12.15.2020

GUEST ARTICLE: Georgia Republicans are using Senate candidate Raphael Warnock’s sermons against him

By Gloria DULAN-Wilson




Of course you know that this guest posting from VOX will be with my commentaries interspersed throughout - in RED -  EBN = ECLECTICALLY BLACK NEWS

Over the course of the Georgia Senate campaign, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R for Repuglycon) has repeatedly referred to her Democratic opponent Rev. Raphael Warnock as “radical liberal Raphael Warnock.” She repeated the phrase 13 times in a recent debate ahead of the January 5 runoff

EBN:  (she's doing that to hypnotize/brainwash her redneck caucasoid followers even though she knows it's totally untrue.  It's her code to them.  So, in response to her, let's not forget she is appropriately characterized as a "Becky", a "Karen", and for those of us from the Old/Real/School, "Miss Ann."  If we put her in the context of being the female front for her redneck cronies I'm sure we'll get the full picture of who Warnock is dealing with, and why we have to really make sure we roll out the votes on January 5, 2021!)

“The Democrats want to fundamentally change America, and the agent of change is my opponent, radical liberal Raphael Warnock,” Loeffler said during the debate, claiming that Warnock has attacked police and the American military “from the pulpit.” 

EBN:(Actually that's  partly true.  DEMOCRATS WANT TO FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE AMERICA BACK TO A COUNTRY PEOPLE RESPECT, AND AWAY FROM OUR BEING PUSHED TO THE BRINK OF FASCISM UNDER THE CURRENT INCUMBENT ERSATZ PRESIDENT AND HIS HENCHMEN IN THE SENATE WHO HAVE LITERALLY HELD 478 ESSENTIAL LEGISLATIONS OFF BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP PEOPLE AND DON'T WANT SPEND THE MONEY UNLESS IT'S GOING INTO THEIR OWN POCKETS. In reference to attacking the police and the military - what he's really doing is saying that corrupt police make it bad for those who are dedicated to the principle of "protect and serve," and cannot be allowed to continue in that manner.  Not only has Warnock not cast aspersions against the Military, he respects the military - which is the exact opposite of the current incumbent ersatz president - who calls military men/women losers.)

Warnock is the senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta — the church Martin Luther King Jr. preached at in the 1960s. And Republicans have been using excerpts from Warnock’s own sermons to attack him.  (Taking the truth and twisting it to serve their own nefarious ends.  Nothing new here - it's methodology - we call it faux news)

This rhetoric carries a specific connotation, Black theological experts told Vox. It’s not just pointing out that Warnock is a Democrat running in a state that’s historically more conservative than the nation as a whole; it’s also negatively emphasizing the long tradition of activism and social justice in Southern Black churches.

In interviews with Vox, experts said this is not a particularly new tactic. Republicans used a similar playbook in 2008 when they attempted to tie former President Barack Obama to his former church pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Georgia Republicans also ran an ad linking Warnock to Wright, which Politifact rated mostly false).

“Particularly in Georgia, which is struggling between the old South and the new South, Black religion has always been thought of as being potentially a very dangerous political force,” Rev. Stephen Ray, the president of the Chicago Theological Seminary, told Vox. “I don’t think you can talk about the weaponization of Rev. Warnock’s sermons apart from that.”

The runoff elections are all about which party can turn out more of their base, so Republicans are branding Warnock “radical” and “dangerous” with a clear goal: To motivate the GOP’s conservative base to turn out on January 5.

EBN: (And we have to make sure that our people know that these are exactly the traits and qualities we need for our senator - given who we have had in the past - make sure we keep in focus that the caucasoids are essentially fearful of a Black man or woman with Blackbone and intelligence).

While Republicans lost the presidency in the 2020 election, they had success in many House and Senate races by launching this kind of attack on Democratic candidates — tying even moderate candidates to socialism and activist-led calls to defund the police (something Warnock and fellow Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff have repeatedly said they’re against).

With control in the Senate hanging in the balance in the two Georgia runoffs, Republicans plan to keep hammering that messaging home.

