Warnock signed a letter in 2019 comparing Israel’s actions in the West Bank with "the military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa." In 2013, he also defended the Nation of Islam, a radical group led by anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakhan, for keeping black churches "honest."
Warnock’s Church Airs Sermon Calling Evangelical Christianity the ‘Ideological Basis’ of White Supremacy
Alana Goodman • November 2, 2022 4:10 pmAt a voter outreach event on Saturday, Georgia Democratic senator Raphael Warnock’s church featured a fiery sermon from a reverend who denounced evangelical Christianity as the "ideological basis" for slavery and white supremacy.
The Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Warnock serves as senior pastor, hosted a "Super Voter Saturday" panel discussion last weekend and aired a pre-taped 2020 sermon by Rev. Billy Honor. The event took place just a few days before voters will head to the polls in Georgia, which has one of the largest evangelical Christian populations in the United States.
"There is nothing about evangelical white Christianity that would make you think it values black lives," said Honor in the sermon. "The fact is that this is a tradition that devalues black bodies, so much so that the devaluing of black bodies is about as American as apple pie."
While Warnock did not speak at the event, his name was at the top of a welcome message to attendees that played at the beginning of the program. The sermon could reignite concerns about Warnock’s own controversial statements and promotion of extremist rhetoric, including a sermon in which he said Americans need to repent for their "whiteness" and his defense of anti-Semitic pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Honor added that "evangelical Christianity" was the "ideological basis for the enslavement of Africans, the expansion of white supremacy, the resistance to reconstruction, the acceptance of racial segregation laws, and the recent dismissal of the Black Lives Matter movement to end murders of black bodies by police."
Warnock’s opponent, Republican Herschel Walker, said the sermon promoted "division and hate" and slammed Warnock for hosting it at his church.
"Raphael Warnock and his allies believe America is a bad country full of hateful people," Walker told the Washington Free Beacon. "They even smear evangelicals who love Jesus as racist. They should be ashamed."
"Their politics of division and hate has gone too far, and I won’t let them get away with it," Walker added. "I’m going to fight for our state and our country. Love is stronger than hate, and with God’s help we will defeat them and prove that grace and hope is more powerful than their lies and division."
Warnock did not respond to a request for comment.
White evangelicals make up over a quarter of registered voters in Georgia, according to a Marist poll conducted in September.
Tiffany Roberts, the social justice chair at Ebenezer, introduced the video and told the audience on Saturday that Honor "delivered [this] sermon for us at Ebenezer two years ago about Jesus’ legacy as a social justice warrior and the importance of the vote" and called it "one of my favorite sermons in life." The replayed speech was followed by a live, in-person panel discussion about voter outreach that included organizers from liberal groups Care in Action and When We All Vote.
Warnock argued in late 2016 that Americans needed to "repent" for their "worship of whiteness," the Washington Free Beacon reported in 2020. He also defended a speech by anti-Semitic pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright—which compared U.S. leaders to al Qaeda and claimed the government invented HIV to kill black people—as a "very fine sermon."
Warnock signed a letter in 2019 comparing Israel’s actions in the West Bank with "the military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa." In 2013, he also defended the Nation of Islam, a radical group led by anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakhan, for keeping black churches "honest."
"We've needed the witness of the Nation of Islam, in a real sense, to put a fire under us and keep us honest," said Warnock.
Honor, who delivered the sermon, is also an organizing director with the New Georgia Project, a left-leaning voter advocacy group founded by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and previously led by Warnock. Prior to the airing of his speech at Ebenezer, Honor described Wright as an "honorable freedom fighting American." He also called the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement "one of this country’s biggest enforcers of state sponsored white supremacy."
