
This blog’s purpose is to discuss mental health and issues related to it, including spirituality. It is not to discuss politics. However, politics and spirituality have overlapped to a large extent in the past week, and I feel the need to discuss a topic that is politics adjacent.
A week ago, President Donald J. Trump was sworn into office. The next day, in keeping with a longstanding tradition for US presidents, Trump and others the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral. There Bishop Mariann Budde gave a homily, ending with these words (video):
Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you 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. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. 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.
She asked for the President to have mercy and show compassion, and encouraged everyone to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). As a pastor in a church setting, she was simply applying Scripture to real life.
Yet over the days that followed her speech, she has been attacked relentlessly by President Trump as well as many, many Christians. Georgia Representative Mike Collins opined that she, an American citizen, should be deported. 1 Sean Hanity (and others) called her a “so-called bishop.” 2 Trump called her tone “nasty” and demanded that she apologize for her statements. 3 She is being accused of “attacking” the President, and has been called a woke liberal, a witch, 4 rude, 5 a fraud,6 fake, 7 and many other demeaning terms. Someone on Facebook said, “What you are preaching Mariann Edgar Budde is the complete antithesis of God’s Holy Word! Everything you said is a slap in God’s Face!” 8 One of my friends commented that “She has gotten distracted by politics.”
What I fail to understand is how a plea for mercy and compassion is political. Just because the issues have been politicized doesn’t mean that encouraging someone to show compassion to certain groups of people is a political statement. But let’s say it is. So what? Christians have been mixing politics and religion for quite a while, as exemplified by this meme:

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been listening to the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. One version of it is free on Audible with a membership. And I have observed something quite interesting and relevant to the present discussion, even though I’m less than half way through. Christians were quite divided on the issue of slavery. Because laws had been passed, such as the Fugitive Slave Act, slavery was a political issue. Some Christians preached about the duty of slaves to submit to their masters, citing numerous Bible verses in both the Old and New Testaments. Others went beyond the Bible texts and pointed out that black people are human beings with eternal souls and who deserve equal treatment, citing a higher morality than the letter of the law. Today, I think it is safe to say that pretty much every American considers slavery abominable and is thankful that the Civil War eradicated it. We agree that it is wrong to enslave human beings. We applaud those who defied the law and helped the runaway slaves; we are grateful for the ministers who taught that loving your neighbor included your black neighbor.
When it comes down to it, slavery was a political issue, but it was also a moral issue, a human rights issue. The fact that it was politicized did not make it any less worthy to be discussed from the pulpit.
More recently, Hitler exalted the Aryan race over those who were considered “inferior,” especially the Jews. This followed a long history of Christian tradition of antisemitism. But the horrors of World War II and the Nazi concentration camps forced Christians to rethink their position on the topic. Today, most Christians no longer call Jews “Christ killers” or tell their children that their Jewish classmates have horn nubs on their scalps. I highly recommend this talk for a deeper dive into this issue.
Today, things like immigration and LGBTQ rights are current human rights issues in our country. The fact that these issues have been highly politicized by Christians does not make them any less important. I know not everyone will agree with me, but I believe we have to start with the premise that immigrants and LGBTQ people are people, not “illegals” or “perverts” or whatever label people love to slap on those who are different from themselves.
What bothers me the most is that people who call themselves Christians are making a bad name for Christianity. Frederick Douglass, a black man who lived through the civil war, said this:
Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference — so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. 9
I have friends who left Christianity for various reasons. One in particular left because she could not stand the way Christians treated certain issues, such as abortion or the LGBTQ community. It’s easy to pontificate about a fetus being a baby, and then forget about what happens to it after it is born. Those who are pro-life often forget that the life of the mother is just as valuable—arguably even more so—as the life of the unborn child in her womb. And women have needlessly died since Roe v. Wade was overturned. 10
One thing that these former Christians friends have in common is that they care about people. They are passionate advocates for specific concerns, whether it is trauma or disabilities or LGBTQ issues. Whatever their passion, they are motivated by a desire to love and care for people, and to see others love and care for them too. And they are turned off by professed Christians who fail to live up to the teachings of Christ. With Gandhi, they could say, “I would be a Christian if it weren’t for Christians.” Can you blame them?
