Donald Trump’s inaugural events continued on Tuesday with the president, vice president, and their families attending a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
Faith leaders from different backgrounds addressed the attendees, but it was Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, who made headlines for her woke ‘sermon’ about transgender kids and illegal immigrants.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke and Rich Lowry to discuss Budde’s lecture and the inappropriate timing of it.
The ‘Sermon’
The Washington National Cathedral, which is an Episcopal church, has hosted every president’s inaugural faith services since Ronald Reagan came into office in 1985. Budde has been at the church since 2011 when she was installed as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and she has a history of criticizing Trump.
That animosity was on display Tuesday when she used her sermon to lecture the president about humility, gender ideology, and immigration policy. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared,” Budde said from the pulpit. “There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”
She then turned her attention to immigration. “And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation,” she continued. “But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”
The bishop made it abundantly clear who her comments were directed at. “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here,” Budde added. “Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we will all want strangers in this land.”
Ungodly Advice
Trump, Vance, and their families remained stone-faced during Budde’s remarks, and the president was often spotted looking down at his program. Megyn called it a “classy” reaction to a classless display but took issue with the event in general. “He should not have been placed in the position of having to sit there and be lectured to by this woman who clearly hates him,” she said.
While Lowry said Budde likely thought “she was speaking truth to power,” it was “not the time or the place” to make such politicized remarks. He said it “bizarre to hear a Christian minister or bishop going on about gay rights like that,” but Cooke said it was particularly interesting to hear how Budde spoke about migrant workers.
“Why is it that people on the left, who think that they are the great friends of illegal immigrants, can only talk about them… as people who do menial tasks,” he asked. “They say they pick things and clean things, and that is the only thing that seems to come to mind as a defense.”
Megyn also wondered why Budde’s concern for children was so limited. “You are so worried about the ‘trans’ children. But where are you in standing up for girls in sports, which the vast majority of the American population wants to do now,” she questioned. “Does she care about the young girls who are tied to rape trees along the southern border by these gangs who bring people across? Because cracking down on the border will save them.”
Those concerns did not seem to be top of mind for the bishop. “I didn’t hear that in her, quote, sermon,” Megyn concluded. “That was the least Godly bit of advice I have heard in a while – and I’m in news, so that is saying something.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Cooke and Lowry by tuning in to episode 987 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.