The podcast’s Jan. 29 episode tackled inauguration-related topics, including “the demonization of empathy.” While addressing pushback against Bishop Budde, Vischer read comments from Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who spoke at Trump’s Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony. “She had the opportunity to preach the gospel,” Sewell said of Budde. “I cannot believe that she would use that moment to speak a demonic message.”
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In response, theologian and podcaster Kaitlyn Schiess told Vischer, “What a shallow, shriveled gospel we claim to hold to if we think it does not include the things that [Budde] said.” Of the bishop’s critics, Schiess said:
I don’t know where they were confused or where they stopped paying attention. [Budde] completely shared the gospel…It was a very clear proclamation that because of who God is and how God has extended hospitality and mercy to us, that then requires us to extend mercy and hospitality to others…Nothing about her message makes sense without the basic truths of the gospel being a part of it.
Schiess praised Budde’s restraint for not prescribing policy in her message to Trump. The bishop was properly holding leaders to account without ignoring or rubber-stamping their actions, Schiess said.
“For that to be happening the morning after the inauguration, it’s exactly what Christians should be doing,” Schiess continued. “It doesn’t surprise me that the Christians that Trump chose to speak for him publicly did nothing but praise him. But what [Budde] did is exactly what Christians should be doing.”