More than a week after Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde asked President Donald Trump to show mercy on Americans, her comments remain a hot topic in Christian circles. Budde, the first female bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, spoke during a Jan. 21 interfaith prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral.

Budde said people are “scared” about Trump’s second term, specifically mentioning members of the LGBTQ community and immigrants. The president and vice president, in attendance with their families, were visibly displeased by the bishop’s comments.

RELATED: Trump Tells Bishop Budde She Owes the Public an ‘Apology’ After Prayer Service Plea To Show Mercy

Afterward, Trump said, “I didn’t think it was a good service.” The president criticized Budde and her “nasty tone,” saying she owed the public an apology. In response, Budde said she would continue to pray for the president. Meanwhile, some Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives submitted a resolution condemning the bishop’s Jan. 21 sermon.

Some Christian denominations have issued statements in support of Budde’s words. On Jan. 26, the Committee on Faith and Order of the United Methodist Church wrote that Budde “sought to ground national unity in honoring the inherent dignity of all, in honest conversation and humility.” In a letter, the committee’s chairperson, Bishop David A. Bard, praised Budde’s “prophetic voice for justice in a suffering and conflicted world,” which he said she “delivered with gentleness and respect.”

Sharing that letter on social media, the Rev. Benjamin Cremer wrote, “Thankful that the United Methodist Church publicly supports Bishop Budde and her sermon.” Cremer, a digital pastor based in Idaho, wrote on his blog about the “politics of mercy”:

My immediate thought when I saw the backlash was, “This is always what happens when you preach about the need for mercy to a people who worship power.” Especially mercy towards people many have already decided are evil and not worthy of love. People like our LGBT siblings and immigrant neighbors who have long been the target of disinformation, fear, and hateful rhetoric. An appeal to mercy for demonized groups challenges the narratives that demonize them.

Critics of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde Speak Out

Joe Rigney, a fellow of theology at Doug Wilson’s New Saint Andrew’s College in Moscow, Idaho, criticized Budde’s “untethered empathy.” In a Jan. 25 opinion piece for World magazine, Rigney wrote that the bishop, “in the halting and syrupy tone of a schoolmarm,” offered “a clear example of the man-eating weed of Humanistic Mercy, untethered from what is true and good.”

Budde’s comments, Rigney added, remind Christians “of how destructive the feminist cancer is in the Church.” God made women more empathetic than men, he wrote, which is a “great blessing” in the home but “a curse…when it comes to upholding strict standards of justice.”

After citing numerous Bible passages regarding the submission of women, Rigney concluded that “the greatest evil…is conceived and supported…in grandiose cathedrals, by earnest women with rainbow robes and closely cropped haircuts who do not need to raise their voice.”

A clip of a man who said, “I am Jesus Christ,” right before a pastor was about to baptize him is generating some discussion online. Pastor David Whitmore, who stopped the baptism after hearing the man’s shocking claim, told ChurchLeaders he hopes the video will help pastors “be prepared in season and out of season.” Whitmore also expressed dismay at the behavior he has observed from Christians online.

“I’ve been thinking about this and praying about this for the last few days,” said Whitmore in a phone call on Jan. 29, referring to the disunity among Christians he perceives in online posts.

“That’s probably the biggest thing that weighs on me,” he said, “is, how many times do we scroll on Instagram, Facebook reels, whatever…and all of a sudden, our judgmental flesh comes in and we start thinking derogatory of a situation without knowing the context?”

The pastor shared that he does not care what people think of how he handled the baptism, which occurred one-and-a-half to two years ago, but said he finds it “heartbreaking” that people would post their opinions without even trying to understand the situation. 

‘I Am Jesus Christ,’ Says Man About To Be Baptized

A video clip posted by polemical news site Protestia shows Whitmore preparing to baptize a man during a church service. Whitmore is the pastor of Catalyst Church in Evansville, Indiana. Contrary to what some who saw the video assumed, Whitmore had known the man, whom he described as a “unique individual,” for a while prior to the baptism. 

