Rev. Mariann Budde said she refuses to apologize to President Donald Trump for her recent remarks, and she issued a new plea to Americans to “speak to one another with respect.”
The Episcopal Bishop of Washington said she has been facing a wave of hate for her sermon during Tuesday’s inaugural prayer service at Washington National Cathedral, where Trump sat stone-faced in the front row, listening to the remarks directed at him.
“I've had people wish me dead,” the 65-year-old bishop told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow about the criticism she faced.
Rev. Mariann Budde refused to apologize to Trump for her remarks during the inaugural prayer service
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“I'm not sure they've threatened to kill me, but they'd seem to be pleased if I met my eternal destiny sooner rather than later,” she said during the interview. “And I would simply say, I was trying, actually, to encourage a different kind of conversation that you can certainly disagree with me.”
The bishop assured listeners that she is open to listening to opposing views but asked fellow Americans to speak to each other with “respect.”
“I've had people wish me dead,” she said about the wave of hate she’s been facing
Image credits: MSNBC
“You can certainly disagree with me. You can disagree with what I’ve said or did. But could we, as Americans and fellow children of God, speak to one another with respect? I would offer the same to you,” she said.
“I would offer the same to you. I would listen to your views, and I would honor them. But we don't have to go to the highest extremes of contempt when we are in a position of disagreement,” she continued.
“And I think if we could get that back as a country, we would go a long way in being able to work together to address the many problems that we face.”
Image credits: PBS NewsHour
The unapologetic bishop insisted that she does not “hate the president” but regrets the “response” she received for her sermon.
“I don't hate the president, and I pray for him,” Budde told NPR. "I don't feel there's a need to apologize for a request for mercy.”
“I regret that it was something that has caused the kind of response that it has, in the sense that it actually confirmed the very thing that I was speaking of earlier, which is our tendency to jump to outrage and not speak to one another with respect. But no, I won't, I won't apologize for what I said,” she went on to say.
The unapologetic bishop asserted that she does not “hate” the president; “I pray for him,” she said
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During the inaugural prayer service, Budde pleaded with the president to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
“There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives,” she added.
She also urged the reality TV star-turned-president not to execute his plans that target immigrants.
Budde said her intentions were to speak “gently” to the president and have “mercy” on minority groups
Image credits: Washington National Cathedral
“I wanted to make, as you heard, a plea, a request that he broaden his characterization of the people that are are frightened now and are at risk of losing everything, and I thought that that would be the more respectful way to say it," Budde told Maddow during the Wednesday interview.
“And also, to appeal to not only the president but to all who might be listening, to appeal to what we know to be true about our immigrant neighbors, who they are, the kind of people that we're blessed to be among and to remember them in our understanding of what it means to be America,” she said.
Image credits: Washington National Cathedral
The outspoken bishop said her intentions were to “gently” ask the president to have “mercy” and not brand immigrants as “criminals” or portray transgender children as “dangerous.”
“I decided to ask him as gently as I could to have mercy, how dangerous it is to speak of people in these broad categories, and particularly immigrants, as all being criminals or transgender children somehow being dangerous,” she said on NPR's All Things Considered
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“To be united as a country with so many riches of diversity, we need mercy,” she added. “We need compassion. We need empathy. And rather than list that as a broad category, as you heard me say, I decided to make an appeal to the president.”
Budde, who is the first woman to serve as the spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, has been branded a “woke” bishop by the internet for her opinions.
The president called her a “radical Left hard line Trump hater” in a scathing review of her sermon
Image credits: The Times and The Sunday Times
Her political views in Tuesday’s religious service sparked an outcry from Trump and fellow right-wingers.
Without mincing words, the president posted a scathing review of her sermon on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Republicans, lawmakers, and right-wingers expressed outrage over the bishop sharing her political views
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“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” he wrote.
“She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart,” the president continued.
Others went as far as saying the American-born bishop should be deported.
“The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list,” Republican congressman Mike Collins said on X.
She chose to “weaponize the pulpit,” and “she should apologize to President Trump for the lies that she told. It’s despicable,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
Amid widespread criticism, a number of supporters called the bishop a “brave” woman “without fear”
