Brunswick Beacon, 02.06.25
Why did Trump refuse to put his hand on the bibles Melania held aloft at his swearing-in? Why risk insulting Christians, who largely supported him?
Trump’s response to Bishop Mariann Budde’s Inaugural Prayer Service provided an answer. In her sermon, Budde asked Trump “to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
Budde pleaded for “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.” She pleaded for children who “fear that their parents will be taken away.” She pleaded for refugees “fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands.” She said, “God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.”
Budde was invoking the very Bible Trump spurned. Exodus 23:9 and Leviticus 19:34 teach that: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”
In Matthew 25:34-46, Jesus blesses those who welcome strangers, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” Jesus curses those who turn strangers away, saying, “whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
Trump called Budde a “radical Trump hater,” mocked her as a “so-called Bishop,” “nasty,” “boring,” “not compelling or smart,” said, “She is not very good at her job!” and demanded “an apology.”
Trump cannot have his Christian followers expect him to heed the Bible, which condemns cruelty toward refugees, lying, greed, boastfulness and sexual assault. What better way to tell them not to take God’s teachings seriously than by spurning the Bible at his own swearing-in?
Laura McGann
Leland
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