RELATED: WATCH: This ‘Dad Is Crying’—Lecrae Reflects on ‘God’s Goodness’ After Daughter’s Baptism

The man had been exploring faith and eventually approached Whitmore, telling the pastor that he was ready to be baptized. The pastor went through the gospel with him, as he does with everyone who wants to be baptized, and the man gave accurate answers about the identity of Jesus.

When it came time for the actual baptism, as Whitmore prepared to baptize the man, the pastor asked him, “Have you placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior?” The man replied, “I am Jesus Christ.”

“What?” Whitmore said.

“I’m back, boys,” said the man. 

“Huh?” said the pastor, who then addressed the man by name and asked him again, “Have you placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior?”

The man responded by denying that he was himself. At that point, Whitmore decided to stop the baptism because the man had some “theological things that he’s dealing with.” 

Anglican cleric and conservative political commentator Calvin Robinson has had his ordination revoked following an incident in which he jokingly mimicked a Nazi salute to a crowd at a pro-life event. 

Robinson had been ordained in the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC), a denomination in the continuing Anglican movement, which is separate from the Anglican Communion. He is also a regularly featured speaker at Turning Point U.S.A. events, including its Pastor Summit.

Robinson made the offensive gesture at the conclusion of an address he recently gave at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, D.C.

“This I see as the last stand for the west,” Robinson said, referring to the United States. “The whole of the old world is crumbling. Every country in Europe is embracing death. America, as far as I can see, is the only country fighting for life.”

My heart goes out to you.

Make America Pro-Life Again. 🇺🇸🫡 pic.twitter.com/5bG8Gyy5fH

— Calvin Robinson (@calvinrobinson) January 29, 2025

Gesturing toward the audience, Robinson continued, “And that’s down to you guys. So God bless all of you for what you’re doing. Please keep doing it.”

“I hope that I can encourage you,” Robinson said, before putting his hand to his chest. Then extending his arm upward with a straightened hand, he added, “And my heart goes out to you.”

Robinson’s gesture was met with scattered laughter and then applause as he exited the stage. 

Elon Musk’s Questionable Gesture Stirs Online Discussion

Robinson’s actions were a reference to those of tech mogul Elon Musk, who was accused of performing a Nazi salute to a crowd of Trump supporters following the presidential inauguration last week. 

Musk said that he was sending his heart out to the crowd, and he twice put his hand to his chest before extending it out in an upward motion.

In the days that followed, Musk was subject to harsh criticism, and many speculated about whether the gesture was an intentional allusion to the infamous salute used by the German Nazi party. 

RELATED: DOGE’s Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Want To Eliminate Taxpayers Funding Planned Parenthood; Christians React

In the midst of the controversy, online influencer Andrew Tate suggested that conservatives should embrace the Nazi salute as an act of defiance against political correctness.

PITTSBURGH (RNS) — The Jewish community here is haunted by the specter of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting, when a gunman killed 11 worshipers in deranged retribution against HIAS, a Jewish refugee aid agency, for bringing “invaders that kill our people.”

But congregations have never stopped helping to resettle refugees, and Jewish leaders vow their work will continue despite President Donald Trump’s order ending federal funding for it. “This work doesn’t change just because any president was elected,” said Rabbi Daniel Fellman, senior rabbi at Temple Sinai, a Reform congregation just a mile from the Tree of Life synagogue. “So we’re going to do everything we can to help people.”

But Trump’s order has left Temple Sinai and its partners scrambling to determine exactly how their refugee assistance program will be impacted. The temple’s volunteers will still look for deals on used furniture listed on local Facebook groups, and the order won’t keep the volunteers from offering newcomers help in deciphering the postal system, operating washing machines or navigating public transit. Federal funding, however, is indispensable to meet basic needs such as rent.

RELATED: Trump’s Executive Order Harms Persecuted Christians, Argues World Relief 

HIAS, formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, was closing for Shabbat on Friday (Jan. 24) when a notice from the State Department arrived by email, instructing the agency to halt all services funded by the U.S., including to refugees who already arrived. An earlier executive order had already barred new arrivals of refugees for 90 days.

