Since 2005 Reverend Raphael Warnock has been the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and now he is tossing his hat in the ring of politics by running to unseat Senator Kelly Loeffler.
That means everything he has ever said or done will be put under a microscope and come back to bite him in the butt.
In a 2013 speech, Warnock was asked to discuss the Nation of Islam’s to Christian churches, and if the “Black church” was having the same problems with attendance as “mainstream White churches and synagogues.”
Warnock responded by saying the Nation of Islam was an “important” voice for African Americans and compared Black power religions to “mainline Protestantism.”
He added that the Nation of Islam is “significant” but its numbers can’t hold a candle to Christian churches.
“Its voice has been important for the development of Black theology,” Warnock said, referring to an ideology created by Black preachers during the Civil Rights era to fight White supremacy within Christianity.
He explained, “It was the Black Muslims who challenged Black preachers and said, ‘you’re promulgating … the White man’s religion. That’s a slave religion. You’re telling people to focus on heaven, meanwhile, they’re catching hell.”
According to Warnack, the Nation of Islams was necessary to “put a fire” under Black preachers to keep them “honest” about the messages they were conveying.
However, the Nation’s message of Black empowerment has since been overshadowed by some of its more controversial theological teachings that label Jews as “satanic” and forbids race-mixing. The Southern Poverty Law Center would even go as far as to say the Nation of Islam is a “hate group.”
For over 40 years, Louis Farrakhan has led the Nation and has stirred up trouble over the decades with his incendiary remarks, most notable for his attacks on Jews, whom he has called “satanic” and “termites.”
