Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Unlock the free White House Watch newsletter
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Donald Trump says “God saved him to make America great again”. The best rebuttal to his presidency so far has come from a priest — the Episcopal bishop of Washington.
Rt Rev Marian Budd’s sermon on Tuesday went where business leaders and even Democratic politicians have struggled to go. As Trump sat meters away in the congregation, he asked her to show compassion to gays, lesbians and transgender people, and to immigrants who are “terrified” by her policies.
“Our God has taught us that we must be kind to strangers, because we were all strangers in this land once,” Budde said at the service. This was not a passing rebuke to Trumpism; It was a 15-minute argument for a different politics.
Trump sat there, puffing and puffing at the National Cathedral. His vice-president JD Vance, a Catholic, dissented in whispers with his wife. Maybe they didn’t expect it. Because they were given a very different reception at the inauguration the day before.
Campaigners described Trump’s comeback as a “miracle.” A pastor, Lorenzo Sewell, delivered Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in his honor.
In 2023, the charismatic Sewell was locked out of his Detroit church because its constitution was changed and he was able to disenfranchise rank-and-file members. Shortly after the launch, he launched a crypto token, X, telling users: “I need you to go buy the official Lorenzo Sewell coin.” The coin’s price then quickly fell by more than 90 percent.
Who represents Trump’s Christian views? Is it Sewell with his pro-Trump, Pro-prosperity Speak of self-reliance, or of the benevolent Buddha who wants to speak up for the marginalised? And, if Christianity can encompass both outcomes, does it do much to understand and confront Trump?
Budde backed up his address with biblical references. He is in line with Pope Francis, who has criticized Trump’s planned mass deportation of migrants as a “disgrace”.
In contrast, pro-Trump spirituality often seems to rely on taking words out of their context. Sewell took away the purpose of King’s dream. (As for Sewell’s rhetoric, let me just say: the phrase “free at last” doesn’t mean what the audience feels when you stop talking.)
Or take a combination of Christianity and growth. Another Conservative speaker at the inauguration, Rabbi Ari Berman, suggested that George Washington called faith and morality essential to “American prosperity.” Indeed, Washington said they were essential to “political prosperity.” The context, in 1796, is a plea for national unity and a warning not to believe in the “absolute power of one man”. Trump would also be unsettled by that speech.
But pro-Trump pastors are accepted as a legitimate part of the church like any other. And the PU is with the President. According to Michael Emerson, a researcher on religion, Christians are now more Republican because liberal Protestants and Catholics have stopped going to church.
Last year Trump won about 60 percent of the Christian vote and more than 80 percent of white evangelicals. He’s paid hush money to a porn star, vowed to veto any federal abortion ban, and doesn’t appear to have put his hands on a Bible during the inauguration. But some white evangelicals see him as a useful vessel, someone who will let them lead the conversation.
Ironically, after invoking God multiple times in his inaugural address, Trump complained that Budd’s sermon mixed politics and religion. One thing Sewell and Budde agree on is that you can’t keep politics out of Christianity. If the Church decides to bless anyone in power, it compromises.
The question arises: Does religion flow from politics? Will Trump’s supporters simply restore their faith in the politics of their choice and his opponents do the opposite? The answer is probably: mostly, but not always. Surely there’s no point listening to a preacher if you don’t think they’ll ever change your mind.
“When we know what is true, it is incumbent upon us to speak the truth even when, especially when, it costs us,” Budde said. His achievement should not be measured by how many people join his next service. It should measure how many other people feel a responsibility to speak out against what they know is wrong.
