Senator Reverend Warnock sat down with long-time NPR radio host David Freudberg to talk about the current political discourse and rhetoric on NPR’s Humankind podcast

During the conversation, Senator Warnock discussed how faith and service are intertwined in his work serving as the first Black Senator from Georgia

Senator Reverend Warnock: “Ordinary people can change the world, can be a force in human history” 

Washington, D.C. – Recently, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) sat down with David Freudberg, host of NPR’s Humankind podcast. During the conversation, the two discussed the role of Senator Warnock’s faith and some of his mentors have played in his work serving as the first Black Senator from Georgia.

“Ordinary people can change the world, can be a force in human history, and it is a reminder, when in moments like these, I’m reminded that evil always goes too far, and therefore it contains within itself the seed of its own destruction. We just have to help it, and so I’m going to keep pushing, and I’m going to keep the faith,” said Senator Warnock.

The two also talked about the alarming rise in violent political speech and rhetoric.

“You know, the wonderful thing about a democracy is that we have noisy arguments, rambunctious arguments, and we have to remind ourselves that the reason we have those noisy arguments is to avoid violence. We shouldn’t have the arguments in order to encourage violence, but we have those arguments instead of war, instead of violence. It’s something that I take very seriously,” the Senator continued.

The episode is available to listen to HERE on NPR.

See below transcripts of key excerpts from the interview:

Senator Warnock on the role faith plays in the political discourse:

(DF): “Where does God’s power enter into the picture?”

(SRW): “Oh, it’s always in the midst of the struggle. If you want to see God, it’s in the story of Jesus, born in Bethlehem, raised in a forgotten place called Nazareth. It’s always in the faces of the poor and in the faces of ordinary people who are struggling.”

(DF): “And does that empower the struggle?”

(SRW): “Yes, it certainly does. I think it is the recognition that ordinary people can change the world, can be a force in human history, and it is a reminder, when in moments like these, I’m reminded that evil always goes too far, and therefore it contains within itself the seed of its own destruction. We just have to help it, and so I’m going to keep pushing, and I’m going to keep the faith,” 

Senator Warnock on the rise in violent speech and rhetoric:

Senator Reverend Warnock (SRW): “You know, the wonderful thing about a democracy is that we have noisy arguments, rambunctious arguments, and we have to remind ourselves that the reason we have those noisy arguments is to avoid violence. We shouldn’t have the arguments in order to encourage violence, but we have those arguments instead of war, instead of violence. It’s something that I take very seriously.”

Senator Warnock on the legacy of Congressman John Lewis:

(SRW): “On the night before the funeral, I asked myself, ‘What was John Lewis thinking about when he crossed that Edmund Pettus Bridge?’ He and Hosea Williams, you’ve seen it as a classic tape, wearing nothing but a trench coat and a backpack on his back. ‘What were they thinking?’ Brute force on the other side of that bridge, police officers with billy clubs, cattle prod. They were outgunned. They were outmanned, they were outfinanced, and yet they kept walking across that bridge. What was John Lewis thinking? I asked myself the night before his funeral, was he thinking that one day he would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom? Of course not, if you ever knew John Lewis, he wasn’t vain enough to think that. Was he thinking that one day he would be hailed as an American hero, and that at his funeral three American presidents on both sides of the aisle would attend?”

“I think John Lewis was just trying to stay alive that day so he could live to fight the next day.”

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