Are we even reading the same Book?

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A recent speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate has me swallowing my tongue for a number of reasons. It was delivered by Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, or as he prefers to call himself on his church’s website, “The Honorable Reverend Dr. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock.”

I never cease to be amazed at the over-inflated sense of self-importance we humans allow our own egos to develop. With all due respect to Mr. Warnock, I’ll simply reiterate again that I personally do not confer the title of “reverend” upon any man. Only God is reverend (Psalm 111:9). So “Senator Warnock” will have to do.

Here’s what he had to say that has me cotton-mouthed from all the spit-takes it provoked. I’ll put the transcript below the video for those of you who would rather not watch the full 3 minutes.

Transcript:

And maybe because I was here yesterday and eight years ago for a similar fight with faith leaders. Maybe because I'm a preacher and it's Sunday and I've been here instead of church, I have especially been thinking about those of us who are people of faith, people whose lives are informed by scripture, people of the book, and maybe those of us who have different politics but read from the same book, ought to spend some time together reading the book, because I do sometimes wonder. And I say this with all humility, none of us, none of us, owns the truth.

But if I'm honest, there are days when I have to ask people of my faith tradition as a Christian, are we reading the same book?

The book I know says I was hungry and you fed me. I was sick, I was in prison, and you visited me. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me in as much as you've done it to the least of these you've done it also unto me, the book that I love says, learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow, speak out for those who cannot.

Speak for the rights of the destitute, speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and the needy. My book says whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and will be repaid in full.

The prophet Amos condemns those who buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. They sell the poor out and working-class people for cheap. And for those of us who have a vote in this moment for my colleagues who are swinging on a moral dilemma, I hear the prophet Micah say he has already told you what is good and what does the Lord require, but that you do justice, love kindness and walk humbly With your God.

May God be with our nation and grant us grace, wisdom and courage for this moment. Madam President, I yield the floor.

Good grief, man. Where to begin with this? Let’s start with his jab at fellow believers:

“If I'm honest, there are days when I have to ask people of my faith tradition as a Christian, are we reading the same book?”

To be fair, as a Christian myself, I don’t know the answer to that question. I don’t know if the Senator and I do read from the same book. I say that because this is the man who tweeted on Easter 2021:

“Whether you are Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others we are able to save ourselves.”

That is the religion of progressivism. It’s not Christianity. The book I read, the Bible, specifically in this case Ephesians 2:8-9 states emphatically,

“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”

So, that’s why I’m saying if Senator Warnock reads something that says, “doing works to help others saves us,” he is correct in his assumption that we are not reading the same book. Because the Bible says doing good works cannot save us no matter how “good” we perceive them to be.

But beyond that, let’s note a couple things. First, if Raphael Warnock is a Christian, it is very important that he (and everyone who listens to him as some kind of religious authority) knows, it’s hard to imagine a more effective way of turning someone away from Christianity than standing up in your $1,500 suit, pointing your manicured finger in the face of overtaxed, overregulated American families, and telling them they need to “pay more and do with less” because as a Christian, you want to give away more of their money as you see fit. And that they shouldn’t object to it because it’s what the Bible says to do.

To be clear, that is NOT what Scripture says to do. It doesn’t tell Raphael Warnock to play Robin Hood, plundering from one group to give to another. In fact, the Scripture that Warnock quotes actually tells Raphael to sell his own suit, and feed the hungry.

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It tells him to stop living rent-free in a home purchased through the offerings collected by his church. A home described by a watchdog group as a, “lavish five-bedroom home, with a plethora of luxury accommodations, including a 100-bottle wine fridge, a Bluetooth-enabled stainless steel cooking range, custom crown molding, and a walk-in closet affixed to a ‘stunning’ European bathroom with a remote-controlled privacy curtain.”

Remember what we were saying about inflated egos? I would simply say to anyone skeptical of Christianity, please don’t judge its merits by the rhetorical antics of charlatans bastardizing the Word in their eagerness to enrich themselves in this life.

That’s the spiritual side of all this, which is the most important. There’s also the political.

How often do we hear people on Warnock’s side of the political aisle – the left side – object to conservative lawmakers incorporating their religious convictions into public policy? How often do we hear things like:

“You can’t legislate morality!”

“Keep your Philippians out of my fallopians!”

“Separation of church and state!”

“Keep religion out of my government!”

“This is our country, not your church!”

“Christian nationalism is fascism!”

That last one has really caught on recently, emerging as the favored line of attack for those who pretend to oppose Christian principles being incorporated into law. I say pretend because if the “Christian principle” in question can be wielded to boost and bolster a piece of legislation they desire, somehow advocating for it no longer meets the definition of Christian nationalism.

Want a law forbidding gay marriage because, “the Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman?” That’s Christian nationalism.

Want a law permitting gay marriage because, “the Bible says God is love and those who are on the side of love are on the side of God?” That’s not Christian nationalism, it’s just being a good person.

I’ll admit, trying to figure it out can be confusing. Take Senator Warnock’s speech and tell me in what world does it not violate the progressives’ own definition of Christian nationalism?

Ultimately, the charge of Christian nationalism rings hollow when those levying it are equally eager to enshrine their own theological interpretations into law.