🥰 I am an atheist living in El Paso and I love this community supporting each other. I will aid the Catholic diocese as it works with immigrant communities!
My answer to the haters, from yesterday, is:
Steve Doocy wants Trump to shop for a new National Cathedral because he shouldn’t have to be challenged in church!! 😳 Because Jesus bade his disciples to go to all the world and spread the Good News! That all the world must find the churches that will change to fit each person’s demands. And he bade the disciples to do so in His name, lest any church would offer unto men that it is they who should change! For the Good News is that all men are perfect, there is no sin, and each man should tell each church what to do!! And, finally, Jesus bade his disciples to just forget the whole thing because if each man determines for himself what the Good News is, what the hell do we need all these churches for?! 🤨🤷♀️
“Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?” Also : Read the story of St.Stanislaus , bishop of Krakow , who was slain at the altar by the king of Poland.
Franklin Graham doesn’t have to twist very hard to look like a fool.
The Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Communion of which it is part, is both Protestant-schismatic (denying the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, but keeping Apostolic Succession) and Catholic (adhering to principle of universality declared in the creeds of Chalcedon and Nicaea).