It's Sunday

As Trump supporters lambast an Episcopal bishop's sermon during an inaugural prayer service, Episcopal churches in Utah are being targeted with anger — as well as a surge of interest from prospective members.

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Congregations in Salt Lake, Ogden and Park City also reported a spike in attendance this Sunday.

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Staff at the Episcopal Diocese of Utah told Axios they received at least a dozen angry calls in the aftermath of Bishop Mariann Budde's sermon last week, which, with President Trump in attendance, implored him to "have mercy" for undocumented immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.

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Following Budde's now-viral sermon at the Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 21, Trump demanded an apology, saying, "She is not very good at her job!"

Other Republicans joined the attack, with one Congressman calling for her deportation (she was born in New Jersey) and 21 others cosponsoring a resolution condemning the sermon.

Some faith leaders and conservative activists called on elected officials to revoke the National Cathedral's tax-exempt status, nullify the 1893 charter that allowed an Episcopal foundation to create it, and turn the building over to a more conservative denomination.

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Meanwhile, in San Diego, vandals painted profanity and crosshair targets on the Episcopal cathedral; a Jewish synagogue there was defaced the same day.

  Axios

MAGA.

Conservative outcry against Budde's sermon follows years of warnings against "too much compassion" in religious discourse.

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In a post that received more than 23 million views last week, a deacon at an Ogden church wrote of Budde: "Do not commit the sin of empathy. This snake is God's enemy and yours too. She hates God and His people. You need to properly hate in response."

Latter-day Saint leaders have instructed members that obedience to God should come ahead of loving their neighbors.

In a Fox News interview Wednesday, Vice President J.D. Vance argued that Christianity teaches the faithful to love people in other countries only after prioritizing their own families, communities and countrymen.