EBN: (Which means we have to be more "woke" than ever before.  Make sure you don't fall for the okeydoke - make sure our newly registered voters don't get confused.  Make sure they understand the act that 99.44/100% of Republycon/republican statements are lies to deceive, distort and deprive us of our rights.

“Fear will motivate much more strongly than any other emotion in the runoff,” Republican consultant Brian Robinson told Vox recently. “Republican [voters] are aggrieved, many have listened to the president’s messaging on the election, and they’re scared of a Democratic Senate joining Pelosi and Biden.”

EBN: And don't you forget it!!! It is just as essential that Democrats - Black, white, or otherwise - realize there is so much more to be afraid of if we don't win this run off and make sure both OSSOFF and WARNOCK are victorious and elected as U S SENATORS in this JANUARY 5 RUNOFF -

BE VERY AFRAID FOR YOURSELVES AND AMERICA IF MITCH McCONNELL and his cronies are in charge of the REPUGLYCON party - which would render much of the good BIDEN CAN DO INEFFECTIVE.  There is no margin for error or half stepping.  It's winner take all - which had better mean the DEMOCRATS - we don't need 2, 4 o4 6 more years of incompetence, insensitivity, and underhanded activities undermining any progress we need to make for ourselves and our children. 

Republican attacks against Warnock, briefly explained

As the Senate race enters its final three weeks, Republicans are launching a volley of negative attacks on Warnock in particular

(EBN: BECAUSE HE'S BLACK AND GEORGIA HAS NOT HAD A BLACK SENATOR SINCE RECONSTRUCTION -  WARNOCK  WILL BE THE FIRST!!) 

Warnock has enjoyed a relatively easy campaign up until now, with Loeffler fending off a challenge from Republican Rep. Doug Collins on November 3. Polling showed Warnock entered the runoff with relatively high likability numbers.

In particular, Republicans have been circulating a clip from a 2011 sermon where Warnock said, “America, nobody can serve God and the military,” as he quoted Bible scripture to make a larger point about faith and service to God coming before anything else. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who regularly quotes Bible scripture on his Twitter page, blasted Warnock’s sermon in a tweet last month.  (Twisted by knaves to make a snare for fools [From "IF" by Rudyard Kipling] By the way, a "knave" is an evil unscrupulous man - Webster)

Warnock’s longer quote was, “America, nobody can serve God and the military. You can’t serve God and money. You can’t serve God and mammon at the same time. America, choose ye this day who you will serve.” In Biblical scripture, mammon refers to the corrupting influence of money and riches, and Warnock was in part quoting Matthew 6:24 from the Bible.  (Twisted by knaves to make a snare for fools [From "IF" by Rudyard Kipling])

“The part I was most disappointed in was them taking sermons out of context to make that connection,” Justin Giboney, president of Christian civic engagement organization AND Campaign, told Vox. “This is supposed to be a group — when it comes to conservatives in Georgia — that has a certain level of respect for religion, for religious freedom, for what the pulpit means.”

EBN:  The rightwing nuts have been using religion against Black people for centuries; and have tried to undermine Black ministers from taking any leasership role by casting aspersions on the motives and messages of the ministers.

A Warnock campaign spokesperson pushed back on Republican attacks in a statement to Vox, saying, “Kelly Loeffler’s dishonest attacks say a lot about Kelly Loeffler.”

EBN:  WE CONCUR.  Though Rev. Warnock couldn't say it, we at EBN will - this is the kind of behavior those of her ilk have been using for centuries - mendacity and manipulation.

“Just like he has since he got in this race, Reverend Warnock will continue to talk to Georgians about how he will work for them in the Senate, fighting for affordable health care, for fair wages and the dignity of working people. That’s the kind of Senator that Georgia needs,” campaign spokesperson Michael Brewer told Vox in a statement.

EBN:  WE also need him to correct the errors that have been perpetrated against the US under the misguidance of the current incumbent's administration and a republican/repuglycon dominated Senate - and to get back to the constitutional responsibility of protecting and defending the constitution of the US against all enemies - foreign and domestic - which is something the current Sentators under McConnell have egregiously failed to do.

