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Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., compared Christian leaders who say their faith supports President Donald Trump to religious people who condone slavery in America.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that aired Sunday, Warnock, who serves as senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, was asked several questions about how his Christian faith influences his politics.
After saying he prayed for the president but did not encourage his “ungodly” administration, Tapper asked the Democratic senator what he thought about pastors going to the White House to show their support for Trump and believe he was put in office for God’s purpose.
“There are many religious leaders who go to the White House who not only pray for the President, but act as if they are suggesting that God has chosen him for this job,” said Tapper.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., speaks on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
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“Yes, they are wrong,” Warnock replied, before comparing these leaders to those who twisted Scripture to justify American slavery.
“And there were Christians who thought that slavery was, you know, somewhat like God’s slavery—American chattel—and they justified it. And they used the Scriptures to support their position,” he continued. “It just so happens that I am a product of an opposing culture that was born fighting for freedom. That understood that God did not create us to be slaves. That is why the Black Church appeared.”
Warnock went on to say that the Black Church was a church that began “by correcting the American apostasy that somehow tried to reconcile the faith of Jesus with slavery.”
In the interview, Warnock said he was praying for Trump because he needed “a big prayer.”
President Donald Trump delivered on his economic policies with a positive March jobs report. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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He also said that the president must be held accountable for the “racism” and “cruelty he is bringing to the streets of America with his ICE program.”
“I have to be honest about what he’s doing,” he told Tapper. “His kind of unabashed, colorless racism; the brutality he unleashed on the streets of America through his version of ICE. Those things must be condemned. So, for me, prayer and prophetic speech, which makes the power to respond – those two things go hand in hand. I have never been a pastor, bless that which is ungodly and wrong.”
Tapper also pressed Warnock on how he responds to members of his church who oppose his political views on immigration and abortion.
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg)
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“I’m sure you meet your African American church members, the Baptists who like to get along better than you, and say, ‘I’m with you in hunger, I’m with you in mercy, but Laken Riley was killed by an undocumented immigrant and I don’t see anything compassionate about having him in this country,'” Tapper said. “Or they talk about abortion, or other things that may not be in line with your politics.”
“How do you deal with that?” he asked.
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“Oh, we’re Baptists,” Warnock replied, before acknowledging the various views in his church.
“We could all use a little more kindness these days,” he added. “Kindness to people who don’t agree with our point of view.”
When reached for comment, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital that, “President Trump made a campaign promise to fight for religious freedom, and he has quickly scored big, meaningful victories for people of faith — from restoring biological truth to protecting basic parental rights and keeping men out of women’s sports.”
