12/24/20
As members of the clergy, we are excited to see a fellow pastor running for the US Senate in Georgia. We know Rev. Raphael Warnock personally. His warmth, intelligence, advocacy and love for people distinguish him among our colleagues. He is a brilliant and funny person, and he is a gifted pastor and preacher. That, to put it mildly, is not the portrait of Warnock -- a Democrat best known for serving as the spiritual leader of the church once led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- that his Republican opponents are trying to paint in the runup to our state's runoff elections. Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a practicing Catholic, continually describes Warnock as a "radical liberal" even though she was among several Republicans who said religious attacks during Justice Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation process were "disgusting." As religious leaders, we can't help but notice that Loeffler did not attack the faith of her Republican primary opponent, Rep. Doug Collins -- who, like Warnock, is also a pastor. Loeffler even spoke from the pulpit at Ebenezer on January 20 of this year -- ostensibly to honor King's legacy. Now, she's attacking Warnock for his faith, which raises an obvious question -- why? The answer is a simple one: It is what some White Christians, especially in the South, do when they see Black Christians talking openly about how inequality, economic justice and human rights are theological concerns that have political remedies.
King himself was relentlessly attacked throughout his life by White Christians as an "outside agitator," a "communist" and a threat to an American way of life that privileged White power and suppressed that of Black citizens. Then, as now, the attacks came from both conservative White politicians and conservative White religious leaders. Some of the harshest attacks against Warnock in the current race come from his fellow pastors, including Collins, an ordained Southern Baptist minister. It's a teaching that Loeffler, Collins and others who claim to speak for God should remember -- and that can and should be a source of potential common ground at a moment of deep division. Like King, Warnock represents a centuries-old tradition that mixes deep love for America with an unrelenting opposition to all forms of oppression and an unflagging effort to improve the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable, regardless of their race. Those stirring calls to social and racial justice have even greater resonance in 2020, a year shaped by the explosive growth of the Black Lives Matter movement and White America's belated -- and halting -- steps towards greater racial reckoning, equity and justice. White conservative Christians don't own religion in the South or have the right to decide what's an acceptable way of practicing it. And, in January, we hope voters of good faiths cast votes that remind Loeffler and her allies of that.
www.cnn.com