When Vox reached out to the Loeffler campaign for comment on whether the attacks against Warnock lacked the necessary context, a campaign spokesperson reiterated that “Georgians know how radical he is when they hear him.”

EBN:  Just like they know racist innuendos and lies when they hear them - especially having been inundated with them over the past 4 years under the current incumbent.

“For decades, Raphael Warnock has used his pulpit to oppose the 2nd Amendment, attack the police, condemn Israel, disparage the military, and embrace communists and Marxists alike,” Loeffler campaign spokesperson Stephen Lawson told Vox in a statement.

EBN:  More trickery, lies and deceit fabricated by Loeffler and the repuglycons - It's their stock in trade!.

Some say Georgia Republicans are playing off heightened political polarization and “the politics of fear."

EBN: WE CONCUR!  WHICH IS WHY WE ARE TELLING OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN GEORGIA "DON'T SLEEP! NOT ONLY IS THE US DEPENDING ON YOU TO MAKE SURE OSSOFF AND WARNOCK WIN - THE WHOLE WORLD IS DEPENDING ON YOU AS WELL!!!

“Fear that antifa and the socialist left is going to take over and gain control in certain areas,” said Giboney, who lives in Atlanta. “They’re doing their best to attach Rev. Warnock to that fear.”

EBN:  On the flip side we have the Pride Brothers, KKK, NeoNazis, and a host of others who are indicative of my Loeffler's followers, and who are supportive of the current incumbent soon to be ex-ersatz president to be much more afraid of!  I wonder  which, on balance, would be the more detrimental?

Georgia will decide who controls the Senate, and Republicans have also been playing up a clip of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer talking about flipping Georgia’s Senate seats after Biden won the state, where he said, “Now we take Georgia, then we change America!” 

EBN:  OF COURSE WHAT SCHUMER WAS REFERRING TO WAS THE FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE OF AMERICA BACK TO A COUNTRY PEOPLE RESPECT, AND AWAY FROM OUR BEING PUSHED TO THE BRINK OF FASCISM UNDER THE CURRENT INCUMBENT ERSATZ PRESIDENT AND HIS HENCHMEN IN THE SENATE - again, having his words twisted by knaves to make a snare for fools is something the repuglycons do quite well.

To add a dash of reality, even if Democrats manage to win both Georgia Senate seats, they will be at the barest of Senate majorities. The Senate would then be split between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote. Unless Democrats abolish the filibuster (something conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has unequivocally said no to), they’ll need 60 votes and vast Republican buy-in to pass most bills. In other words, winning Georgia does not give Democrats an unfettered ability to change the country. 

EBN - SO YOU SAY, BUT IT'S BETTER THAN WHAT WE WILL HAVE AS A COUNTRY IF WE DON'T TAKE THOSE TWO SEATS. So the rationalization doesn't carry water or weight with us!  WE WILL WIN THE TWO SENATE RUN OFFS AND BE CONCERNED ABOUT THOSE EVENTUALITIES AFTERWARDS! 

“Anybody would agree that Chuck Schumer is a savvy political mind, but he was playing to his audience in New York and he handed Georgia Republicans a huge gift with that clip,” Robinson, the Republican strategist, told Vox recently. “He not only scared fervent Georgia Republicans; he scared independents with that kind of talk.” 

EBN:  Like we've repeated several times, never underestimate the Repuglycons' trenchant for twisting your words and concepts around to dupe the facile minded into thinking the worst, and acting on it, rather than checking the truth of their statements.  Hence the quote "twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools" from Kipling's poem, "IF" is so appropriate when it comes to the repuglycons.

Still, some think that Republicans painting Warnock as “radical” could backfire by potentially rallying the base of Black voters that Democrats need in order to win Georgia.

“The performance by Loeffler was so disconcerting ... that people really are mobilized in a way I hadn’t noticed before,” said Robert Franklin, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta. “You’re now insulting our most beloved and cherished institution — you’re insulting our faith.”

