Speaking Truth To Power
By Yesterday the National Cathedral held a prayer service for the inauguration. It is an official part of the inauguration events, but Donald Trump was not in charge of choosing the speaker.
That speaker was the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington. The Episcopal Church is one of what are called the mainline churches. At Trump’s first inauguration, she did not give a homily. This time she did.
She talked about mercy and welcoming the stranger, both strong themes in Christianity as it is professed by the mainline churches. Trump was not pleased, as you can see in the video, along with an assortment of bad behavior, including from fellow Christian J.D. Vance.
Trump later tweeted his disdain:
A number of people who consider themselves Christian expressed vile reactions, collected here.
Today the US Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed similar concerns about Trump’s program.https://bsky.app/profile/jackjenkins.me/post/3lgdthli7qs22
There is a split on what Christianity entails between the mainline churches, including the Catholic hierarchy, and the evangelical movement, in which I would include Vance’s extremist Catholic position. And, of course, for Trump the only religion is that which extolls his greatness.
Update: Quite predictably, Bishop Budde is getting death threats.