Bishop Budde says people have ‘wished her dead’ after call for mercy sparked right-wing outrage
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered a sermon during the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde has issued a plea to Americans after Donald Trump called her “nasty”, in the wake of her powerful sermon earlier this week.
Bishop Budde spoke at a service after Trump’s inauguration on Tuesday (21 January), and pleaded with the president to show mercy to minority groups, including the LGBTQ+ community and immigrants.
In response, the president issued a statement on Truth Social demanding an apology. She was “nasty in tone” and “not very good at her job”, he said.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Budde revealed that she has faced a fierce backlash from Trump supporters following the sermon.
“I’ve had people wish me dead,” she said, adding that the sermon aimed “to encourage a different kind of conversation” and that she was happy for people to disagree with her.
‘Speak to one another with respect’
She urged “we as Americans and fellow children of God to speak to one another with respect”, adding: “I would offer the same to you. I would listen to your views and I would honour them. But we don’t have to go to the highest extremes of contempt when we are in a position of disagreement.
“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 we face.”
She continued to believe her plea to Trump was “respectful.”
In an interview with CNN after clips of her sermon went viral, she said: “[I was] reminding us all that the people [who] are frightened in our country, the two groups I mentioned, are our fellow human beings, and that they have been portrayed throughout the political campaign in the harshest of lights.
“I wanted to counter, as gently as I could, with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our wider community.”
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