The Black church is rooted in social justice; white evangelical churches are about personal salvation

While the white Christian evangelical church is more concerned with personal salvation, the Black Christian church has a long tradition of pastors focusing on social and racial justice.

“At its best, it tries to hold the country to account on morality,” Anthony Pinn, a professor of religious studies at Rice University, told Vox. “Martin Luther King Jr. and others are from a long line of church leaders who understood themselves to have an important role beyond saving souls. They understood the church as having an obligation to demand justice.”

Several theological experts Vox spoke to agreed the significance of the Black church is that it is an institution wholly created by and for Black people. Words like “radical” have long been used to describe Black ministers, dating back much further than Martin Luther King Jr. Some see the GOP’s laser-like focus on Warnock as having a racial component as well; experts Vox interviewed said “radical” is a coded word.

“I would argue that what you see here is a continuation of an understanding of Black leadership and Black churches as a threat, that these institutions and these people threaten the system as it is,” said Pinn.

EBN: THE SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE DEALT WITH  - Here we are in the 21st century dealing with issues, prejudices and problems that should have been resolved centuries ago.

For instance, in the 1950s and ’60s, the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover started monitoring King and went to great lengths to link him to the Communist movement (King was not a communist). A 1968 FBI document called him “a whole-hearted Marxist who has studied it (Marxism), believes in it and agrees with it, but because of his being a minister of religion, does not dare to espouse it publicly.”

EBN:  J. EDGAR HOOVER and the FiB were also responsible for what happened to Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers and so many of our other Black Leaders - elected and activist - who step into the fray and the forefront to bring equality to Black people, and stability to the world.  What they could not prove, they would plant - or use propaganda and set up plots and plans to compromise their innocense and efforts to save Black people.

Pinn and others added the current dialogue in Georgia can’t be separated from the context of the long struggle for racial justice in America. The existence of the Black church itself also cannot be separated from that struggle, as it is  “the only institution in America that has been wholly controlled by Black people,” according to Ray.

If Warnock manages to win his race, he would bolster Black representation in the Senate (there are currently just three Black senators, which will fall to two with Vice President-elect Harris going to the White House).

“He would be the living embodiment of while it will be a hard fight, it will not be impossible,” Ray said.

EBN:  SO SUMMING IT UP Georgia it's in your hands. 

BUT YOU KNOW THIS ALREADY.

AND, YES, THE PRESSURE IS ON!  BUT ONCE YOU COME THROUGH WITH TWO DEMOCRATIC SENATORS YOU WILL BE THE S/HERO OF THE WORLD, AND THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE.

WE, your fellow brothers and sisters wish we could relocate there to help you, and are praying for you, donating funds for OSSOFF AND WARNOCK'S campaigns; helping to register others to vote, manning the phone banks and  trying to make sure you are not inundated with ultra rightwingnut propaganda - intimidation, trickery, lies and deceit.  We stand with you and the amazing Stacey Abrams, Keshia Lance Bottoms and all who have come together in a show of strength, force and solidarity to save Georgia and save America.

Just like we did for OBAMA, and for the recent BIDEN/HARRIS election, VOTE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT, LIKE YOU ARE UP AGAINST THE WALL!

WE'RE WITH YOU GEORGIA!! 

12/16/2020: LOEFFLER POSES WITH THE KKK - SENDING SIGNAL TO THE RACIST BASE THAT SUPPORTS HER - https://www.newsweek.com/kelly-loeffler-slammed-posing-former-kkk-leader-ahead-georgia-runoff-elections-1554401?fbclid=IwAR0ih-suj-QB3rp-vwjHZ6UPD6Z7mCkJ1ayfwQk1qkxEs-EOdu-a5km8p3Y

NOW THAT YOU KNOW

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? 

JANUARY 5 SENATORIAL RUN OFF

VOTE 

JON OSSOFF

RAPHAEL WARNOCK

Stay Blessed &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK 


 

 

 

 

 

 

Gloria DULAN-Wilson


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