Go to Church, Dems
Republicans may come to thank Rev. Mariann Budde. Sure, her disrespectful and tone-deaf sermon at Tuesday’s national prayer service insulted the new president of the United States and the 77 million Americans who voted for him. But the right reverend might have inadvertently created a bumper crop of Republican converts by luring gullible liberals into the pews.
Like the old I-65 sign says, “Go to church or the Devil will get you.”
Research shows that the more Democrats go to church, the more likely they are to become members of the Grand Old Party. As noted religion researcher Dr. Brian Burge observes, “being politically liberal and being highly religious are just not compatible.” Burge shows that across denominations and ethnic groups, America’s faithful are conservatives.
This tracks in poll after poll. Religious Americans overwhelmingly and decisively voted for Trump, by 63% among Protestants and 59% among Catholics, according to a CNN exit poll.
The godless backed former Vice President Kamala Harris by even higher margins: 71% , according to the same data.
Given that a firm majority, 67% of the country identifies as Christian, you’d think liberal politicians would cater to the faithful. Instead, to cite just one glaring example of her political malpractice, Harris blatantly skipped the most important Catholic campaign stop of 2024—the first for a Democrat in 40 years.
Though not a pious man, it was Trump who promised that his administration “will not forget our God.” It was Trump who stirred souls by having “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” sung at his inauguration. It was Trump who shared his personal faith testimony, that he was “saved by God for a reason.”
Liberals cynically dismiss his message because they dislike the messenger, ignoring that many of the Bible’s greatest leaders were also imperfect vessels (see 2 Samuel 11-12).
Instead of offering a blessing to the nation’s new president and acknowledging what may have been his conversion moment in Butler, Pennsylvania, Budde lectured Trump and his family on the need for “unity.”
The bishop shamefully stereotyped immigrants as those who, “pick our crops and clean our office buildings,” skipping over the New Testament’s command that we all must obey the law (Romans 13:1-3).
Budde perpetuated the dangerously abusive myth of “transgender children,” a trope which defies God made humans distinctly male and female (Genesis 1:27).
Then, within hours of bemoaning the “the outrage industrial complex” from her pulpit at the National Cathedral, the right reverend trampled all over Matthew 18:15-17 on her way to the airwaves to express her own personal outrage on CNN and ABC’s “The View.”
While speaking before these high alters of liberal media bias, perhaps Budde converted some Democrats to actually attend a church service.
After all, her 15 minute sermon on social justice, the kind of fare familiar to anyone who has listened to a mainline Protestant sermon in the past 20 years, would be equally at home in a college faculty lounge or DEI conference.
For some reason, liberals love this sort of thing; but the faithful and conservatives don’t.
For all their virtue-signaling, mainline Protestant churches are in membership free fall. Presbyterian membership is down by 67% since 1987. Methodist are down 40%. Church of Christ, 57%. And on and on. The growing churches? Those that preach the gospel, which is frequently dismissed as “evangelical.”
Budde’s own flock is in precipitous decline. The Episcopal Diocese of Washington attendance has dropped 36.4% since 2014 (Budde arrived in 2011), according to church figures.
As Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Treasury said after hearing Budde’s sermon, she “proved herself to be a narrow-minded, out-of-touch elitist with little regard for facts.”
One glaring fact: a pastor more concerned with spreading the gospel would have used the national prayer service for the new administration to welcome many young Republicans and their families to Washington. She might have invited them to hear the saving words of Jesus Christ and receive the sacraments in one of the many beautiful Episcopal churches in our nation’s capital.
With thousands of Republican staffers and appointees flooding into her diocese, Budde missed the chance to fill her empty pews.
What a missed moment to demonstrate the hospitality of the Gospel.
Morgan Murphy is military thought leader, former press secretary to the Secretary of Defense and national security advisor in the U.S. Senate.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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