One of President Donald Trump’s first acts on Monday (Jan. 20) was an executive order attempting to rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He wants to eliminate birthright citizenship, which automatically makes anyone born in the U.S. or its territories a citizen. A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan quickly blocked the order, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.” Now, Trump and other Republicans apparently also want to rewrite the First Amendment to take away religious freedoms.
During an inauguration prayer service on Tuesday at the Washington National Cathedral, an Episcopal church in the nation’s capital, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde urged Trump to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” She specifically mentioned LGBTQ children and migrant workers in her sermon as she invoked biblical teachings about being merciful and loving toward others.
Her remarks quickly sparked criticism from numerous Trumpian pundits, preachers, and politicians. Many of the MAGA faithful, apparently unaware that Episcopalians or other mainline Protestants exist, were shocked to discover some Christians read the Bible differently and don’t support Trump. But amid the vitriol, a few proposals stick out since they attempt to empower the federal government to decide which religious beliefs should be allowed or not.
Consider a few examples that would significantly target the First Amendment rights of Budde and other like-minded Christians:
- On Thursday, Republican U.S. Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma introduced a House Resolution to condemn Budde’s sermon. The resolution claims the event was supposed to be where everyone “prays for the success of our president and our vice president” but that Budde “used her position inappropriately, promoting political bias instead of advocating the full counsel of biblical teaching.” Twenty Republicans co-sponsored the resolution, including Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado (who denies that church-state separation is constitutional), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia (who calls herself a “proud Christian Nationalist”), Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina (a Southern Baptist pastor whose previous attempt to enter Congress was thrown out due to his campaign’s election fraud), and Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee (who this week filed a constitutional amendment so Trump could serve a third term).
- Trump criticized Budde as “very ungracious” and “nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.” More significantly, he demanded that she and her church apologize. Multiple GOP congressmembers similarly insisted she apologize.
- Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia posted a clip of Budde preaching with the caption, “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list.” For the record, Budde is a U.S. citizen who was born in New Jersey.
- A Southern Baptist pastor wrote a piece for a conservative Baptist group (led by a former Trump administration official) to urge Trump to seize the Washington National Cathedral from the Episcopal Church and give it to a conservative denomination (like the Southern Baptists) to run as a national church. A Congregational pastor similarly wrote for another conservative Christian website to argue that “Congress should revoke that charter” from the cathedral. He also pointed to the cathedral’s decision to remove honors to Confederate generals as another reason why Congress should target the cathedral.
So because a bishop preached about the Bible and her understanding of what it teaches while standing in the pulpit of her own church there is a congressional resolution to condemn the sermon, government officials demanding she apologize, and calls for the government to seize or shut down the church. So much for religious liberty and the First Amendment!
A view inside the Washington National Cathedral during the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 9, 2025. (Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)
Trump spent much of the campaign last year falsely claiming that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were anti-Christian and specifically targeting Christians for persecution. Yet, the attacks on Budde and her church are significantly more outrageous than anything by Biden, who attended church more frequently than any other modern president. The attacks on Budde and her church show that Christian Nationalism is inherently at odds with religious liberty. You can be for one or the other but not both.
“Religious freedom and church-state separation mean that clergy must be free to preach without threats from government officials and free from the demands of presidents,” explained Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (where I serve on the national board of trustees). “When the president of the United States and members of Congress attack clergy for exercising their religious freedom, they are crossing a line. This abuse of power is precisely the kind of authoritarianism our founders sought to prevent when they separated church and state.”
Similarly, Bishop Andrew Doyle of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas responded to the proposed congressional resolution by expressing concern about “the government policing our sermons.” One of the resolution’s sponsors, Rep. Beth Van Duyne, is an Episcopalian in Doyle’s diocese.
“I believe in religious freedom from the government,” Doyle added. “The Christian Church stands firm: our allegiance is to God’s kingdom, not to the state — that is always secondary. In Christ, there are no borders, no superior races, no earthly rulers who can claim ultimate authority over the preacher of God. … Perhaps Christians might be reminded that our savior caused all kinds of headaches for followers and powers alike.”
Doyle’s right. And proof of his last point might even be heard from many mainline Protestant church pulpits across the country this Sunday (not that Trump will be there to hear it). The Gospel reading in the Revised Common Lectionary for Sunday is Jesus’s first sermon in Luke 4. In it, he declared, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Perhaps next week we’ll get a congressional resolution to condemn Jesus for being so “woke.” Or maybe in their rage, they’ll just try to seize him and hurl him off a cliff.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
(Reprinted with permission, Tribune Content Agency)
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