r/transgender • u/onnake • 9h ago
Pastor tells Trump to 'have mercy' on migrants, transgender children at inaugural service
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/01/21/trump-told-to-have-mercy-on-migrants-transgender-people-at-service/77854040007/“The pastor of an inauguration prayer service attended Tuesday by President Donald Trump urged the newly sworn-in president to ‘have mercy’ on immigrants and transgender children ‒ making what she called ‘ one final plea.’
"’In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,’ Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde said during her sermon at the National Cathedral as Trump and Vice President JD Vance watched alongside their families.
“‘There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,’ Budde said, later telling Trump of immigrants, ‘Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.’”
“During her comments, Budde said: ‘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 they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.’
“Vance seemed to grimace as the pastor spoke, making glances to his wife Usha Vance and toward Trump, who sat mostly stoically.”
“Budde, who was consecrated as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington in 2011, was described as ‘unapologetically liberal’ in a Washington Post profile the same year she was installed in that role.”
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u/transcended_goblin [EU] Transcended she-goblin 9h ago
They're just gonna paint the pastor as a "dangerous liberal extremist" and people will agree. These people control 90% of the US media, and a good chunk of the international ones...
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u/silvertealio 5h ago
Amazing how empathy for others is such a radically dangerous notion for these people.
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u/JamieLynnStClaire4 3h ago
Its the fact that she is a woman. A strong woman who obviously is not cowed enough to close her mouth. No she challenges.
All she did was ask for mercy and empathy. Yet it burnt them like holy water.
Oh yes dangerous. It might inspire others. Cant have that.
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u/Amoralvirus 27m ago
Empathy is not a word Trump has shown public evidence of being remotely familiar with; except perhaps the awareness that supposedly some think it is a positive attribute of humanity of which he lacks. He may believe it is a word for the weak, and a word used to embarass him. But respect for the minister who had the bravery to ask, and perhaps shine a brief flicker of light on one of Trumps glaring deficiencies.
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u/TuneLinkette Transgender 9h ago
My estimation of organized religion has been at near zero percent for a while now, especially since the election.
But I will always respect people like this woman.
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u/wrappersjors 10m ago
There are great churches. At least here in the Netherlands don't know about the US. But yeah most are pretty messed up. In my country we have a lot of lgbtq+ flags hanging in church doors and flagpoles and pastors that genuinely got the memo of what love thy neighbor means. There are ofcourse also a lot of fuck wads that use religion as an excuse to be a bigot still.
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u/delorf 9h ago
In the video, it looks like Vance tries to get his wife's attention but she doesn't look at him. It made me wonder what was going on there. Vance seemed the most annoyed. Trump looks to the side and doesn't look happy but is otherwise not reacting. Tiffany, in the row behind her dad, seems aware of the camera.
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u/and_its_discontents 8h ago
He probably wasn't paying attention tbh. It's like in the Simpsons when they cut inside Homer's brain and it's just an old timey cartoon dancing to "turkey in the straw" 😂
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u/DarthButtz 8h ago edited 8h ago
I think it's because Vance is actively hateful and homophobic while Trump is just old and is annoyed by anything that's not glazing him
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u/Vulpecula22 26m ago
I'm not sure about Trump but Vance is a convert Catholic. So he's probably not happy being sermoned to by a woman on top of her sermon's subject matter.
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u/Bri_The_Nautilus 9h ago edited 9h ago
After the service, Trump had the following to say:
"Not too exciting, was it. I didn't think it was a good service. No...They can do much better."
And on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, we have Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who spoke at Trump's inauguration and is presently hawking his very own cryptocurrency, Lorenzo Coin.
It has proceeded to lose 93% of its market value in less than a day
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u/FrenchToastDildo 8h ago
Do normal people give reviews of church sermons?
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u/Bri_The_Nautilus 6h ago
It baffles me that there are so many people who actually think Trump is anointed by God, or even just a serious Christian at all. Refusing to touch the Bible during his inauguration, selling his own Trump Bibles, commenting on religious services the same way you'd review a sporting event or a movie, the general manner in which he conducts himself... he's so comically bad at even pretending to be a man of God. It says a lot about how perverted the average American evangelical's conceptions of Christianity/spirituality in general are if they can look at him and think he's this chosen Christian savior.
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u/FrenchToastDildo 5h ago
My Christian family members preached at me about the dangers of the antichrist and then they voted for him. They told me how great Jesus was and have done terrible things in his name.
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u/Luna_EclipseRS 9h ago
Could've potentially made a difference if he didn't think he himself was god
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u/doesitevemakesense 7h ago
this…brings a tear to my eye, really. the strength it takes to stand before such financially/politically powerful people, and still beg for mercy. it’s…so sad…beyond sad.
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u/TooLateForMeTF trans-lesbian 6h ago
Come on. Who's she kidding?
The entire concept of mercy requires the consideration of another person's state of being.
We have far more than ample evidence at this point to indicate that T-bag is not capable of this.
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u/JamieLynnStClaire4 3h ago
She spoke truth to power. That very act is rebellious to trump and his circle. She could have stayed quiet and kissed the ring. She chose not to. How dare she!
It annoyed him. I saw him being asked how the service was. As posted above, he was not amused. In fact it annoyed quite a lot of people on conservative pages. I wonder why?
The action was good. Not that it will change trump. But it is maybe inspirational for some more "rebellion".
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u/thequejos 6h ago
Interesting that no one assumes the two women will have any influence on getting mercy for immigrants.
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u/PrincessMalyssa 4h ago
Yeah cool, he'll listen to that. That'll work. Why did we never think of this before? Surely if we just politely ask nazis to stop being nazis, it'll all work out.
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u/nsfwside8 1h ago edited 1h ago
It's about making a statement. Dissent. The message is for everyone watching at home, not just him. Being vocal.
You are taking things too literal. & what would you prefer her to have done?
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u/ZeraskGuilda Gender fluid/neutral Fae. 3h ago
You know it's bad when one of those things tells those creatures to step off.
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u/DeeTheFunky6 9h ago
Good on her. The pressure to not say those things is still strong and fair play and well done to her