WASHINGTON (RNS) — When Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia walked into Speaker Mike Johnson’s office last month, the two men already held starkly different political views. By the time the meeting ended 30 minutes later, it was clear they also sit on different ends of the Christian spectrum.
Warnock, a Democrat and pastor of a prominent Black church, had raised questions in an interview with The New York Times a few days prior about whether the speaker’s Republican politics reflected his professed faith. The senator described himself as a “Matthew 25 Christian,” referring to a biblical passage that features Jesus telling his followers a parable in which “all the nations” are judged by how they care for the “least of these” — described as the hungry, the stranger and the imprisoned, among others. How, Warnock had told the Times, do you “say a long prayer, hold hands with your fellow legislators and then cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid?”
In response, Johnson, a Southern Baptist from Louisiana, called for the confab and offered a diametrically opposing interpretation of Matthew 25.
“He told me that Matthew 25 was about individuals, and not nations,” Warnock told Religion News Service, referring to Johnson. “The text actually says nations.”
Warnock, a member of the Progressive National Baptist Convention who holds a Ph.D. in systematic theology and recently published a faith-themed book, added: “It’s a very narrow individualistic faith, and I think it has consequences for the kind of policy you end up with.”
The Johnson-Warnock meeting, which the Democrat has otherwise described as “respectful,” added to the brewing debate over Matthew 25 that has been building ove …