HIAS is one of 10 national resettlement agencies that are contracted with the State Department to process refugees and place them in communities across the country. These agencies, seven of which are faith-based, subcontract with local affiliates, allocating federal dollars to refugee resettlement. HIAS President Mark Hetfield said federal funding made up 60% of HIAS’ budget for this year.

In Pittsburgh, one local affiliate, Jewish Family and Community Services, has settled hundreds of refugees, coordinating airport pickups, finding housing, purchasing groceries and clothes and helping refugees open bank accounts, enroll in school and find jobs. JFCS Director of Refugee and Immigrant Services Ivonne Smith-Tapia said the government provided between $1,250 and $1,650 for each refugee, depending on need. The State Department also funded the staff positions at JFCS and training for the refugee clients.

Drew Barkley, center, meets with two resettled refugees at Temple Sinai in Pittsburgh, Jan. 28, 2025. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)

JFCS has long supplemented federal money with private fundraising. In 2021, the group approached Temple Sinai and Pittsburgh’s Shadyside Presbyterian Church about becoming co-sponsors. Together, the two congregations formed a refugee resettlement committee that has since settled five families in the city, according to Drew Barkley, a Temple Sinai executive director and a member of the committee.

Award-winning musician and podcaster Lecrae seems to have done it all—on and off the stage. But this time, his daughter, Amaya, was the focus of friends and family as she “publicly declared her decision to follow Christ” and was baptized at their local church.

“I can’t change my baby girl’s heart—only God can,” said Lecrae.

Lecrae Is ‘Overcome With Emotion’ As Daughter Amaya Is Baptized

Christian rapper Lecrae and his wife, Darragh Moore, were married in their 20s and have three children together. Lecrae has been close with their daughter, Amaya, and invited her to be his guest at last year’s Grammy Awards. He was nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance (along with Tasha Cobbs)—both of which he won that night.

“My daughter was a tiny little girl the last time I went to the Grammys and she couldn’t go,” he recalled. “As she’s become a young teen, she’s dreamed of going. Win or lose, I’m honored to still be here and to create a memory with my baby girl. God is the greatest.”

Filled with pride, this dad recently shared a video of Amaya’s recent baptism. The family gathered around to support Amaya’s decision at a baptism service at Eagles Nest Church in Roswell, Georgia.

“Today, my daughter publicly declared her decision to follow Christ, and it’s just now hitting me. I’m overwhelmed with emotion, (Dad is crying),” posted Lecrae.

Amaya received a certificate commemorating her decision and the event. She also proudly held up a sign saying, “I have decided,” for a photo with friends and family.

The rapper spent time “reflecting on God’s goodness and faithfulness.” He continued, “As parents, we long for our children’s physical well-being, but more than that, I’ve prayed for their hearts to know and love God.”

The hip-hop star has been open about his own struggles as he continues his walk with Christ. There was a season where he and his wife weren’t “gonna make it,” and he credits his mentor and friend Montell Jordan for speaking the truth in love.

Since that “darkest season,” Lecrae and his wife have since confessed, forgiven, and changed their everyday lives to reflect God’s design for marriage and life. This transformation has changed “the entire trajectory of our entire family,” he shared.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Lecrae (@lecrae)

On the night of Jan. 18, residents of Carrollton, Texas, were left frightened after a person appeared on their doorstep wearing a satanic goat mask and holding a sign with Revelation 20:1-15 written on it.

The troubling encounter was captured by the homeowners’ Ring camera while they were out getting dinner. “My husband and I had gone out to dinner,” the homeowner told CBS News Texas. “And then we had stopped off at the store to pick up a Powerball ticket, and I was waiting in the car for him, and my ring notification went off.”

That is when the homeowner, who didn’t want to be identified, saw a masked person ringing her doorbell.

“I’m scared to leave the house. I’m scared to be at the house,” she said.

RELATED: Satanist Accepts Prayer From Young Missionary and Influencer

Describing what she saw on her Ring camera, she said that the “person popped up on the video with that goat’s mask on, and they were approaching my door.” The sign the person was holding is “about the end times. It’s about judgment day.”

