Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock said in a 2011 sermon that Americans cannot serve God while also serving in the U.S. military, according to a recently unsurfaced video.
“America, nobody can serve God and the military,” Warnock said in the sermon delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where he serves as senior pastor.
“You can’t serve God and money,” he continued. “You cannot serve God and mammon at the same time … America, choose ye this day who you will serve. Choose ye this day!”
Warnock is currently running for one of Georgia’s Senate seats in an election that will be decided in January.
According to a 2018 Department of Defense report, Georgia has the fifth largest active-duty military population in the country. And according to another study, nearly 80% of Georgians identify themselves as Christian.
Incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who is running against Warnock, slammed him for insulting the many men and women who serve our country.
I’m the daughter & granddaughter of veterans, and proud to serve on the VA Committee.@ReverendWarnock — this is despicable, disgusting, and wrong.
You owe our active military & veterans — who sacrifice so much for our country — an immediate apology. pic.twitter.com/QIDOmRGC78
— Kelly Loeffler (@KLoeffler) November 18, 2020
Warnock has made several other controversial statements over the course of his career. He has claimed that “America needs to repent for its worship of whiteness,” and he has also defended James Hal Cone, a man who once said that white Christians are “satanic” and practice “the theology of the Antichrist.”
He has praised Barack Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who has a long history of anti-Semitism, and agreed with Wright that Israel is an “oppressive regime.”
Warnock also worked for a Harlem church that once hosted and applauded Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in 1995.
