New in PJ Media:
When Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde lectured President Trump and Vice President Vance about immigration during her sermon at the National Prayer Service on the day after they were inaugurated, leftists hailed Budde for standing on principle and giving the Bad Orange Man a good scolding. As it turns out, however, Budde may have motivations that were a bit more tangible than principle: her church’s Episcopal Migration Ministry (EMM) rakes in millions from a number of taxpayer-funded entities for bringing the migrants. And the Episcopal Church is by no means alone in this: other churches that have recently taken principled stances against Trump’s immigration policies are in on the gravy train as well.
The New York Post reported Friday that Budde’s “sermon to President Trump during an inaugural prayer service, coupled with her church’s advocacy for humanitarian immigration programs, reveals a striking hypocrisy — one that could be seen as self-serving and even a conflict of interest.” This is because in 2023, EMM “earned $53 million from various taxpayer-funded government programs to resettle 3,600 individuals.” If Trump stops the migrant influx and ends the funding for such programs, the Episcopal Church could suddenly be facing a significant shortfall of cash.
And so Budde appealed to Trump to have mercy upon those who “fear for their lives” – what? From whom? In a magnificent display of elitism, she exhorted him to be kind to “the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals.” She said nothing, of course, about the small matter of that $53 million.
Nor did she mention another salient fact. According to the Post, EMM “‘sponsored’ 6,400 individuals from 48 countries in 2024. The leading nationalities were Afghans under a special humanitarian program.”
Wait a minute. Afghans? Certainly, there are many people who fled Afghanistan because the Taliban would kill them if they got the chance, but did EMM take any time to consider the fact that besides the Taliban, Afghanistan is a key center of operations for al-Qaeda and ISIS? There are certainly Afghans who aren’t members of any jihad terror group, but they didn’t exist in sufficient numbers to prevent the Taliban from returning to power, or to keep al-Qaeda and ISIS from acting in that country with complete impunity. So what measures did EMM take to vet these Afghans and make sure they weren’t bringing in any jihadis? Likely they did nothing about this, for to have made any such effort would have been “Islamophobic.”
The Episcopal Church isn’t alone in this hypocrisy. The Post notes that “the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) dwarfs EMM. Forbes reported that USCCB affiliate Catholic Charities USA, which has its hand in all aspects of immigration and seems to get money from every government agency except NASA, received $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars in 2021. That’s 68 times more than EMM got that year.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Taffy says
Don’t forget Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota and CEO Jodi Harpstead who was paid $hundreds of millions to bring Somali Muslims to the Twin Cities and with it rampant crime.
Vince Barwinski says
Absolutely!
JimJFox says
Ain’t religion wonderful? Doesn’t matter which one, they’re all horse shit.
Keys says
2023 Top Salaries for “Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota” from Charity Navigator:
Patrick Thueson, President
$376,126
Maureen Warren, Sr Vp Special Projects
$245,885
George Klauser, Aco Director
$208,714
Jesse Stremcha, Vp/chief Development Officer
$207,579
Joyce Norals, Vp Of Human Resources (former)
$189,873
Source: IRS Form 990 (page 7), filing year 2023
Vince Barwinski says
I wrote a piece in rebuttal to Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s Biblically bastardized Cultural neo-Marxist WOKE sermon at:
https://vincebarwinski.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/message_to_WOKE_bishop_mariann_edgar_budde_saturday_25th_january_2025.pdf
I did mention that on July 9th 2024, U.S. Sen Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, participated in a roundtable titled,
‘The Exploitation Crisis: How the U.S. Government is Failing to Protect Migrant Children from Trafficking and Abuse.’
Sen. Johnson called out the Biden administration for failing to protect migrant children at the border who have been exploited and abused due to the inhumanity of that fraudulently elected DC Sewer administration’s open border.’”
However, unlike this article, I did not mention how NGOs benefit big time financially from the open southern border, exposing for one one thing, the abject WOKE hypocrisy of this Episcopal bishop.