“I freaked out,” she added. “I mean, I was like, I couldn’t even think of anything.”

The homeowner quickly called the police to report the masked man, but he was no longer at the residence when law enforcement arrived. While a report was filed, police informed the homeowner that no crime was committed. Police are continuing to monitor the situation.

The Scripture reference on the masked person’s sign describes the defeat of Satan and eternal judgment. It reads:

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

On Tuesday (Jan. 28), President Donald Trump issued an executive order to restrict access to hormonal and surgical treatments for minors experiencing gender dysphoria. 

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the order states. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”

“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” the order continues. “Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.”

Therefore, the executive order stipulates that the federal government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

RELATED: ‘And All the Fact-Checkers Died’—Sen. John Neely Kennedy Compares Trump Nominee to Noah

The order applies to individuals under the age of 19 and includes the use of puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and surgical interventions. 

The order further directs the secretary of Health and Human Services to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children, including regulatory and sub-regulatory actions, which may involve the following laws, programs, issues, or documents.”

It also directs the attorney general to review the enforcement of Section 116 of Title 18, United States Code, which prohibits female genital mutilation.

This order brings the United States into closer alignment with European countries, such as the United Kingdom, which restricts access to puberty blockers for minors experiencing gender dysphoria and promotes various therapeutic options in lieu of medical interventions.

RELATED: Vance Defends Trump Policy Allowing ICE Raids of Churches, Schools Amid Backlash from US Conference of Catholic Bishops

The order is being hailed as a victory among conservative groups and by evangelical leaders. 

(RNS) — On the day after President Donald Trump was reelected, the Rev. Joseph Evans, a Berkeley School of Theology professor, wondered, along with some of his colleagues: “What are we going to do now?”

The subsequent collaboration of more than two dozen Black ministers answered with a statement, “A Credo to Legatees of the Black Church Tradition,” urging those who were raised in or now run African American congregations to defy white Christian nationalism and take acts of resistance, including investing in Black banks, supporting Black businesses and providing scholarships to help students attend vocational schools and historically Black colleges and universities.

“We believe, Black people should return to the ecumenical Black Church tradition and renew fellowship with their brothers and sisters,” the document concludes, “to help fight and resist hegemonic practices which continue to endorse under-resourced public and private funding to abolish human poverty.”

The statement, dated Jan. 1 and published later in the month in the Black digital media outlet Reel Urban News, is a critique of Project 2025, a series of conservative proposals that some Black denominational leaders had worried could be solidified in a second Trump administration.

“Project 2025 is informed by white Christian Nationalism,” reads the statement, completed prior to its authors seeing some of the project’s proposals put in place through Trump’s first executive orders.

“We believe our Credo is inspired by the Spirit of the Lord: Therefore, our Credo is not a reaction to Project 2025. Instead, it is an ethical response to white Christian Nationalism.”

The Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, a coordinator of Faiths United to Save Democracy and the onetime executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, is among the document’s supporters.

“I added my name to the Credo because it prophetically calls Black clergy back to the theology of moral resistance in the spirit of Frederick Douglass and many other righteous resisters to injustice and oppression like those inherent in Project 2025,” she told RNS in an email message. “Project 2025 is an all-out attack on over 60 years of civil rights protection of African American people in the U.S.”

In his first days back in office, Trump — whose name was mentioned only in a footnote of the ministers’ statement — signed executive orders that terminate DEI federal programs, offices and positions; urge private-sector entities to end DEI preferences; and revoke executive orders that supported affirmative action in treatment of government contractors and promoted diversity and inclusion in the federal workplace.

Time magazine reported on Friday (Jan. 24) that its analysis determined that close to two-thirds of Trump’s executive actions at that point reflected or partially reflected Project 2025 proposals.

In addition to critiquing Project 2025, the statement’s writers also questioned the practices and beliefs of white evangelicals.

“We believe, that many in the white evangelical church have committed irrefutable political, economic, and religious idolatry,” the Black ministers state. “White evangelicals are drunk on the religion of white Christian nationalism which does not find its footing in the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth which is to ‘proclaim good news to the poor.’”