In some cases, references to Trump were veiled, if biting. Other church leaders were blunt.

Citing sources such as the Bible, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Gettysburg Address, clergy representing a wide range of Christianity — even people who usually don’t touch political topics — addressed Trump’s words from pulpits Sunday and at King Day observances Monday.

WASHINGTON — Clergy members across the country are speaking out against President Trump’s reported vulgarity about less affluent nations.

In Atlanta on Monday, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Rev. Raphael Warnock urged those who packed the pews to honor King to speak out against racism.


Warnock also took issue with Trump’s campaign slogan to ‘‘Make America Great Again.’’ America ‘‘is already great . . . in large measure because of Africa and African people,’’ he said.

Warnock urged people in the audience to speak out against such remarks about other countries, noting King’s own words that ‘‘silence is betrayal.’’

On Sunday, Catholics at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Arlington, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, continually interrupted the 9:30 a.m. Mass with applause and then gave a standing ovation to the Rev. Timothy Hickey.

The priest in his homily said people from the nations Trump referred to with profanity are our ‘‘brothers and sisters’’ who should be defended in any and every way, parishioners said.

That’s the ‘‘first time I have ever seen that at that church or at any Catholic Church I have ever attended. I am 55,’’ one woman said of the congregation’s reaction. She spoke on condition her name not be used because she is a federal employee and fears repercussions of speaking against Trump.

Another worshiper at Our Lady recalled that Hickey urged people to stand up to racism coming from ‘‘across the river.’’


With Vice President Mike Pence sitting in the pews Sunday, Maurice Watson, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Largo, Md., denounced the vulgar word Trump is said to have used, the Associated Press reported.

Maurice Watson delivered the sermon while Pence was visiting the congregation, calling the remark ‘‘dehumanizing’’ and ‘‘ugly.’’

The pastor said ‘‘whoever made such a statement . . . is wrong and they ought to be held accountable.’’

After making his remarks, Watson said he felt ‘‘led by God to do it’’ and noted many of his congregants come from Haiti or African nations. Worshipers stood up and applauded as Watson spoke.

WUSA-TV reported that Pence became red-faced at times throughout the sermon.

The scriptural cycle had many congregations poring Sunday over John 1:43-51, in which Philip tells Nathanael he has come across the one of whom the prophets have been speaking: Jesus of Nazareth.

‘‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’’ Nathanael asks. Nazareth was understood to be a tiny, politically backward village. Many pastors seized on that comparison in their sermons.

‘‘There were some controversial words spoken this week about the value of people —talk of others who are not deserving,’’ the Rev. Chris Danielson said Sunday at St. Andrew United Methodist on Sunday in West Lafayette, Ind. “Let me be clear: These words are not of Christ.’’

Danielson’s comments were written down by parishioner Steve Tally, who said Trump was not mentioned by name to the congregation.

‘‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Can anything good come out of these nations?” Danielson said, according to Tally. “You better believe it, and boy do they have gifts to give.’’


Some pastors agonized over whether to speak about comments attributed to Trump about El Salvador, Africa, and Haiti — even obliquely.

American congregations are becoming increasingly politically segregated, and many clergy members see church as a place to emphasize forgiveness, love, and Scripture, as opposed to specific contemporary political applications.

Discussion of current news is seen by some as a distraction from a focus on worship, particularly in conservative evangelical churches. The opposite is true in other spheres of US Christianity, particularly mainline Protestantism and African-American churches, where social gospel is often seen as core.

The question of whether or how much to bring news into church exploded anew after last year’s racial violence in Charlottesville, Va., and the evangelical news site Christianity Today did a question-and-answer article called ‘‘Should pastors address current events in Sunday sermons?’’ The answers were yes and no.