Benjamin Watson to 'pro-choice pastor' Raphael Warnock: 'A pastor knows the value of human life'
A pro-life activist is pushing back on a Democratic politician's description of himself as a “pro-choice pastor,” insisting that “a pastor knows the value of human life.”
Benjamin Watson, a former NFL football player and outspoken supporter of the pro-life movement, took issue with comments made by Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., who also serves as the pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Warnock sent out a tweet Saturday declaring: “As a pro-choice pastor, I’ve always believed that a patient’s room is way too small for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government.”
As a pro-choice pastor, I’ve always believed that a patient's room is way too small for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government.
— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) January 22, 2022 Get Our Latest News for FREE
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Watson responded to Warnock’s proclamation, which coincided with the 49th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. “Is a patient’s room too small for a child as well?” Watson asked in a Twitter thread posted Sunday.
Watson added: “76% of women in those rooms say they would prefer to parent if circumstances were different. A Pastor knows the value of human life. A Senator knows how to support mother AND child. Sir, you know better. Stop being scared.”
Is a patient’s room too small for a child as well?
— Benjamin Watson (@BenjaminSWatson) January 23, 2022
76% of women in those rooms say they would prefer to parent if circumstances were different
A Pastor knows the value of human life.
A Senator knows how to support mother AND child.
Sir, you know better. Stop being scared. https://t.co/YcPyVrXb83
Additionally, Watson urged his followers to “be careful when someone emphasizes their position in the church before stating what THEY have always believed NOT what God’s word says.”
“They’ve sacrificed moral credibility to accrue power and used their religious position as cover for an agenda. It doesn’t have to be this way,” he added.
Warnock isn't the only Christian who has sought to reconcile support for abortion with the teachings of their faith as the abortion debate comes back into the spotlight in light of the anniversary of Roe and the accompanying March for Life. The pro-abortion group Catholics for Choice held a light show outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception last week, where they projected pro-abortion messages onto the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Following pushback from Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Archbishop of Washington, the leader of Catholics for Choice pointed to Scripture to justify their support for abortion. Jamie Manson cited Romans 8:38-39 as evidence that support for abortion does not make her group “external to the Church,” as Gregory asserted in a statement condemning the light show.
In Romans 8:38-39, the apostle Paul writes: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which contains all the church’s teachings, affirms “the moral evil of every procured abortion” and characterizes the procedure as “gravely contrary to moral law.”
The Catechism also notes that “formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense,” adding that “the Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”
While Warnock is not Catholic, his abortion advocacy has led him to receive much of the same criticism directed at pro-abortion Catholic politicians by those who argue that supporting abortion directly contradicts the Christian faith.
When Warnock was running for the Senate in 2020, he defended his support for abortion as “consistent” with his beliefs as a minister. In response to Warnock’s remarks, NFL hall-of-fame coach Tony Dungy asked, “what book the candidate uses as their foundation for truth and their guiding principles,” concluding “It couldn’t be the Bible.”
Dungy shared a passage from Psalm 139 reading: “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous — how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day has passed.”
“If you believe the Bible is the word of [God] you can’t read this and conclude that God doesn’t view a baby in the womb as a life,” he wrote. Warnock has consistently voted in favor of pro-abortion legislation during his yearlong tenure in the Senate.
The pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List gave Warnock an “F” for the first session of the 117th Congress on its most recent “National Pro-Life Scorecard” that tracks how congressional lawmakers vote on pro-life and pro-abortion legislation. Warnock finds himself among all but one Senate Democrat and all House Democrats in receiving an F grade from the pro-life organization. The lone Senate Democrat to receive a grade higher than an F from Susan B. Anthony List was Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who was given a “B.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
