Warnock compares Georgia voting roll back to biblical text involving Jesus

'This is a defining moment in the American nation,' Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock told CNN Sunday, 'and all of us have a role to play.'

Biba Adams

Mar 29, 2021

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock drew from his pastoral roots to make an analogy between the signing of the controversial new election bill and the story of Jesus and Palm Sunday.

“It’s Palm Sunday, and Jesus confronts the powers, and we all have a decision to make. There was a governor that he confronts in that moment named Pilate. And the governor has a decision to make,” Warnock said on CNN Sunday.

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock wearing a black face mask, blue jacket and blue tie — Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock speaks on the American Rescue Plan at a recent press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

“I think that all of us has a decision to make: Are we going to stand on the side of truth and righteousness and justice? Are we,” asked Warnock, “going to stand up on the right side of history? This is a defining moment in the American nation, and all of us have a role to play.”

In the Bible, Palm Sunday marks the last Sunday before Lent and the week before Easter when the prophecies of Jesus are fulfilled, leading to his crucifixion on Good Friday and his rise from the dead on Easter Sunday. In John 18:37, Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king, to which he replies, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

"It is disconcerting that here we are again, fighting for what's basic, but we will not be worn down. We intend to stand up to this moment," says Sen. Raphael Warnock on the restrictive voting law passed in Georgia. "We cannot allow politicians to silence the people" #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/esCV2prHaR
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) March 28, 2021

Warnock, who is pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, made the comments on CNN just three days after Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, signed a new bill into law that adds a variety of voting restrictions, making casting ballots harder and disproportionately affecting Black and brown Georgians, who tend to vote Democratic.

Warnock has called the bill, named The Election Integrity Act of 2021, an “assault” on democracy in the state.

Georgia is one of 43 states looking to make voting more difficult after the Donald Trump-fueled “big lie” that November’s election was stolen from the former president.

Warnock pledged “to do everything I can to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the For the People Act so that we can expand our democracy, rather than contract it. The governor is taking us back, we intend to go forward.”

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