Baptist preacher and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock said he is often stumped by evangelical Christians who claim to love Christ but blame the poor for being poor.
“I do not understand how it is that people who claim to be people of faith, people who say the name of Jesus more than anybody, the loudest voices of the Christian faith in our country, are often the meanest voices,” the Democrat from Georgia said during the 65th annual session of the Progressive National Baptist Convention in Washington, D.C.
“They’re mad at poor people rather than being mad about poverty, and that is counter to the gospel of that barefooted Palestinian Jewish preacher who said he came to preach good news to the poor,” said Warnock, who also serves as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
It was astonishing to watch those very evangelicals in Congress hold hands and pray after passing President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” he added.
Al Sharpton (Photo: PNBC)
“They prayed a prayer over their ability to pass a piece of legislation that cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid, kicked 15 million Americans off their health care, and they did it in the name of their faith,” Warnock said. “I’m always glad to see people praying. But if you pray a long prayer and then kick 15 million people off their health care, including veterans and seniors, then I want to know who you were praying to and what were you praying about.”
PNBC, the historically Black denomination co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1961, devoted portions of its annual gathering to economic justice and Black political power leading into the midterm elections. A session devoted to social justice included addresses by Warnock and civil rights activist Al Sharpton, plus a panel discussion on the role of faith communities in getting out the vote in November.
Numerous resolutions were passed advancing the convention’s position on social justice issues, including those condemning current federal immigration policies, defending voting rights and opposing district gerrymandering, calling for an end to racial profiling and supporting an inclusive economy.
The denomination also released a statement objecting to the use of Christian symbols in racially charged political rhetoric and the distortion of the gospel by those who conflate Christianity and the nation.
“White Christian nationalism performs a violent idolatry that lifts country above Christ, which ironically threatens the future sustainability and original promises of the very nation it purports to want to make great again,” the statement said.
Warnock got an explanation for the apparent disconnect between faith and compassion from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who told him Jesus’ teachings about the poor apply only to individuals, not to governments, Warnock reported. Johnson also told the pastor the Bible does not promote socialism.
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock speaking at PNBC. (Photo screencap)
“I love it when they talk about socialism,” Warnock replied. “They don’t have any problems with socialism. Donald Trump is literally demanding for the government to own pieces of corporations. Imagine another president saying, ‘I need a piece of Intel.’ They’re not against socialism. They just want what Dr. King calls ‘socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.’”
Conservatives are lashing out against Black and other marginalized communities because they sense their cause is lost, Warnock said. “I see a flailing president who knows that, politically, he is dying. I see an old-world order that knows that it is on its way out because truth crushed to earth will rise again, because no lie can live forever.”
The Bible not only supports the poor but also outright demands civil rights activism from God’s people, said Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network.
“The exodus of the Jews out of slavery, that’s a civil rights movement. Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego protested and were put in a fiery furnace. That’s activism. Daniel slept in the lion’s den. That’s activism. If you take out all the activism God called his prophets to do, you ain’t got much Bible left.”
But there are those in the Black Church who resist that call, including congregations that have asked Sharpton not to talk about social justice while visiting their pulpits. He’s also been challenged by some on why organizers have scheduled a march on Aug. 28 to protest Republican redistricting efforts.
“Where you going to let it shine if you don’t show up in dark places?”
“We cannot confuse the times. They are trying to take back everything that was achieved in the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. “Our job is to be here for those that need us to be there, and if that role is not activated now, in the era of them taking back everything from us, when are we going to do it? We sing ‘This little light of mine. I’m going to let it shine.’ Where you going to let it shine if you don’t show up in dark places?”
One of the biggest challenges in November will be convincing young adults they should vote, voting rights activist and author Barbara Skinner-Williams said during the social justice panel discussion.
Generation Z and Millennials now outnumber Boomers, who are much more in the habit of turning up on election day, and they are not given to tears when the lives of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks are discussed.
“They’re basically asking, ‘Why should I vote?’ They’re saying, ‘What is the relationship between my vote and my school loan, my vote and every other issue?’ And you can’t just tell them how bad Trump is,” Skinner-Williams said.
Activists must also be prepared to show up as poll watchers and chaplains on Nov. 3 to protect voters from the possibility of intimidation by Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents, she said.
“I don’t care how much registration you do, how much identification you get straight, how much mobilization you do, how many people you turn out. If you are not ready to protect them in the tradition of Martin Luther King, the whole issue of deconstructing conflicts at the polling site so people are not afraid to go to the polls, they may not come.”