Presbyterian pastor: Bishop’s 'mean sermon' to Trump sowed division

The Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington. Photo: Screenshot from PBS NewsHour YouTube channel

On January 27, 2025, a Presbyterian pastor who attended the first prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral last week stated that Mariann Budde’s sermon sowed the very division she was preaching against, The Christian Post reports.

Rob Pacienza, who serves as senior pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, further suggested that "Budde's worldview is symptomatic of the decay within mainline Protestantism that is increasingly rendering its churches irrelevant."

The Presbyterian pastor stated: "The problem was none of her arguments were rooted in biblical truth. They were all rooted in progressive politics and a secular worldview. She was advocating for transgenderism. She was advocating for open borders. She was advocating for lawlessness in America. She was advocating for an administration to embrace sexuality that is against God's design."

The slide toward heresy began a century ago with the mainline's embrace of liberalism, the pastor noted, and its ultimate fruit has been the steady withering of those denominations that have preached it.

"These churches are dying: many of them are just a museum on Sunday mornings for people to tour and sight-see," he said, adding that churches that have stood fast against "worldly ideologies and progressive politics" are flourishing.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that an Anglican bishop called on Trump to have mercy upon LGBT children.

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