‘I wasn’t vocal,’ Flynn Johnson told NR. ‘But since there is an agenda being pushed, I feel like we don’t have a choice.’
They come racked with guilt and overwhelmed with emotion – women, and sometimes men, struggling through what Flynn Johnson calls “the aftermath of abortion.”
As bishop of Atlanta’s Metro City Church, Johnson has seen firsthand the devastating impact of abortion, on the black community as a whole and on the individuals he meets who are trying to come to terms with decisions they’ve made to end their pregnancies.
“It’s horrendous stories of those who at the moment feel like they don’t want to accept the responsibility (of being a parent), and yet discover only later how devastating it is when the conscience reconsiders the fact that it took life,” Johnson said. “In my mind, there’s no place to reconcile that.”
Johnson is a decidedly pro-life pastor. To him, life in a mother’s womb is precious and honored by God. There is no Biblical room for abortion, an evil that has taken a disproportionate toll on the black community in Georgia and around the country, he told National Review.
Johnson was one of 28 black pastors and religious leaders – mostly from Georgia, but from as far away as California – who signed a letter earlier this month urging U.S. Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock to reconsider his stance on abortion. Warnock, the senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is one of two Democrats in runoff elections that will determine which party will control the Senate for at least the next two years.
Warnock proudly describes himself as a “pro-choice pastor” fighting for “ordinary people.”
I am a pro-choice pastor.
— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) December 9, 2020
Johnson said that in the past he’s kept his politics close to his vest, hoping to avoid controversy. But he’s changed in recent years, he said, as he’s seen politics impacting his congregants spiritually, and as he has perceived public pushback against the church and what it stands for.
“I wasn’t vocal. I wasn’t pushing in terms of an agenda,” Johnson said of his past. “But since there is an agenda being pushed, I feel like we don’t have a choice.”
It’s not unusual in Georgia for religious leaders to be involved in political discussions, but religion and politics have been particularly intertwined in the race between Warnock and Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a lifelong Catholic who is pro-life. Much of that is due to Warnock’s position as the head of a prominent church, and because many of his social justice-tinged sermons are on the Internet, making them easy fodder for opposition research and attack ads.
His critics have pointed to sermons in which he defended socialism as simply “things we have in common,” called gun-rights legislation dumb, and declared that “nobody can serve God and the military.” Warnock has said his critics take passages from his sermons out of context.
In addition to the letter to Warnock from the pro-life black pastors, a group of more than 100 liberal religious leaders backing Warnock sent an open letter to Loeffler’s campaign accusing the senator of hypocrisy and calling her attacks against Warnock “a broader attack against the Black Church.”
Two orthodox Jewish rabbis also recently sent a letter to Warnock objecting to his “past rhetoric against Israel and the Jewish community” – Warnock was part of a group of religious leaders that toured Israel in 2019 and compared the country to “apartheid South Africa.” Leftwing Jewish organizations have defended Warnock and called him a friend to Israel.
Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University, doubts that these letters and subsequent media coverage will persuade many voters to back or oppose either candidate, much less persuade the candidates to reconsider deeply held positions. The January 5 runoffs are turn-out elections, so the candidates are focused less on persuading voters to join their side and more on turning out voters who already are in their corner.
“The battleground is in terms of turnout,” she said. “The battleground is making sure that everybody who turned out to vote on Nov. 3, shows up to vote again.”
Gillespie doesn’t believe Warnock’s pro-choice position will cost him many black voters, who are more likely to support abortion rights than white voters, according to recent polls. According to a 2019 Pew poll, 64 percent of black Protestants said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 77 percent of white evangelicals said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. A SurveyUSA poll from last November, found that only 18 percent of blacks in Georgia supported a new law prohibiting abortions if a fetal heartbeat is present, compared with 48 percent of whites. A federal judge has since struck down the law, ruling it unconstitutional.
“Black voters aren’t making their decisions based upon issues related to abortion,” Gillespie said. “There are many pro-life African American voters who still vote Democratic.”
Johnson isn’t convinced. He believes there is a rising tide of young, black voters who are opposed to abortion and aren’t beholden to the Democratic Party.
“I think there will be a surprising number of African Americans that do not voter their color, and don’t vote their history,” he said of the runoff.
It’s wrong, he said, for African Americans to assume that just “because a candidate is one of color, that they will stand with your values.” He said he’s trying to get his parishioners to identify their values, and to consider those values when they engage in politics.
“What do we value? Do we value life? Yes, we do value choice, but do we value life?” he asked.
During an early December debate with Loeffler, Warnock said he has both “a profound reverence for life, and an abiding respect for choice.”
“The question is, whose decision is it?” Warnock said. “I happen to think a patient’s room is too small a place for a woman, her doctor and the U.S. government.”
Loeffler said she refuses to be “lectured by someone who uses the Bible to justify abortion.” Warnock’s defenders say the Bible is silent on abortion.
Garland Hunt, the pastor at The Father’s House church near Atlanta and one of the organizers of the letter to Warnock, said that regardless of Warnock’s views on the role of government, “he himself should not advocate a position that is not Biblical.”
“It’s different when you decide you’re going to run for U.S. Senate,” Hunt said. “Now you’re talking about representing the whole state of Georgia. So now it’s not just a stand you’re taking in your own personal church. Now we’re saying you’re taking a political position that’s going to impact all of Georgia.”
Hunt also believes pro-life African American voters “may be able to turn the election.”
Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political science professor, said there is little chance that a large number of black voters will be dissuaded from voting for Warnock because of his pro-choice politics, though he noted that “black pastors do have pretty good influence before their own flocks.” He also doesn’t suspect Loeffler is at risk of losing many white votes with her attacks based on Warnock’s statements from the pulpit.
There could be a small sliver of white suburban voters still up for grabs who could be influenced by the religious positions of Warnock and Loeffler. In a close election, even alienating a small sliver of voters could mean the difference between winning and losing.
“If this election is really anywhere nearly as close as the presidential election was, then small slivers are really important,” Bullock said.
Gillespie is critical of the theological discussions in the campaign so far, calling it “incredibly shallow.” She said, “Georgia voters deserve better than that.”
She’s also critical of Loeffler’s attacks on Warnock, which she said have racial overtones and undertones. Loeffler has said “there is no place for racism in this country” and said there isn’t a racist bone in her body.
“I think she feels compelled, she has to do this,” Gillespie said of Loeffler’s attacks on Warnock. “Even if she feels differently, the fact that she needs every Republican voter in the state to turn out to vote again in this election is going to compel her to try to appeal to them in the way that she thinks is going to be most effective. And since Donald Trump is very popular among Republicans in the state, she feels that she’s got to use his playbook to mobilize them.”
Even though Warnock has not reconsidered his pro-choice position because of the pastors’ letter, Johnson said he believes it “gave people a real wakeup call.” After the letter went public, he had a lot of people respond, agreeing with it, he said.
“What is interesting is how much this is talked about behind closed doors,” said Johnson, who called the letter “very non-partisan.”
He went on to call abortion part of an ongoing attack on black families.
“It is my position that many of our problems are due to the breakup of the family, abortion not being one of the least,” Johnson said. “It’s a major, major issue. For (Rev. Warnock) to take the position that he takes, I don’t know how he does that when it comes to his own congregation and the struggle of women in his own congregation.”