There was a Special Buzz in the Air at the Washington National Cathedral This Past Sunday. It was the first Sunday Following the Sermon Heard Around the World, When Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde Became a Viral Phenomenon for “Preaching Truth To Power” at the Prayer Service for the Nation. On Janugany 21, Budde Spoke Directly to President Donald Trump Seated Before Her, Exhorting Him to Exercise Mercy, Including on Behalf of LGBTQ+ Youth, Refugees, and Immigrants. Trump Has Already Unleashed a Blitz of Devastating Policy Actions and Orders. For Many, Budde Has Been the Only Person To Truly Stand Up to Trump, Putting Voice and Action to Their Own Feelings of Fear, Distress, and inaMay.
AS I Recently Report for Rolling StoneThe Cathedral and Budde Have a History of Taking Action to Hold Trump Accountable for Trampling Their Spiritual Values and in Support of Those Who Are Hamed.
Rev. Jen Butler Recently Served as the National Faith Engagement Director for the Harris-Walz Campaign. The notice Her Snapping in Selfie in Front of the Cathedral with a Friend Before at least Services on Sunday. “I've Never Seen Anything Go this Viral,” She Tells Me of Budde's Sermon. “She's the first to Really Find Her Footing and Show No Fear,” Butler Says. “The More We Fear a Tyrant, The More Power They Have, The More We Stand Up in Compassion, The Less Power they have. She Did What Needs To Be Done, And We Hope to See Our Elected Leaders do the Same, Including Republicans. ”
Inside the Cathedral, There is a palpable sense of excitement among the Thousands of Gathered Parishioners, with many Finding Their Way Into the Same Chairs That they have Only Viewed Previously video clips on their phones. With Its Gothic Archas and Towering Grey Stone Walls, The World's Sixth-Largest Cathedral Can Be An Intimidating Space, Espencially For Those for Whom Sunday Eucharist is a Relatively New Experience or One That Conjures Unwelcome Memories. But none of that seems to Matter When the Service Gets Underway.
Rev. Randy Hollerith, Dean of the Cathedral, Opens the Service with the UNENVABLE TASK OF LITTING THE PARISHIONERS KNOW THAT BUDDDE IS Not here. “I know that some of you may have as Hoping Or Expecting to See Bishop Budde here at the Cathedral,” Heys. But Before He Can Say More, At The Mention of Budde's Name, The Crowd Erupts First in Applause, then Cheers and Hoots, Followed by A Ruckus and Sustained Standing Ovation. If Anyone was world That Therere would be a backlash against budde at the cathedral, they are clearly mix.
“We will bottle that up and leave it at Her Front Door,” Hollerith Says, Seeming Genuinely Surprised and Moved by the Response. “As the Shepherd of the Flock of the Diocese” Budde Visits a Different Parish Every Sunday, He Explains of Her Absence, Before Getting the Nearly Two-Hour Service Underway.
No one i speak with expresses disappointment at budde's absence. Instead, they seem to Find More Than Thain Originally Came For—Not Only The Ability To Demstrate Their Support For Budde But Also Enjoying Spending Time in Community With Other WHO FEEL THE SAME.
“I'm scared and I'm concerned,” his Watkins of Bethesda Tells Me standing outside of the cathedral. “We need to stand up against all the negative Things That Trump is doing.” She Wants to Act But Describes Not Knowing What to do or How To Support Those Engaged in Resistance. She's Not Religious, but when she heard Budde's Words, She Was Moved. “She's the Only One Speaking Out,” Watkins Says. “The Just Wanted to Support The Bishop.” Attention The Service, Watkins Says, is “A Little Thing, But I Guess If We Keep Doing Little Things, They Become Bigger.”
Rev. Jen Butler and its Watkins Post for a selfie Outside Washington National Cathedral, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Photo by Antonia Juhasz)
Rev. Mitchell Felton is visiting from South Carolina. “I Thought Bishop Budde Gave One of the Clearest Depics of Moral Leadership and Moral Clarity in A Time Where That is Just Not present,” He Tells Me. Rev. Felton Attention The Service at the Invitation of His Friend, Ian McCabe, Who Like Many Others I Speak With, Had Never Been to the Cathedral Before. “I Thought It Was Very Powerful and Brave,” Heys of Budde's Sermon. “She Went Out On A Limb” And He Came to demonstrate that he has her back.