But I did quote Biblical verses from the both the Old and New Testament, pointing out, that unlike this WOKE hypocrite of a female bishop, God is NOT a Globalist and demands nations respect borders.
Alex Lund says
They should be forced to take in those ahem asylum seekers into their personal homes.
But those asylum seekers should be put be on a list and if bishop XY has place for three he gets the top three asylum seekers. And if its three fully grown men with a history of violence – so sorry. Will be fun to see how the bishop reacts when those muslims tell him, he serves the devil and they introduce them to the finer points of the quoran about how to treat infidels.
Those bleeding heart liberals must not be allowed to choose which they take in, because then they would always choose one of the nearly non-existing women or children.
Namer says
Their Tax Exempt status should be rescinded. They are not the House of our Lord but a house of Satan.
Thinker1 says
Pretty sure those “helped” didn’t see much of the $15000 cost PER PERSON.
40 rounds says
You’re correct, it is a massive money laundering scheme in which a good percentage ends up at the dnc
Keys says
2023 Top Salaries for “Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota” from Charity Navigator:
Does not include all other staff salaries.
Patrick Thueson, President
$376,126
Maureen Warren, Sr Vp Special Projects
$245,885
George Klauser, Aco Director
$208,714
Jesse Stremcha, Vp/chief Development Officer
$207,579
Joyce Norals, Vp Of Human Resources (former)
$189,873
Source: IRS Form 990 (page 7), filing year 2023
Reply
Troybeam says
Let’s see what these groups do now that the funds have been cut off. Bringing in people and dumping them in cities is a crime against the citizens of our nation. These groups should repay the cities of supporting these people and pay for their return to home nation.
40 rounds says
You are correct but metropolitan areas have a totally different mind set inexplicably
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I think the 501(c)(3) status of most of these churches needs to be reviewed. Yeah, First Amendment protections do apply to them, but when they are lobbying so aggressively to protect people who violate our laws, it’s time to bring down the hammer on them
Crack down on them, the ACLU, the ADL and anyone else who’s been talking about protecting the illegal aliens who are being deported. Put them on the defensive so that they can’t practice lawfare against the DHS or ICE or other enforcement agencies
somehistory says
“pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals.”
I was born in the U.S. I, along with family who were all born here, picked crops…after plowing, planting, hoeing, them. Some family cleaned office buildings,, and I and family members worked in food packing plants (seafood). I washed dishes in a restaurant and worked the night shift in a grocery.
where, you idiot woman pretending to be a Christian preacher, is my portion of the millions you have raked in? where are the portions due my family members?
Some in the media want to say that illegals *do the jobs Americans refuse to do* and are aware that some farmers pay them less than they pay citizens. One point: that is not always the case; some pay the citizen the same as the non-citizen “migrant.”
And, another important point: some farmers refuse….****refuse**** to hire the citizen and leave the hiring up to a foreman chosen from the “migrants.” I personally was denied farm jobs for that very reason.
Jerks like this so-called “bishop”….un-scripturally placed in church authority…really chap my hide in so many ways.
She will have to reap the produce from the lies she has sown. As will all like her. Their crop is an evil one.
40 rounds says
As many have pointed out: democrats again need someone to pick their crops and be house Mammy’s
࿗Infidel࿘ says
The most priceless comment I saw on this was by Kelly Osborne, Ozzy’s daughter, who asked, “If we get rid of illegals, who will clean our toilets?” She got trolled heavily even by the open borders crowds
somehistory says
Thank you, Infidel. Some people are incredibly stupid.
If one watches old movies, the ‘cleaning lady’ is almost always a White woman; the night clerk at the hotel is an old White guy or young Black man, and the janitors at schools and hospitals all speak perfect English…White or Black.
Wellington says
As so often is the case, follow the money.
James Lincoln says
So, will the churches that “oppose Trump on immigration” continued to oppose him if they are no longer given millions of dollars?