Enter former president Barack Obama with a warning that "demonizing" people and stirring up division is dangerous. When he came to this realization isn’t entirely clear—certainly many years after sitting in the pews listening to his friend Jeremiah Wright and cavorting with Louis Farrakhan, but not before arguing that Republicans are warmongers who have a lot in common with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
‘Highly Hazardous’: Warnock’s Apartments Hit With Housing Code Violations Over Rats, Mold, Electrical Fires
Alana Goodman and Andrew Kerr • November 4, 2022 10:00 amSen. Raphael Warnock's (D., Ga.) church-owned low-income apartment complex has been slapped with multiple Atlanta city housing code violations over rodent and bug infestations, hazardous mold, and overflowing trash rooms, according to city records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Records from the Atlanta Police Department's Code Enforcement Section paint a troubling picture of the living conditions at the housing complex—revealing that the problems date back to at least 2016 and were considered serious enough for the city to intervene on multiple occasions.
The records raise new questions for Warnock, who serves as CEO and senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, which owns 99 percent of the Columbia Tower buildings through a shell company. Since taking office in 2021, the senator has positioned himself as a champion for fair and safe housing and said earlier this year that "housing is dignity."
Warnock has defended the church's ownership of Columbia Tower and Columbia Senior Residences at MLK Village apartments after the Free Beacon first reported in October on the building's eviction proceedings against tenants. In a recent debate, Warnock said the report on the evictions was an attempt to "sully the name of Martin Luther King Jr.'s church," which spends "every day every week feeding the hungry and the homeless."
Warnock in January sent a letter to the Department of Defense in response to reports about "repair delays, toxic mold, pests," and other housing problems on U.S. military bases.
Warnock said it was "shameful" that service members "had to deal with these poor living conditions in the first place."
"Housing is dignity," he wrote. "I will continue pushing the federal government to make sure we're doing everything we can to provide our courageous men and women in uniform, and their families, with the resources and support they need not just to live, but thrive."
Yet Warnock hasn't publicly raised concerns about similar complaints from residents at the housing complex owned by his church.
The Free Beacon received over 70 pages of inspection records, tenant complaints, photographs, and correspondence from the Atlanta Police Department's Code Enforcement Section, which led to at least four housing code violations against Columbia between 2016 and 2019.
In August 2016, the city of Atlanta received tenant complaints about "mice, roaches, and bugs infestation" at Columbia Tower. Inspectors found that the "dwelling unit is infested by insects" and cited Columbia for a housing maintenance violation.
Two years later, the city filed another code violation notice against Columbia, after multiple complaints about water leakage, flooding, and overflowing trash around the building that was attracting "rodents such as rats and possums." Inspectors cited "junk, trash, & debris on premises" and "ceiling surfaces [that] are soiled and unsanitary" in the violation notice, which included photos of water damage and piles of garbage.
In October 2019, a tenant told the city that he had been dealing with a bug infestation for eight months and said he had health problems due to overflowing trash outside his apartment. "Dumpster fumes are affecting his health," said the complaint, a situation that the city flagged as "highly hazardous." Another tenant reported in 2020 that his "baseboard [was] missing, causing spiders to come inside the apartments," which had been "going on since October."
Water damage and flooding were also a problem, according to records. Columbia received another violation notice in June 2018 after a tenant complained that water leaking inside her walls was "causing electrical problems such as blue flames when she turn[s] on the lights," according to a record. A photograph appeared to show fire damage on the electrical outlet. The city flagged the violation as "highly hazardous."
The city in September 2019 filed another housing violation citation against Columbia, which included photos of black mold growing in a closet, water damage, and dead bugs. Inspectors cited an "infestation of roaches," "soiled cabinets/mold," an "unsanitary trash room," and an "unsanitary stairway" in the building.
The records echo firsthand accounts from Columbia residents, who talked to the Free Beacon in October and said there are still extensive sanitation and maintenance problems at the housing complex.
"We have a smell here," one resident told the Free Beacon. "The trash room has this overwhelming trash smell. As soon as you come in the building, it inundates you. It's just in your face. And it's embarrassing."
Residents said the building management lets garbage pile up in the trash rooms and the building's chute for days, leading to an overflow of waste.
"The aroma of the trash was so horrific and ridiculous," said another resident, who lives on the first floor of the building near the waste room.
Another tenant told the Free Beacon about filth in the building's ventilation system, saying, "The vents haven't been blown out for years. The dust, it's sickening, actually."
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