The campaign against Donald Trump and white supremacy embodies the spirit of revolution that is deeply rooted in American history and culture, U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock said during a sermon at the annual meeting of the Progressive National Baptist Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“Our great nation was born in rebellion against the monarchy. It is our Right to existour purpose in life. It’s in our DNA,” said Warnock, a Democrat and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. “It goes against hundreds of years of human history, this great experiment in self-government, this idea that the real power lies with the people.”
Warnock urged his listeners to compare America’s aspirations for freedom with Trump’s recent promise that he would make democracy obsolete if elected in November.
“Christians, go vote. Only this time,” Trump said said during the Believers’ Summit on July 26 in West Palm Beach, Florida. “You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, then everything will be settled, then everything will be OK, then you won’t have to vote anymore, my dear Christians.”
These comments and everything Christian nationalists stand for are an affront to the biblical principle that when God created people in his image, he intended to give them a voice in deciding their fate, Warnock said.
“I believe that democracy is the political implementation a spiritual idea, this idea that each of us has a spark of the divine within us,” he said. “The way to have a voice is to be able to vote. And that’s why I fight against voter suppression, because to me, this is not a political fight. It’s about spiritual evil. It’s about powers and principalities. It’s about the rulers of the darkness of this world who would deny that I am a child of God.”
Warnock spoke to PNBC Assembly, where members of one of the country’s leading black Protestant denominations met August 4-8 to formulate social action strategies in anticipation of the November presidential election.
Warnock began his address with a reading from 1 Samuel, in which the people of Israel loudly plead with God to give them a king. They insist on a monarch who will rule in the authoritarian manner practiced in other countries.
The demand stems from their fear of national insecurity and a longing for simple answers to complex problems, Warnock said. God finally relents and gives the nation Saul, a foolish king at the head of a long line of often foolish kings.
Today, it is white evangelicals who are willing to give up valuable democratic freedoms in exchange for promises of security and easy answers from a demagogue, Warnock warned.
Today, it is white evangelicals who are willing to give up valuable democratic freedoms in exchange for promises of security and easy answers from a demagogue, Warnock warned.
“Insecure people produce insecure leaders” who have already filled the US Supreme Court with Trump loyalists who have “taken the women of this country by surprise” by Roe v. Wade And Immunity required from criminal responsibility to presidents, he said.
“This is a court that has gotten out of control and corruption – Supreme Court judges who have wealthy patrons who take them on expensive trips and buy them expensive gifts so that they represent their interests and not those of ordinary people.”
These are signs of what another Trump presidency will bring us, Warnock said.
“God help us, here we are again. It is election time, and we, the people, are once again ready to participate in a precious and rare exercise in human history, this great experiment in self-government,” he noted. “And democracy itself is on the ballot, and freedom is at stake.”
The situation is frighteningly similar to that described in 1 Samuel, he added.
“This is scary. This is dangerous stuff,” he admitted. “And (the prophet) Samuel stood up and warned the people. He said, ‘You will demand that God give you a king, but be careful what you pray for, because God believes in freedom. And since God is a God of freedom, every now and then he will give you exactly what you ask for. And when you get what you ask for, you will cry out to God, but God will not hear you. That’s what the prophet said.”
Warnock apologized for his harsh words to the assembly, but urged PNBC members to see this as motivation to fulfill their spiritual duty and stand up for democracy in the run-up to the elections.
“Be there for yourself and your children, your children’s children and your children’s children,” he urged. “Be there for the poor. Be there for the workers. Be there for the marginalized. Be there for the nation. Be there for a planet in need.”
“Show up like your life depends on it, because it does. You don’t have time to mess with this thing in November.”
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