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Some members of the House of Representatives were so upset with Budde’s sermon urging Trump to consider the human dignity of immigrants and members of the transgender community that they wrote-up a resolution.
Here is House Resolution 59:
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the sermon given by the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde at the National Prayer Service on January 21st, 2025, at the National Cathedral was a display of political activism and condemning its distorted message.
Whereas the National Prayer Service is a longstanding tradition in which the United States publicly affirms dependence upon God and prays for the success of our President and Vice President;
Whereas, on January 21, 2025, President Donald J. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance took part in the National Prayer Service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC; and
Whereas the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, the bishop leading the inaugural prayer service, used her position inappropriately, promoting political bias instead of advocating the full counsel of biblical teaching: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That—
(1) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the sermon given at the National Prayer Service on January 21st, 2025, at the National Cathedral was a display of political activism; and
(2) the House of Representatives condemns the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde’s distorted message.
The sponsors of the resolution include Andrew S. Clyde (GA), Anna Paulina Luna (FL), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Andy Biggs (AZ), Andy Ogles (TN), Ralph Norman (SC), and Michelle Boebert (CO).
As of the today, the resolution has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and submitted to the House.
Political activism from the pulpit is free speech for me but not for thee.
The speed at which Trump’s staunchest allies in congress have reached for lazy arguments demanding the absolute separation of church and state (eyes rolling) should be a gut check for those who fear an emergent Christian nationalism from the new party. At least the honest-to-goodness-Christian-nationalist Ben Dunson of the American Reformer recognized that the rapid deployment of “keep religion out of politics” doesn’t align with what the Right was arguing less than five minutes before when they all said “God spared Trump so he could Make America Great Again!”
The House Resolution is essentially meaningless. The Bishop was within her rights as a preacher to address the president-elect and remind him of his responsibilities to the poor, marginalized and immigrants. Nothing she said was inconsistent with the purpose of the prayer gathering.
It just may be that Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount has a lot of disconnect with the Trump agenda. It turns out that Jesus was woke!