I cannot. If I weren’t already a Christian—if I had not already seen an image of a God who loves humanity passionately, self-sacrificially—I would not even consider becoming a Christian. I would find my purpose in making the world a better place without God, and I would fight for equality among people. I would have no interest in the god of Christian Nationalism.
But I am already a Christian. I have seen a God who blends justice and mercy. A God who stepped down from His high position to become one with us so that no one could say that He didn’t know first-hand what it is like to be us. A God who noticed a poor widow giving her last two coins, yet rebuked the religious leaders for their hypocrisy. A God who sacrificed Himself for the benefit of humanity. A God who desires mercy and not sacrifice from us (see Matthew 12:7). 11
This God is worth following. But so many Christians in their hate and vitriol have obscured Him from the world. And it pains me.
I’m not saying that we should just open our borders and let everyone in. I’m not saying that undocumented criminals should not be deported. I’m not saying that we should allow preteens to have gender-affirming surgeries. I think there is a balance in all these issues. But if we start with an attitude of “I’m right and you’re wrong,” then we have lost before we even began.
There is a called People to Be Loved by Preston Sprinkle. This author upholds the traditional view of homosexuality that the majority of the Christian church holds, and as a fully affirming ally, I do not always agree with his conclusions. But he sets the example of starting with compassion and love toward the LGBTQ community, and for that I applaud him. Speaking of a young man who committed suicide, he said,
I wish Eric’s story was an anomaly, but it’s not. Having listened to countless testimonies and looking at startling statistics, I am disheartened to say that the Christian Church has often played an unintended yet active role in pushing gay people away from Christ. Sometimes away from Christ and into the grave. The ones who don’t kill themselves often end up leaving the Church. But here’s the thing: Most people who are attracted to the same sex don’t end up leaving the Church because they were told that same-sex behavior is wrong. They leave because they were dehumanized, ridiculed, and treated like an other. An old Baptist Pastor recently told me, “People will always gravitate to where they are loved. And if they don’t find love in the church, they’ll go elsewhere.” He’s right. —People to be Loved, Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue, by Preston Sprinkle, transcribed from Audible.
I may not agree with Sprinkle on gay marriage, but the fact that he starts his book with an appeal to love gay people is commendable, and I appreciate his approach. Sadly, this is not where many Christians start in their condemnation of the LGBTQ community.
I believe that Christians should be Christ followers. Jesus loved the marginalized and downtrodden and oppressed. He said these people were blessed (see Matthew 5:3–12). In fact, He identifies Himself with them (see Matthew 25:31–46). In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus commends those who helped the marginalized, and says they will receive the reward of eternal life and inherit His kingdom. This makes me wonder if perhaps there will be a few atheists and former Christians in that group. And if perhaps many professed Christians will find themselves going away to everlasting punishment.
As I said before, if I weren’t already a Christian, I wouldn’t become one. But I am. And I will continue to fight for the downtrodden and oppressed. I will continue to love people. I will continue to support those who do so. And I will do my best to show people the love of God. Will you join me?
- https://x.com/RepMikeCollins/status/1881765967338131546 ↩︎
- https://truthsocial.com/users/dutchsinse/statuses/113870901038456297 ↩︎
- https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113870397327465225 ↩︎
- https://religionnews.com/2025/01/24/inauguration-week-was-a-collision-of-two-christianities/ ↩︎
- https://truthsocial.com/users/Boudicca/statuses/113874172121417005 ↩︎
- https://truthsocial.com/users/WinickMG/statuses/113870579576562517 ↩︎
- https://truthsocial.com/users/rossr122/statuses/113869860840307497 ↩︎
- Comment on https://www.facebook.com/share/1QjeubR9S5/ ↩︎
- Quoted in https://religionnews.com/2025/01/24/inauguration-week-was-a-collision-of-two-christianities/ ↩︎
- https://sph.tulane.edu/study-finds-higher-maternal-mortality-rates-states-more-abortion-restrictions and https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-bans-deaths-state-maternal-mortality-committees ↩︎
- I recommend this series called “Reimagining God”: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjIf6VjMaFJ_F909ZBV2TZrhTecAR6TwK ↩︎
Lisa Reynoso is a mental health coach who helps people through one-on-one coaching. If this post brought up a lot of feelings, or as you were reading, you thought, “I would love to talk to someone about this,” please use the “Schedule Now” link at the top of this page to schedule a free session.