Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin with a

plea for mercy from Bishop Marian Edgabud at the National Prayer Service at Washington's National

Cathedral to Donald Trump as he sat stone-faced while she gently urged him to, quote, I ask you

to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children

fear their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones

and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we

are to be merciful to the stranger, for we all want strangers in this land.

Joining us is Anthea Butler, the Geraldine R. Siegel Professor of American Social Thought

and Chair of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

She's the author of a number of books, including The Rise of the New Religious Right,

and most recently white evangelical

racism, the politics of morality in America. Then we'll examine Trump's choice to head up

America's intelligence community, a group of compromised incompetence and delusional ideologues

who might as well have been chosen by Putin to weaken, if not neutralize, the

United States intelligence community. Joining us to discuss Gabbard as DNI, Patel at FBI, Heg-Seth

at DoD, and Ratcliffe at CIA is Locke Johnson, Regents Professor of Political Science

at the University of Georgia. He served on the

staffs of both the House and Senate Intelligence Oversight Committees and is the editor of the

Journal Intelligence and National Security. He has written several books on American foreign policy

including bombs, bugs, drugs and thugs, Intelligence and America's Quest for Security,

seven sins of American foreign policy, the threat on the horizon and inside account of America's search for security after the

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