Despite frequently using the cover of “religious freedom” to advance hard-right activism, extremist groups and politicians undermined this common tactic as they responded with verbal attacks against Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde after she confronted President Donald Trump in her sermon at the Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 21.
The bishop asked the president to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” including LGBTQ+ people and immigrants. The hateful reaction sparked by her pleas undermined common claims of “religious freedom” on the hard right, demonstrating how hate groups have attempted to discredit liberal Christians, questioning the authenticity of their beliefs and painting them as secular ideologues.
In addition, calls from the right to censor, defrock and deport Budde and calls to end tax exemptions for the Episcopal Church unmask the concept of “religious freedom” as a political gambit to erode pluralism and use government to encode a specific brand of conservative Christian beliefs into public policy.
Hate groups respond: Discrediting inclusive theologies
In an interview with National Public Radio, Budde said she “decided to make an appeal to the president” at the prayer service the day after Trump’s inauguration because of “how dangerous it is to speak of people in these broad categories, and particularly immigrants, as all being criminals or transgender children somehow being dangerous.”
“Millions have put their trust in you [Trump],” Budde preached. “And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she said.
Cole Muzio, president of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Frontline Policy Council, responded to a video of Budde’s sermon on X, formerly Twitter.
“There’s a special place in hell for this self-proclaimed preacher of the gospel,” Muzio said.
The Toledo Proud Boys posted on Telegram: “This so-called ‘bishop’ is not serving God! Rather, she is an instrument of Satan!” Anti-LGBTQ+ extremist Matt Walsh referred to Budde as a “witch” on X.
Muzio’s, Walsh’s and the Proud Boys’ comments are consistent with a trend among hard-right groups to frame their opponents as non-Christian, satanic or demonic. According to scholars of political violence, inflammatory rhetoric that literally demonizes political opponents and frames conservative policy preferences in absolutist terms undermines democratic decision-making processes and can inspire reactionary political violence.
At the same time, a cadre of Christian-right groups have attempted to paint Budde’s message as a form of secular ideology, suggesting her beliefs about LGBTQ+ people and immigrants were not representative of true Christianity. Lois McLatchie Miller, senior legal communications officer for the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), said on X that Budde used the opportunity for “woke political activism, upholding falsities that harm and scar kids for life.” In a later post, Miller added, “There’s no such thing as a ‘trans kid.’ Just like there’s no such thing as a ‘female bishop.’”
Robert Pacienza, who leads the anti-LGBTQ+ group Coral Ridge Ministries (formerly D. James Kennedy Ministries), told Fox News that Budde was promoting a “secular worldview,” and made a distinction between his theology and the “heresy” taught by other nominally Christian denominations. “Ironically,” Pacienza said, “the bishop used the pulpit and the service to not only lecture the president but to promote a secular worldview and her woke ideology. … Her sermon was indicative of the heresy being taught by mainline denominations.”
Franklin Graham, CEO of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and chair of Samaritan’s Purse, characterized Budde as a political activist who was “wrong” and “hate[d]” Trump. “For her to use that for her own political agenda was wrong,” Graham told Newsmax. “She is a socialist, activist, LGBTQ+ agenda, and that’s, you know, so she’s just wrong. … These are activists, and no question, they hate Trump.”
Tony Perkins, president of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Family Research Council (FRC), characterized the affirming religious message as “pathetic” and a source of civilizational decline. “The cause of America’s decline was not what was sitting in the pew but what was standing behind the pulpit,” Perkins said. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a frequent guest on Perkins’ podcast and former ADF attorney, called the sermon “shameful,” and, on X, accused Budde of “hijack[ing] the National Prayer Service to promote her radical ideology.”
By attempting to discredit liberal Christians’ beliefs, anti-LGBTQ+ organizations can claim to represent true Christianity. Hard-right groups can also rhetorically disguise their own ultra-conservative political views as theology and pave over interdenominational disagreements about biblical interpretation, which they often characterize as secular or anti-Christian attacks on their faith.
As a political strategy, this benefits the hard right because groups like ADF and FRC can argue that governments must respect and defend their political objections to LGBTQ+ people’s civil rights as sectarian viewpoints. Practically, this means that LGBTQ+ people can be denied services, jobs and housing, so long as the denial is based on that political belief.
When asked about the use of “religious freedom” rhetoric by hard-right groups, Zev Mishell of Interfaith Alliance said, “This is a tried-and-true playbook for weaponizing religious freedom, when in reality they’re employing centuries-old myths of Christian supremacy to sideline those who don’t fit into their worldview and advance their agenda.”
Calls for retribution
As some extremists and members of Congress attempted to discredit Budde’s theology, others called for retribution that threatens both the separation of church and state and displays the anti-pluralist ethos of most hard-right ideologies. U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., appeared to call for government action to remove Budde from the country. “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list,” he posted on X.
Turning Point USA’s John Amanchukwu told Newsmax that Budde “wants to sodomize the minds of our kids” and said, “She’s a mental rapist.” He also warned in reference to Trump, “She has a real man in the Oval Office, and we’re going to fight her tooth and nail.”
In comments to Fox News, Jack Brewer of the group America First Policy Institute, an organization led by Brooke Rollins, Trump’s nominee for secretary of agriculture, argued that patriotic clergy should be supportive of Trump and implied that progressive Christian churches could be targeted by groups intent on dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
“The fact that President Trump demanded that God remain as the foundation of America should have received nonpartisan praise from all of our nation’s clergy,” Brewer said. “We are addressing DEI and wokeness in our government and businesses and it’s time to address wokeness in churches as well.”
On X, hard-right extremist Jack Posobiec suggested the IRS should revoke the tax-exempt status of the Washington National Cathedral after what he characterized as Budde “attacking the President at the National Prayer Service.” In a statement to the New York Post, Scott Bessent, the newly confirmed secretary of the treasury, called for the governing body of the Episcopal Church to “publicly condemn” Budde.
Also on X, hard-right accounts doxed the bishop and members of her family. While some users shared her home address, others used that information to further attempt to undermine her theology. Lela Gilbert, FRC’s senior fellow for international religious freedom, shared a post by Hoover Institute fellow Paul Sperry that suggested Budde could not authoritatively speak to wealth inequality because of the cost of her own home.
On Jan. 24, U.S. Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., introduced a resolution expressing the sense of the U.S. House of Representatives that Budde “used her position inappropriately, promoting political bias instead of advocating the full counsel of biblical teaching.” The resolution also condemns Budde’s “distorted message” as a “display of political activism.”
Three days earlier, Brecheen claimed on Facebook that Budde “accosted” Trump with unbiblical liberal politics. “Mr. President, what accosted you today was political, not Biblical,” he said. That day, Brecheen also appeared on FRC’s Washington Watch podcast cheering Trump’s new executive orders, one of which attempted to unilaterally end birthright citizenship.
Picture at top: Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde (left) crosses paths with President Donald Trump during the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)