So along with the upcoming Senatorial run-off election coming up in January and the concomitant Republican Civil War…there are the usual GOP Hypocrisy Trials – a total game within itself. Now before anyone says it: yes I know Democrats can be hypocritical, but it’s Republican’s who are steering that ship for now.
Madison Cawthorn, a freshly minted Representative-elect from North Carolina, traveled down to Georgia to stump for the GOP ticket. In the process he decides to criticize candidate Raphael Warnock, who is the pastor of the storied Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta, based on the fact that Pastor Warnock referred to himself as a ‘pro-choice pastor’.
For the record, Ebenezer was founded in 1886 and from 1894 to 1975, by two men, Rev. AD Williams and Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. The grandfather and father, respectively of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who served as co-pastor from 1960 until his death in 1968. Rev. Raphael Warnock, follows in that tradition.
So from where does Cawthorn get the stones to refer to Warnock…someone who was born and raised in (Savannah) Georgia and has served Ebenezer as pastor for 15 years, as a “fella who’s coming down here?” and question Warnock’s Christianity – not his convictions, but his faith?!
For the record, Warnock did not, ‘come down here’. He was called to come to Atlanta, by a congregation of over 6000 members, to serve them as pastor. He’s been serving Ebenezer and the city of Atlanta, ever since Cawthorn was, 10-11 years old. Cawthorn, to be more accurate, ‘came’ down there…
Now, let’s be clear, Cawthorn, who is white, isn’t the only one who is questioning Warnock’s faith. Tony Dungy, NFL Hall of Fame Coach, and Super Bowl champion, has done so as well…Dungy, is black.
Therein is the rub, I think.
The American Christian Church, particularly in the modern era, has developed all sorts of criterea for determining who is and isn’t a Christian. And we all do it…I confess, it’s a quiet part I try not to say out loud, but even I’ve engaged in it.
We’ve all got these little ‘shibboleths’ which we use to gauge those among us we want to deem sufficiently ‘born again’. Allow me to share this one thing from an episode of my all time favorite television series, ‘The West Wing.’ I try to remind myself of this lesson from time to time, to avoid becoming too judgmental and…hypocritical…
I think we need to remember this…before the church becomes a bigger laughingstock than its become. The world needs a serious church…not one consuming itself with personal biases, however critical.
A Cup of Black Coffee 