Featured Image Credit: CNN / Melina Mara-Pool/Getty Images
Topics: LGBTQ, Politics, Religion, Donald Trump, US News
Callum Jones
Topics: LGBTQ, Politics, Religion, Donald Trump, US News
The Bishop of Washington has issued a response to Donald Trump's five-word comment after she asked him to 'have mercy' on LGBTQ+ people and migrants.
President Trump certainly hasn't wasted any time getting his feet under the table since returning to The White House on Monday (January 20).
Within just his first 24 hours in the Oval Office, Trump signed off a number of executive orders, including a policy stating there are 'only two genders' alongside many orders blocking migrants from being able to enter the US.
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Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde asked the president to show 'mercy' to LGBTQ+ people and migrants during a service at the Washington National Cathedral following Trump's inauguration.
Making 'one final plea' with the president, Right Rev. Budde said: "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.
"And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labour 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."
The bishop concluded her emotional speech by asking Trump once more to 'have mercy on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away' and for the president to 'help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here'.
Well, Trump quickly responded to the personal address, dubbing it 'not too exciting' and that he 'didn't think it was a good service,' before concluding: "They could do much better."
Right Rev. Bubble has since responded to the comments made by President Trump in an interview with CNN.
She said: "[I was] reminding us all that the people that are frightened in our country, the two groups that I mentioned, are our fellow human beings, and that they have been portrayed all throughout the political campaign in the harshest of lights.
"I wanted to counter, as gently as I could, with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our wider community."
The bishop continued: "I was speaking to the president because I felt that he has this moment now where he feels charged and empowered to do what he feels called to do, and I wanted to say there is room for mercy. There is room for a broader compassion.
"We don’t need to portray with a broad cloth in the harshest of terms some of the most vulnerable people in our society, who are in fact our neighbors and our friends."