Warnock’s Former Church Regularly Hosted Anti-Semitic Professor
(TheRedWire.com) – On Tuesday, November 8, neither Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) nor GOP Senatorial candidate Hershel Walker garnered the required 50% or more votes to avoid a runoff election. As the December 6 runoff election draws closer, some are looking more intently at the incumbent’s radical background and associations.
Warnock is the lead pastor of Martin Luther King’s church in Atlanta, Georgia. In the past, he praised anti-Semitic and anti-American pastor Jeremiah Wright. In 2014, he defended Wright’s controversial and conspiratorial sermon in which he said, “God damn America.” Warnock called it a “very fine sermon.” It appears that’s not all. The Senator has a deep past with other controversial figures, including a former church that regularly hosted an anti-Semitic professor.
Warnock’s Former Church Hosted Anti-Semetic Professor
From 1991 to 2001, Warnock served as the youth and assistant pastor at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City. Rev. Calvin Butts led the church. From 1991 to 1998, the church regularly hosted Dr. Leonard Jeffries, a Black studies department chairman at the City University of New York (CUNY).
Leonard blamed Jewish people for slavery and promoted Black supremacy. He believed black people were superior to whites because they had more melanin, better allowing them to negotiate the universe’s vibrations. In 1991, the professor talked about the controversy after an incident with a Harvard Crimson student reporter. Leonard criticized the paper as a “Jewish paper,” threatened the young person’s life and ordered a bodyguard to destroy the audio recording of the interview. He said the discussion’s purpose was to discuss multicultural issues, not anti-semitism.
In 1991, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) highlighted the professor’s numerous comments. Among them were allegations he preached hatred of Jews and organized a conference highlighting Black nationalists and anti-Jewish propaganda. In 1992, Leonard reportedly alleged police were putting black people under siege.
In 1988, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said a white student wrote in the student newspaper that Leonard’s classes were largely anti-white rhetoric. Reports of his views continued through 2012 when he stated the Jewish community expressed “evil genius” by making business a part of their religion and culture.
Pastor Who Praised Warnock Praises Controversial Professor
Butts regularly defended Leonard’s rhetoric. In 1992, he criticized CUNY for their attempts at removing the professor from his chairmanship and said, “we need a scholar-activist like Dr. Jefferies.” Three years later, Butts invited Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and praised the communist leader. He also refused to rebuke Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in 1986 when he called Judaism a “gutter religion.”
Before passing away in late October, Butts called Warnock one of the nation’s smartest and most academically prepared clergy members. Recently, the Senator referred to Butts as his mentor.
So, is Warnock qualified to serve as a US Senator?
It’ll be up to Georgia voters to decide in less than a week.
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