WaPo opinion: Raphael Warnock's Georgia critics don't understand Black churches

[RainCaster]

That some may find this form of Christian witness troubling makes sense, considering that many preachers in America specialize in positive affirmations and promises of personal and national prosperity. It can be easier to find comfort in the conciliatory tones and feel-good phrases that can be found in their churches on Sunday mornings. Some see those who appease and affirm the cultural markers of power as more hopeful than clergy who channel the seeming doom and gloom of the jeremiad. But in the prophetic tradition, hope comes from our ability to confront the worst of ourselves as a nation, progressing toward our better selves, not from sentimentality or naive optimism.

When Warnock inveighs against politicians who “pick the pockets of the poor” to “line the pockets of the ultrarich,” that doesn’t make him anti-capitalist. He’s making the charge that certain policies and policymakers willfully ignore the concerns of the most defenseless among us and insisting that our nation can do better. Saying “nobody can serve God and the military” at the same time isn’t a shot at the faith of our troops. It’s a reminder to the faithful of the teaching in Zechariah 4:6 that true victory, according to God, comes “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit” — that ultimate hope is grounded in love and justice, not weapons of warfare.

These appeals to love and justice have animated progressive Christians to fight to protect rights and expand opportunities for the socially marginalized. This has been true during every epoch of this nation: Abolishing slavery, women securing the vote, defending labor rights and dismantling segregation are just a few examples. In this tradition, clergy must call out the folly of power, industrial efficiency or wealth predicated on the unjust treatment of any segment of society. Whether the ill is human trafficking or the warehousing of the vulnerable by lucrative privatized prisons, “dishonest money dwindles away” (Proverbs 13:11).

IMO, this is a very well written piece that clearly explains the differences between the 1) Biblical truth of black fundamentalist churches, and 2) the prosperity gospel of Joel Osteen & Franklin Graham.

[relayerbob]

1. It's not "prosperity gospel"

That is, by definition, blasphemy. They are institutionalizing stealing from their congregations by cloaking it in religious language. hey should all be being charged with fraud and grand theft, IMO.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/12/30/warnock-georgia-senate-runoff-black-church/

[RainCaster]

3. Thanks VO!