Let’s name the truth: Bishop Budde’s call for mercy was not an attack. It was a reminder. A reminder that leadership without mercy is tyranny. A reminder that the church’s foundation lies in caring for the “least of these.” A reminder that our faith demands responsibility for the vulnerable.

But by the next morning, when the National Cathedral held a “Service of Prayer for the Nation,” as it has every four years since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inauguration in 1933, Trump wasn’t so jazzed with God’s representatives in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Right Rev. Mariann Budde made headlines this week after she angered President Donald Trump with her sermon during an inaugural prayer service. It was not the first time the cleric has publicly disagreed with Trump, but it became a striking moment in what is usually a staid and scripted event.