Sen. Raphael Warnock compares pro-Trump pastors to slavery defenders

Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., compared Christian leaders who say their faith supports President Donald Trump to religious people who justify slavery in America.

During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that aired Sunday, Warnock, who serves as senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, was asked several questions about how his Christian faith influences his politics.

Tapper, who said he prayed for the president but did not approve of his “heathen” administration, asked the Democratic Senator what he thought about priests who went to the White House to show their support for Trump and believed that he was appointed for a divine purpose.

“There are a lot of religious leaders who go to the White House and not only pray for the President, but also suggest that he has been chosen by God for this job,” Tapper said.

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“Yes, they are wrong,” Warnock responded, before comparing these leaders to those who distorted Scripture to justify American slavery.

“And there were Christians who thought that slavery was, you know, somehow God-like—American chattel slavery—and they justified that. And they used the Scriptures to support their position,” he continued. “I am a product of a tradition of opposition, literally born fighting for freedom. It was understanding that God did not create us to be slaves. That’s why the Black Church came into existence.”

Warnock said the Black Church is a church that began by “correcting the American heresy of trying to reconcile the faith of Jesus with slavery.”

During the interview, Warnock said he was praying for Trump because he needed “a lot of prayers.”

President Donald Trump credited his economic policies as the reason for the positive March jobs report. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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He also said the president should be held accountable for his “bigotry” and “the cruelty he has unleashed on American streets through his version of ICE.”

“I have to be honest about what he did,” he told Tapper. “His shameless, unvarnished bigotry; the cruelty he has unleashed on American streets through his version of ICE. These things need to be condemned. And for me, prayer and prophetic speech that holds the powers that be accountable – those two things go hand in hand. I will not be a priest who sanctifies the ungodly and unjust.”

Tapper also pressed Warnock on how he would respond to conservative parishioners at his church who disagree with his political views on immigration and abortion.

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg)

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“I’m sure you’ll run into African-American members of your church, Baptists who are more socially conservative than you, who say, ‘I’m with you on hunger, I’m with you on kindness, but Laken Riley was murdered by an undocumented immigrant and I don’t see anything compassionate about her being in this country,'” Tapper said. “Or they talk about abortion or other things that don’t align with your politics.”

“How do you face this?” he asked.

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Warnock responded, “Oh, we’re Baptist,” before saying he welcomes diverse perspectives in his church.

“We could all use a little more grace these days,” he added. “Blessing to people who do not share our point of view.”

“President Trump made a campaign promise to fight for religious freedom and quickly scored big, common-sense victories for people of faith, from restoring biological truth to protecting the fundamental rights of parents to keeping men out of women’s sports,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital when reached for comment.