VIDEO: Bishop Budde speaks on transgender, immigrant rights during National Prayer Service

(Screenshot from CSPAN’s YouTube)

President Donald Trump attended an interfaith prayer service at Washington National Cathedral Jan. 21, wrapping the festivities that mark the beginning of his second term in office. The service featured speakers and religious leaders from a wide-range of faiths, as well as readings from scriptures and hymns.

Well into the service, Trump heard a sermon that directly and publicly criticized his actions and rhetoric since coming into his second term. Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, unequivocally addressed the president in her sermon, pleading that he consider his impact on LGBTQ+ people and immigrants in the United States.

Since the start of his second term, Trump has signed a myriad of executive orders attacking transgender individuals, condemning “gender ideology” in the government and expressing that sex assigned at birth will be solely used for identification declaring “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”

“Millions have put their trust in you. As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said in her sermon. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in both Democratic, Republican and independent families who fear for their lives.”

Budde also spoke on the issue of immigration, another group that Trump has made a point of targeting in his second term, saying that they include those who “pick our crops” and “work the night shifts in hospitals” along with many other important economic and social roles.

“They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” Budde said. “They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.”

The sermon was one of the more outward criticisms since Trump’s swearing in Jan. 20, directly contrasting his approach to immigration as he vowed to enact the largest deportation in the nation’s history. Deportation raids were said to begin as early as Tuesday, and executive orders were signed in a move to end birth-right citizenship, halting the U.S. refugee admissions program.

Trump did not appear to react to the comments made directly to him or regarding his presidency. He was joined at the service by his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, and Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance. Other members of the Trump family sat close behind the president. Vance appeared to scoff more noticeably at the comments as they were made.

“Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land,” Budde concluded. “May God grant us all the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, speak the truth in love, and walk humbly with one another and our God, for the good of all the people of this nation and the world.”

You can watch Budde’s comments below.

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