Christian ministers and commentators denounced Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) for calling himself a “pro-choice pastor.”
Warnock — who served as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta before his election last year — has a host of theological views that fall out of the realm of Christian orthodoxy, including the notion that humans can “save ourselves” by good works. The same applies to Warnock’s denial of preborn babies as image-bearers of God.
“As a pro-choice pastor, I’ve always believed that a patient’s room is way too small for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government,” Warnock tweeted over the weekend, provoking several responses from Christians on social media.
As a pro-choice pastor, I’ve always believed that a patient's room is way too small for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government.
— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) January 22, 2022
“There are two more people in that room: a baby and God,” noted Samuel Sey of the blog Slow To Write. “The two people you don’t care about.”
“You can be pro-choice or a faithful pastor, but you cannot be both,” observed podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey. “Of course, Warnock’s much bigger problem is not his views on abortion, but his views on the gospel, which I very much doubt he could correctly articulate if he tried.”
“A ‘Pro-Choice Pastor’ is nothing more than a servant of Satan,” responded End Abortion Now, a ministry of Apologia Church.
“This man is neither a pastor nor a Christian. He belongs to his father, the devil,” added First Baptist Church of Lindale pastor and G3 Expository Workshops director Tom Buck, referring to the words of Jesus in John 8:44.
“‘Pro-choice pastor’ is one of the most evil contradiction in terms I’ve ever heard,” said former Trump administration official William Wolfe. “Shame on every Christian who supported, or gave cover to supporting, this man.”
In a recent interview with The Daily Wire, businessman Kelvin King — a Republican running to unseat Warnock — noted that the lawmaker’s abortion stance is “out of line with Georgia values” and not “congruent with the Word” he professes to believe.
“He actually supports pro-choice initiatives when it comes to abortion, and that’s not really something that we can get behind as believers,” King said. “He’s a pastor of a church and he’s pro-choice; I don’t see how that’s congruent with the Word.”
In the aftermath of Warnock securing his seat in Congress — earning Democrats a slim majority in the Senate — activist Al Sharpton argued that the victory signaled the end of “legal apartheid.”
“Here we have in the state of Georgia, a state deep in the heart of the old Confederacy, a state that voted to elect America’s first black vice-president in November, and a state that just voted to elect the Democratic Party’s first black senator. What does that mean about where this country is after four years of Donald Trump?” MSNBC host Scarborough asked Sharpton.
“It means that this country has really come back unto showing that we’re not going backwards to the days of legal apartheid or segregation and divisiveness,” Sharpton responded.