Campaign check: Loeffler says Warnock disparages military

The statement:

The Rev. Raphael Warnock’s sermon words “disparaging the men and women who serve our country & risk their lives to defend freedom are disgraceful.” -Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Twitter, Nov. 18

What we found:

A YouTube video uploaded in 2011 of the Rev. Raphael Warnock preaching at Ebenezer Baptist Church was excerpted and posted by Nathan Brand, a National Republican Senatorial Committee press secretary, on Nov. 17.

The three-minute video, uploaded by an account that appears to be a clearinghouse for videos of Ebenezer sermons of that era, was shortened to 26 seconds.

Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The footage shows Warnock on the pulpit saying: “America, nobody can serve God and the military. You can’t serve God and money. You can not serve God and mammon at the same time. America, chose ye this day whom you will serve. Chose ye this day.”

In the full version of the sermon, Warnock says “political parties lie in order to keep their power.” Warnock encourages those listening to give their power to those who need it because people are connected to something greater than power.

Brand — whose Twitter bio reads “All things Georgia Senate Runoff #HoldTheLine #GAsen #GApol” — posted the shortened clip without mentioning the rest of the sermon. By late November, that single version of the clip had drawn more than 2 million views just on Twitter alone.

Notable GOP politicians, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign senior advisor for strategy Steve Cortes and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, tweeted the clip and attached condemnations.

About 12 hours after Brand posted the clip, Loeffler tweeted her thoughts — telling Warnock to apologize to those in the military community.

Hours later on Nov. 18, she tweeted again about the clip. “(Warnock’s) comments disparaging the men and women who serve our country & risk their lives to defend freedom are disgraceful,” she tweeted, adding a link to a story from the conservative Washington Times with Cotton’s call for Warnock to withdraw.

The Warnock campaign has collected and published quotes from Georgia veterans saying Loeffler’s characterization wasn’t true.

In a statement to Fox News, the Warnock campaign’s communicators director Terrence Clark said the pastor was referencing the Gospel of Matthew 6:24.

The New International Version of the Bible verse reads: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

In his response to Fox News, Clark said: “Reverend Warnock was speaking about the need to commit to moral life before pursuing other priorities. As the video of the congregation’s response makes clear, this is another blatant effort by Kelly Loeffler to take Reverend Warnock’s words completely out of context. Given her own decision to spend her first days in the U.S. Senate profiting off the pandemic, perhaps she should watch the sermon more closely.”

In a video posted to Twitter on Nov. 20, Warnock said Loeffler distorted his message “and the moral lesson” in Scripture.

“I think it’s unfortunate and shameful that they are trying to distort not only my message, but the message of Scripture,” Warnock said in the video. “The folks in my congregation, many of whom are veterans, weren’t confused at all about the message that day.”

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