At Group of Young Women from George Washington University there is Side-BY-SIDE. Despite Not Being very religious, they frequently at least services, drama to the cathedral by its progressivevism, including the ABSENCE of Homophobia Typical of Other Denominations, and a Sense of Community. One of Them, Claudia Elwell, Tells me That She Also Wanted to Come on This Sunday to Support Budde, Saying, “I Find Her Comments Very Admirable.”
Elizabeth Sawyerr is from Sierra Leone. Her Age is revealed Only in the Silver and White Hairs Accentuing Her Otherwise Black Dreadlocks. AS A A Longtime Parishioner of the Cathedral, She Doesn'T Undersand “What All the Fuss Was About,” She Tells Me, Genuinely Forplexed Looking. “She Did Not InsaMult the president at all. She Was Speaking from Her Heart. She was compassionate, “She Says.
Joanne Popkin Has Lived in Washington, DC, for 25 Years and is a Neighbor of the Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, Provost of the Cathedral. After Budde's Sermon, Popkin Wrote Cope A Note Thanking Her. Popkin is out walking her dog Around The Catherral and Stops, Eager to Share Her Thoughts on Budde. “Oh my God!” She Exclaims. “What's Wrong With Mercy and Compassion?! We need that! Isn't That What Made America Great?! ”
“Hate Gets You Nowhere,” She Adds.
If we are silent, we are complicit
A Little More Than a Week Before She Skyrocketed Into the Public Zeitgeist, I Interviewed Budde for Rolling Stone, After She President The Funeral of President Jimmy Carter. She Was Eager to speak with me Not Only About Carter, But Also About Trump. “Trump Seeks to Distantle Everything I Stands for,” She Told Me. Then She Told Me About Resistance.
She discussed Her Plans to Organizations, “To Get political, Find Like-Minded Constituencies. We have to lobby, we have to show up and weak, all the Those Things We have to do as People of Faith, as part of Civic Society. ” Wheer or Not They'll have an effect is another question, one she said is lagely out of their control. “Every Once in A While, in My 13 Years as bishop the traditional media Notices and gives US Our Our Proverbial 15 Seconds,” She Said, “Even Rolling StoneIf We're Lucky. “
“But the One Thing I Can Control is I'm the Going to Show Up.” She then Said, “As So Many of Our Leaders Have Said, Both politically and spiritually, if we are silent, then we are complicit.”
By Preaching Truth to power last week, Budde Struck a Nerve Well Beylond the Faithful, Connecting with a Public Hungry for AGAINST TRUMP. Since Deliving the Sermon, Budde Has Been a guest on The ViewCnn, and Tea Rachel Maddow Show. She's Been Interviewed by Diane Rehm, Photographed for Tea New Yorkerand Has Appered in Pretty Much Every Major News Outlet in the Nation (and Beyond). The Cast of the New Film Jimpa, About a Gay Father (John Lithgow) and Transgender and Non-Binary Teenger (Aud Mason-Hyde), Weighed in At Sundance, where Mason-hyede Called Budde's Sermon “Beautiful.” Steven Colbert Teared Up During His Monologue About Budde. There are Manes, T-shirts, and Even Cookies Featuring Budde. In positive editorials and letters to the editor from California to Florida and New York, The Response of People Backing Budde Has Been Overwhelming.
Faith Leaders Have Also Shown Their Support. National Spokespeople for the Episcopal Church Called Budde “A Valued and Trusted Pastor.” They Said, “We Stand by Bishop Budde and Her Appeal for the Christian Values of Mercy and Compassion.” A petition in support of Budde by Faithful America, an organization of Christians supporting social justice causes, has garnered over 49,000 signatories encouraging her to “continue speaking out against the injustice of Trump's executive orders” and for Christian leadership from every denomination to do the same .
