During Sunday’s episode of CNN’s “State of the Union,” Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, openly criticized President Donald Trump, accusing him of promoting “unabashed, unvarnished bigotry.”
Host Jake Tapper asked Warnock, “Do you pray for the president?”
Warnock responded affirmatively, saying, “Oh, absolutely. He needs a lot of prayer.”
Tapper followed up with, “What do you pray for? What do you ask God?”
Warnock elaborated on his prayers, stating, “I pray because he holds influence and power over people who matter to me. I recognize his humanity just as I do for everyone. However, my prayers also involve seeking accountability. I must truthfully address his actions. His clear display of bigotry and the cruelty he perpetuates on America’s streets, particularly through his version of ICE, must be condemned. For me, prayer is intertwined with prophetic speech that holds those in power accountable. I will not act as a chaplain endorsing what is ungodly and unjust.”
Tapper noted, “Many religious leaders visit the White House, not only to pray for the president but also to publicly claim that he was divinely chosen for this role.”
Warnock said, “Yeah, they’re wrong. And they were Christians who thought that slavery was, you know, somehow Godlike American chattel slavery. And they justified it. And they used scriptures to support their position. It just so happens that that I’m the product of a countervailing tradition, that was literally born fighting for freedom. That understood that God didn’t create us to be slaves. That’s why the black church was in America. When we say the black church, we never meant anything racially exclusive about that. We are literally talking about the anti-slavery church.”
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