A new trend emerged this week during Georgia’s runoff race, in which individuals circulated old footage of Democratic candidate for GA U.S. Senate Raphael Warnock (D).
Warnock is in a January 5 run-off election with GOP incumbent Kelly Loeffler (R) because neither candidate received 50 percent plus one of the vote, as required by Georgia law.
Loeffler has largely instigated this trend. The senator’s campaign has shared controversial links to Warnock’s old sermons and interviews via press releases and social media.
Most of the footage shared appears to depict Warnock contradicting his own Christian beliefs as well as advocating controversial policies and beliefs.
The latest video drop from Loeffler links to a 2011 sermon from Warnock. The candidate appears to preach to the crowd that individuals can’t be soldiers if they are Christians.
“In America nobody can serve God and the military,” the Democratic candidate said. “You can’t serve God and money. You cannot serve God and mammon. America, choose ye this day whom you will serve. Choose ye this day!”
Warnock responded to criticism over his statement by stating that he was only expressing his allegiance to God.
“The gospel lesson says that you cannot serve God and mammon, that a person cannot have two masters,” he said. “It is a spiritual lesson that is basic and foundational for people of faith. What I was expressing was the fact that as a person of faith my ultimate allegiance is to God, and therefore whatever else I may commit myself to – it has to be built on a spiritual foundation. So it was about priorities and about how one orders priorities so you can live a moral life.”
Other trending videos of late include Warnock’s defense of controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and calls for America to repent for worshipping whiteness.
Wright, a preacher to President Barack Obama, stated that God should damn America–and the country only had itself to blame for 9/11.
Following the death of George Floyd, Warnock preached that America faced a pandemic that’s existed longer than COVID-19: racism.
Warnock endured further scrutiny for being a student and supporter of Dr. James Hal Cone, the Black Liberation Theology founder.
“White religionists are not capable of perceiving the blackness of God, because their satanic whiteness is a denial of the very essence of divinity,” wrote Cone. “The goal of black theology is the destruction of everything white, so that blacks can be liberated from alien Gods.”
In 2014 sermons, Warnock advocated for more gun control and criticized 2nd Amendment protections. The candidate also branded police officers as “gangsters, thugs, [and] bullies.”
In addition to sharing these links, Loeffler launched a “Radical Raphael” website and a series of attack ads against Warnock.
The Georgia Star News reached out to the Loeffler campaign to discuss what their responses are to Warnock’s rebuttals and criticisms of Loeffler. Spokespersons with Loeffler didn’t respond by press time.
Current polls show Loeffler leading Warnock by one point.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Raphael Warnocks” by Raphael Warnocks.