It hasn'T all been positive. Budde Has Received Death Threats Amid A Fierce Conservative Backlash. I know Much so that the Expected the Sunday Service at the Washington National Cathedraral to draw counter protesters. But there to be seen.
Trump Shared a Tanrrum Against Budde on Social Media, Demanding An Apology Which Budde Has Stoadfastly Refused to try.
Learning to be brave
Budde and Trump Have Been here Before. In 2017, The Cathedral Hosted Trump's First Inaugural Prayer Service With Bishop Budde Officiating. Rev. Gary Hall, Who Was Dean of the Cathedral From 2012 Through 2015, Publicly Criticized the Decision to Host The Prayer Service for Trump, Saying that Participation in The Inauguration Legitimizes Trump. “I Think the Faith Community Should Be a Center of Resistance Against Donald Trump's Vision in America,” Hall Told The Washington Post At the time.
The Cathedral Not Only Hosted The Service, but Also Agreed to Terms Set by Trump, Such As the Choice of Preacher and Not to includes Sermon. Budde Acknowledged that some people felt felt to Trump's Request Seemed “AS If the Church Had Surned Its Responsibility to Preach Truth To Power.” Budde Told the Post In 2017 that the Service was “Not the occasion that we will use to address Particular issues of policy or concerns we might have about the direction he's taking the country.”
But as Trump's Term in Office Progressed, Budde and the Cathedral Increationly Stood up to Trump, His Administration, and its Polycies. Budde Jointed with Other Faith Leaders Such As the Rev. Dr. Wiliam J. Barber II and the Poor People's Campaign, Which Organizes to Comparet Systemic Racism, Poorty and IneQuility, Ecological Devastation, The War Economy, and Militasm. She authored a book, Published in 2023, entitled, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith. Those decisive Moments Are When “We are Called to act with cougage and, Much to our Own Amazement, We do.”
When we spoke, Budde Described Learning How To Carefully Identify Moments for Action: “When Does the Church Have a Chance to Be Heard in the Cacophony of Public Voices in Way That Might Be beneficiaries, Not Just Because It Feels Good, Not Because of Ego, But Because a Line's Been Crosted, and If Nobody Says Something That's Really DANGEROUS? “
She Also Came To Understand to Whom She is Directing Her Words. Discussing Previous Times in Which She's Spoken Out Against Trump and His Policies, She Tells Me, “President Trump Didn'T Wake Up the Next Morning and Say, 'Oh, Gosh, You're Right. That was a Mistake. I'm Really Smry. ' That doesn't happy. But does it embolden other people to say, 'Hey, you know what, that's not acceptable, we're not going to take that.' “
At This Year's Prayer Service, Trump Did Not Set The Agenda and Budde Delivered Her Searing Sermon, The Entirety of Which Has Received Facts Attention Than Her Words Directed at the President. The 15-Minute Sermon is about Unity, Which, She Warns, Is Not, “Poly Wariness or Passivity Born of Exhaustation.” It is action taken event when we cannot predict what the outcome will be or if it if it will eye in our life.
She Also Provided What Appears To Be a Subtle Critique of Trump's Threats and Past Actions to withHhold Federal Disaster Aid to Communities suffering from the Ravages of the Climate Crisis Because of Their Perceived Political Affiliations, Saying, “Those Across Our Country Who Dedicates Dedicated Lives, Now WHO VOLUNETER, TO HELP OTHERS in Times of Natural Disaster, Often At Great Risk To Themselves, Never Ask Those they are Helping For WHOM They voted in the past election or what positions they hold on a Particular Issue. We are at our best when we follow their example. ”
Budde has sought to build community Around moral action that support individuals to be brave. Individuals can take small steps halo, but Grand Ones When Working Together, Organizing, and Building Social Movements. She Writes in Her Book About The Huge Weight Lifted from Her Shoulders When She Realized She Was Not Alone, But Instead Held a Place “In The Larger Struggle for Justice.”
Budde Tells me, we do not know “if you get to be the generation that sees the change or are you the generation that just plugs away in the dark and the next generation picks it up?” EiSer Way, She Believes it is our moral obligction to act.