Portrait of a Charlatan

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” Revelation 3:14-16 (NKJV)

It is hard to write about Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and not think of the Bible passage above. In similar fashion, the following verse also comes to mind when Rev. Warnock’s name is mentioned: “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Matthew 7:20 (NKJV)

Finally, I am reminded of Matthew 7:21 whenever Sen. Warnock’s name comes up in conversation: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

Let me begin with two caveats…

First, I do not presume to know if Rev. Warnock is truly born again and if he indeed has made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. All I can do is be a “fruit inspector,” applying Christ’s own teaching in Matthew 7:20 to evaluate the sincerity of someone’s faith by their works and not by their words alone.

Second, like the Apostle Paul wrote in I Timothy 1:15, I also consider myself to be the “chief of sinners.” And so, living in a glass house of my own construction, I am not condemning anyone lest I be condemned myself.

That being said, we are commanded by Jesus Himself to “judge not” (John 7:1) while simultaneously “judging with righteous judgment” (John 7:24). In other words, we are to discern (diakrino in the original Greek) without condemning (krino).

And so, exercising both intellectual and spiritual discernment, I am fairly confident that Rev. Warnock is a charlatan, a fake, and a fraud. That is Webster’s definition, not mine. Alan Brinkley of Webster’s Dictionary adds that a charlatan is “willing to do and say virtually anything to remain in the spotlight” …and in the spotlight, Sen. Warnock certainly is.

One of two newly elected Democrats from Georgia (Jon Ossoff being the other) who swung the balance of power in the U.S. Senate in 2020, Warnock also pastors the iconic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where Martin Luther King, Jr. once served as an assistant pastor under his father, Martin Luther King, Sr. How Warnock finds time to effectively pastor a megachurch while simultaneously serving as a United States Senator is beyond me. But then again, when you simply invoke ear-tickling rhetoric as pastor and follow religiously the party position as senator, maybe it’s not so hard after all.

I may not know what it is like to be a U.S. Senator, but I do know first-hand what it is like to be a minister and to serve as a pastor. And so, from that perspective, I cannot fathom how anyone can reconcile let alone justify Warnock’s political positions. They simply do not line up with Scripture.

Despite God clearly ordaining marriage as the union of one man and one woman for life (Genesis 1:27 and 2:24), Warnock is a strong proponent of same-sex marriage. And despite God calling homosexuality “an abomination” (KJV) and “detestable” (NIV), Warnock refuses to preach against the practice as a pastor or to vote against aberrant sexual behavior – such as transgender men using female locker rooms or competing against female athletes – as a senator.

The same goes for abortion. On a Sunday, Rev. Warnock can tippytoe around pro-life verses such as Exodus 20:13 (You shall not murder) and on Monday, vote to defend a woman’s “right” to murder her own preborn child. Unconscionable… for someone with a conscious.

To me, as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Warnock’s betrayal of the Bible for political purposes is not only hypocritical, but reprehensible. On these two issues alone, the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage, Warnock provides all the proof one needs to state unequivocally and unapologetically that he is a charlatan and a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Whether the voters of Georgia and the parishioners at Ebenezer Baptist Church have been hoodwinked or fully complicit in Warnock’s deception is open for debate.

Tomorrow: A Profile of Harold Ford, Jr.