By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on January 23, 2025
An Editorial Opinion
Most Christians are familiar with the Beatitudes that Jesus preached in his sermon on the Mount of Beatitudes. They are listed in Matthew 5:3-10.
One of the Beatitudes is this passage, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” According to Jesus, those who are merciful will be shown mercy by God.
During the Inaugural Prayer Service at the National Cathedral, Bishop Mariann Budde pleaded with President Donald Trump to show mercy to immigrants and members of the LBGTQ community. She literally pleaded with Trump to show the mercy that Jesus preached about in the Beatitudes.
President Trump and MAGA World immediately condemned Bishop Budde for preaching the Beatitude for mercy during this prayer service. Trump tweeted that her plea for mercy was “inappropriate” and her tone was “nasty.”
True Christians know that preaching the Beatitudes is NEVER inappropriate in a church service or any other venue where Christians gather in Jesus' and God's name. Furthermore, anyone who views the video of Bishop Budde's plea for mercy can see that it was made in a respectful and dignified manner.
MAGA World’s Castigation of Bishop Budde is Unwarranted
The venom that has spewed from MAGA World’s castigation of Bishop Mariann Budde’s plea for mercy during the Inaugural Prayer Service is the same kind of venom that was directed at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he preached the Beatitudes to a racial segregated America in the 1950s and 60s.
Bishop Budde is being slammed as a “far-left lesbian” and “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” who should not have asked Trump to show mercy on the “least of these, my brethren.” Somehow, her plea for the Beatitude of mercy during a church service was “inappropriate” and “brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way.”
Bishop Budde merely asked Trump to show mercy to immigrants and gay Americans. According to MAGA World, this plea for mercy was wrong.
When Trump showed mercy to dozens of violent rioters who physically assaulted and harmed scores of police officers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, by pardoning them with this point-blank directive, “Fu-k it, release ‘em all,” MAGA World was pleased.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was Castigated in the Same Way
In the 1950s and 60s, Southern politicians and private citizens, so-called “Christian” members of Congress, white clergy throughout the South, and top FBI officials called Dr. King a “communist,” an ”outside agitator,” a “coon,” a “nigger,” a “trouble-maker,” “the most dangerous racist in America today,” “the most dangerous Negro in America,” a “colossal fraud,” an “abnormal moral imbecile,” a “filthy, abnormal animal,” and an “evil, abnormal beast.”
For the record, Dr. King was my pastor, Sunday School teacher, and BTU instructor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He never preached anything but obedience to God and love for humanity. He was a living example of the Beatitudes. This made him “dangerous.”
Although in death Dr. King became one of the most revered figures in U.S. history, for the entirety of the 39 years that King lived and breathed, there wasn’t a single day when the majority of white Americans approved of him. In 1966, Gallup measured his approval rating at 32% positive and 63% negative. That same year, a December Harris poll found that 50% of whites felt Dr. King was “hurting the negro cause of civil rights” while only 36% felt he was helping. By the time he died in 1968, three out of four white Americans disapproved of him. In the wake of his assassination, 31% of the country felt that he “brought it on himself”.
The Modern-Day Church is Becoming Increasingly Weak and Irrelevant
The Church has been in the world of politics since religion has been in existence. In fact, Christian Nationalists are ardent supporters of President Trump and his policies. What is more, Trump began peddling his own version of the Bible last year.
I agree with Dr. King’s view about the Church, as expressed in his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail. The modern-day Church "is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's often vocal sanction of things as they are."
Castigating Bishop Budde and her plea for mercy will merely cause the Church to “lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning” for the 21st century.”
Finally, Bishop Budde does not owe anybody an apology for serving God, preaching the Beatitudes, and pleading with Trump for the Beatitude of mercy.
There is a difference between preaching the beatitudes and telling someone how they must respond to ANY part of the scriptures. Jesus never forced his will upon someone and neither should she...After all she has chosen to ignore biblical teachings so why should she think MAGA should be afforded any different choice?
Once again you are cherry picking the scriptures...
Isaiah 60:18
“Violence will not be heard again in your land,
Nor devastation or destruction within your borders;
But you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.
I will NEVER condemn any minister for preaching the Beatitudes during a church service. The Beatitudes are Jesus' words from his sermon on the Mount of Beatitudes. I learned the Beatitudes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., my Sunday School teacher, pastor, and BTU instructor at Dexter Avenue Church in Montgomery, Alabama. If I have to choose between living my life according to the Beatitudes and bowing down to a politician, the Beatitudes will win out every time.