With the certification of the results of the U. S. Senate election run-off, Georgia has elected Raphael Warnock to the world’s most elite club, American’s upper legislative chamber, the Senate. Senator-elect Warnock will join Senator James Lankford as the only two ordained clergy in the Senate. Warnock and Lankford are out-numbered by the majority of Senators who were lawyers and business people before being elected to the Senate, but in many important ways, having the calling, training, and mission of a pastor prepares Warnock more thoroughly for the work ahead.
Warnock’s ability to adjust to his new work environment is key to his potential re-election in 2022. Unlike most senators who have six years to learn the arcane rules of Senate and begin to influence legislation, Warnock has no time to waste. By the time he learns his way around the Senate, he will be on the campaign trail again.
Warnock’s background as a
pastor provides him with gifts and graces that the average newly-elected
senator does not possess. In theological
terms, Warnock has already accepted the “yoke of obedience” to follow the
divine calling, or mission, in his life.
The attachment to mission that has guided his life as pastor now expands
to a mission to support the citizenry of Georgia in a federal system with many
claims on power and resources.
Our new pastor-senator possesses the intellectual and pastoral gifts to assume these duties. Contrary to the wildly exaggerated ads against Reverend Warnock during the election process—and while a man of the Left--he is certainly within the mainstream of American Christianity and politics. He earned a Ph.D. at Union Theological Seminary, studying under the late James Cone, who was the leading black liberationist theologian in America. Warnock extended Cone’s work to include feminist theology, especially Warnock’s major academic work, The Divided Mind of the Black Church, published by New York University Press in 2013.
His intellectual gifts will need to be tempered by his pastoral gifts over time, allowing Warnock to witness to and work with the diverse constituencies that make up the Georgia electorate. In other words, as the pastor of one of America’s most famous churches, who already possesses the talent to relate to a congregation of differing views, Warnock as pastor-senator must now support and advance the needs of all Georgians as well. No one is better prepared politically or socially to accomplish such a complex task as is Pastor-Senator Warnock.
Can Senator Warnock accomplish his mission? Yes, if he attends to the needs of Georgians, just as a pastor concentrates on his or her congregation. In the language of the Congress, the pastor-senator must concentrate on constituency services, responding to basic needs of the individuals, communities and businesses he represents. Instead of attempting to become a cause célèbre for ideological groups, Warnock should rely on his natural spiritual and political gifts to promote the most critical and faith-based needs as a servant leader. He should avoid notoriety and concentrate on the hard work needed to promote public policy initiatives he supports, most often within the committee structure of the U.S. Senate, where most of the actual legislative work takes place. Finally, Warnock must seek resolution of issues close to his calling as a pastor, including alleviating poverty, support for education, and the like, by asking Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) for major committee assignments related to his and Georgia’s legislative priorities. If Pastor-Senator Warnock continues to follow his calling, his career in the U.S. Senate may be a long one indeed.
H. Lee Cheek, Jr., is a
United Methodist minister, and Professor of Political Science at East Georgia
State College, and a former congressional aide.
Dr. Cheek lives on Tybee Island.
