Trump’s inauguration was moved inside to avoid low temperatures and pictures of how small the crowd may or may not have been. What followed amounted to a series of parties to make Trump feel good about himself. However, one moment of the day didn’t leave Trump feeling so good about himself: a prayer service where a sermon was given by the Bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, who has held the role since 2011.
During the sermon, Bishop Budde took a moment to address the president directly, pleading for him to show compassion on the marginalized, including immigrants and LGBTQ+ children.
Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. … There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. … Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen.
Mariann Budde
You can find Bishop Budde’s full plea to Trump in this video, beginning at 12:25. You can also find the full transcript here.
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Bishop Budde has found herself in the headlines over her sermon to Trump. In Trump’s tantrum over her “inappropriate statements” and “boring” service, Trump demanded an apology. Bishop Budde has made it very clear she won’t be giving one. But before Budde became known for championing the rights on the marginalized on this one occasion, she had already shown true compassion for the LGBTQ+ community as she helped Matthew Shepard’s family to finally lay his remains to rest.
Matthew Shepard was a gay man who was killed in Wyoming in 1998. Two men abducted Shepard, beat him, and left him to die. He was found and spent several days in hospital before he passed. Shepard’s death was part of a turning point in how gay people were viewed in the United States and led to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a federal hate crime bill that was eventually signed into law by President Obama in 2009.
However, for 20 years after Shepard’s death, his remains were not interred as the family feared that any gravesite or memorial might be desecrated. It wasn’t until 2018 that Matthew Shepard’s family reached out to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. to see if their son could find a resting place there. An agreement was quickly reached and Shepard’s ashes were interred in the cathedral in a ceremony presided over by Bishop Budde, and Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church.
At the time, Budde recognized the importance, and expressed her hopes for the future:
“There will be young people from all across the country, having tours here and being educated here. When they pass by, they will see a plaque in his honor. They will see that this is a church that has learned from the example of violence that we need to stand and be counted as among those who work for justice and the full embrace of all God’s children.”
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