Can you believe this is happening right now? That was what a bemused JD Vance communicated when he turned to look at his wife, Usha, at yesterday’s National Prayer Service for President Donald Trump at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Several members of Trump’s group gave various facial reactions as Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, used her bully pulpit to deliver a homily with a sanctimonious concluding lecture on how the Trump administration should treat the Left’s favorite victim groups.

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President,” she said. “In the name of our God, I ask you 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. And 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, wadara, 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. … Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.”

The Episcopal Bishop of DC acts like she’s delivering a eulogy for the nation not a welcome to a new president. She pleads with Trump “have mercy” on the LGBTQ, the illegal immigrants, “who are scared right now” all while demanding “unity.” pic.twitter.com/9KQn2MLmcP

— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) January 21, 2025

Maybe the IRS should look into the tax-exempt status of the National Democrat Party Cathedral.

Clearly, Budde’s issues stemmed from Trump’s Day One executive orders on DEI and gender, as well as his immediate efforts to secure the border. The same woman who in 2020 said “We need to replace President Trump” is still delivering Democrat talking points under the guise of Christian teaching.

As a bishop, Budde ought to be at least vaguely aware of Genesis 1 and 2, which recount the fact that God created humans in two sexes, male and female. Unfortunately, as an Episcopal bishop, Budde is apparently more interested in the left-wing hierarchy of intersectionality than she is in the created order of the God she claims to serve. The Episcopal Church is notoriously troubled, with much of its leadership flagrantly apostate, particularly on issues of sex and gender.

These left-wingers could use a refresher course on the faithful response to gender confusion.

If any people in the “LGBTQIA+ community” are afraid, perhaps it’s because (A) they struggle with mental illness and (B) they have been lied to by left-wingers that conservatives hate them and want to do violence against them. There may be individual examples of hatred, but it’s definitely not true writ large. It is not hate to speak the truth, as long as it’s done in love. Conversely, it is not love to indulge the lies, fetishes, and fantasies of the gender-confused.

Most Americans are content to live and let live regarding things done behind closed doors. The trouble begins when groomers come for our children and when the Rainbow Mafia clubs anyone who dissents from the orthodoxy of the gender cult.

The scared people are the ones being silenced, forced to bend the knee, or punished by the Rainbow Mafia. The scared people are the girls and women forced to endure men in dresses coming into their restrooms and playing on their sports teams.

Speaking of scared people, Budde isn’t wrong to extend compassion to migrants who really are fleeing violence or other things. She is wrong, however, about a key fact. “The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” she said. First of all, she removed the keyword “illegal” because leftists routinely conflate legal and illegal. Is it not true of illegal aliens that their first act on American soil was to break our immigration laws? Isn’t breaking the law, by definition, criminal?

Worse, she makes no distinction between people legitimately seeking asylum the legal way and criminals who traffic guns and drugs and murder our young women. Trump later noted that same thing: “She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people.” Beyond specific murders, fentanyl coming across the border kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.

Maybe Budde could spare a word for those victims and worry less about the Democrat trope regarding who will pick the cotton, er, I mean “crops.”

In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus tells a parable about a pharisee and tax collector who pray. Whereas the Pharisee thanks God “that I am not like other men” and recounts how awesome he is, the tax collector “would not even lift up his eyes to heaven” as he repented.

Every Christian should consider this parable when engaging in political debates. Budde’s homily yesterday seemed to me to fail this test. I pray that I do not.

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.

(Edited)