Warnock reflects on historic victory and the Capitol riots in his first sermon as Senator-elect

ATLANTA – Reverend Raphael Warnock delivered his first sermon as an elected senator on Sunday in the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, a backdrop highlighting the pastor’s deep murders within Georgia’s black faith community who helped to ensure its victory.

“I want to tell you about God’s victory over violence,” Warnock began in his sermon, a clear reference to Wednesday’s riots in Washington, DC.

Warnock will be Georgia’s first black senator – and only the 11th black senator in U.S. history – while fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff will be the state’s first Jewish senator. He described “basking in the glory” of what their historic victories represented, to remember the work that remained to be done in America hours later.

“Just as we were trying to put on our party shoes, the ugly side of our history – our great and great American history – began to emerge as we saw the crude and the anger, the disrespectful and the violent make their way through. the people. Warnock said of the rioters, who stormed the Capitol in support of President Donald Trump, wreaking havoc and causing widespread terror.

“They were not demonstrators, they were rioters, who demolished the people’s house and they were handled with the kind of children’s gloves with humanity,” he added of the group, whose actions resulted in the deaths of at least five people, including a police. officer. “You couldn’t help but juxtapose this with the response to those responding this summer to the death of George Floyd and the death of Breonna Taylor, those who rose up in a peaceful and nonviolent struggle and were faced with brute force.

For his first gospel reading as a future senator, Warnock chose Matthew 11: 7-15 which measures the greatness of God in relation to that of man – and addresses the tension that occurs when violent attempts to take away the kingdom of God.

“Telling the truth will get you in trouble, and yet there can be no transformation without the truth,” he preached from the former chair of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “We cannot and we will not change not until we are confronted or confronted. by the disease of our own situation. This applies to individuals, institutions, nations. You can never get better until you have a real diagnosis. “

Jelani Favors, 45, a teacher and warnock parishioner for seven years, said Sunday’s sermon was “a perfect word for a perfect time” from her pastor.

“This is what Reverend Warnock has always done,” he told NBC News. “He was able to use the pulpit to heal, bring people together and approach with honesty and boldness the struggles we face in this country and certainly racial violence and racial terrorism is one of those historic issues.

Warnock’s opponent in the Jan.5 runoff, Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, often used his sermons against him during the campaign, attacking the pastor for citing scriptures that the man cannot worship at the same time God and the military and saying that America must repent for its whiteness – a tactic voters did not like well.

“It was one of the worst steps you could take politically,” Favors said of Warnock’s denigration of faith, calling the approach a “reckless” mistake. “It galvanized black Christians across the state who understand the historic mission of the Black Church.”

“I think it was a real testament to his character that even when you throw stones I will use these stones to build a house, and that’s what he did and he got them in the Senate,” said Caity Alexandra, 32, who has been a member of the Warnock Church since moving to Atlanta in 2011.

“He encouraged this in his campaign to get out and vote,” Alexandra added. “He told us what he believed in. He did the same as a pastor in the church, it was almost no difference, except one was more leaning towards God and the other leaning towards his faith, and putting it in the people. “

The high turnout among black voters propelled Warnock and Ossoff to victory, a result of the campaigns’ emphasis on constituency awareness and years of organizing on the ground by state electoral groups.

“I think it’s demographics are the fire and organization is the accelerator,” said Nse Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project, which Warnock led until his Senate bid.

“That’s not a question now – Georgia is a swing state,” Terrence Clark, Warnock campaign assistant, told NBC News. “And the conventional thinking that you have to choose between appealing to white moderates or black or progressive voters is irrelevant. You can do anything. “