The Story:
Raphael Warnock has been the senior pastor of the Ebernezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta, Georgia for 15 years. It is the church long associated with the memory of the late Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Warnock is now, also, a candidate for a seat in the US Senate, the seat now occupied by Republican Kelly Loeffler.
Social Theology:
Warnock wrote THE DIVIDED MIND OF THE BLACK CHURCH, a book published by NYU Press in 2013. In this work, Warnock writes of a “black theology” that has been “careful to situate its own self-understanding within the larger historical narrative of black religion and black resistance.” He wrote that although “white evangelicalism” focuses on the salvation of the individual soul, black Christian theology should and does add to this a social dimension, concerning itself with protest and freedom.
The Thing to Know:
Warnock’s campaign for the Senate has been endorsed by Democratic Senators Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, all formerly candidates for President of the United States. He also has the support of Stacey Abrams, who came within a whisker of becoming Georgia’s Governor in the 2018 election.
The Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has declined to jump onboard the bandwagon. Bottoms says she is waiting to see who else may enter the race.
