OPINION
Ex-Trump Attorney Attacks Dem Senator as a ‘Heretic’ and MSNBC Hosts ‘Who Don’t Even Pretend to Be Christians’
Former Trump campaign and personal attorney Jenna Ellis is under fire for attacking U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) who is also the senior pastor of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s church, as a “heretic.” She is also being criticized for attacking two MSNBC hosts “who don’t even pretend to be Christians.”
Ellis, whose career claim of being a “Constitutional law Attorney” is questioned by experts given her apparent lack of legal experience and having never argued a case before the Supreme Court, had no problem attacking Senator Warnock on Easter.
On Easter Sunday Ellis slammed Warnock for a tweet she called “heresy,” which Warnock later deleted.
This is a false gospel and heresy. We cannot save ourselves.
The absolute truth and only meaning of Easter that matters is the literal, physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we must accept Him as Lord and Savior.
Read Romans, “Reverend” Warnock. You are a false teacher. https://t.co/dRVz0LdKGu
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) April 4, 2021
In it, he talked about how doing good work can help people to save themselves, something the religious right saw as an attack on the Christian church.
Warnock deleted his heretical tweet.
He should delete Reverend in front of his name too. pic.twitter.com/6FYNG6LFZ1
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) April 5, 2021
But she wasn’t satisfied. Ellis continued to attack Warnock as a “heretic,” and claims being pro-choice is “against the Bible and moral truth,” despite the Bible not opposing abortion, according to some.
Let’s not forget that the “Reverend” Warnock is pro-choice, which is also against the Bible and moral truth.
Warnock is a heretic and has no business calling himself a Christian when he does not agree with Christianity and Truth.
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) April 5, 2021
Ellis continued her attacks, going after MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan and Joy Reid, after they pushed back on her calling Rev. Warnock a heretic.
The leftists like Hasan can’t see or argue anything except race.
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) April 5, 2021
Hasan was happy to take on Ellis, who was incapable of grasping the gravity of her heresy attack:
I’m not getting involved in a theological or scriptural debate between two Christians. I’m questioning your attacking of his religious credentials, having been a paid promoter of Donald Trump, a man who has said and done far more heretical and un-Christian things than Warnock.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 5, 2021
Heretic means someone who teaches heresy. Heresy is a teaching contrary to biblical Christianity.
Saying he is a heretic is like saying he is a senator.
Take your own advice and stay out of theological debates, unless you sincerely want to know biblical truth.
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) April 5, 2021
Joy Reid also pushed back against Ellis’s attack:
This lady is literally calling the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church — a heretic. This actually happened today. Madame, I’m gonna take @ReverendWarnock‘s take, as a pastor and a scholar on the Word over yours, if you don’t mind. https://t.co/xia6HjwDCG
— Joy-Ann Pro-Democracy & Masks Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) April 4, 2021
Sorry, but what are your credentials to debate theology with an actual pastor??? Defending Donald Trump, the golden idol of the right, as he lied to his supporters to further a grift on them? https://t.co/MeD7Xjte7n
— Joy-Ann Pro-Democracy & Masks Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) April 5, 2021
If you are an idolatrous worshipper of Donald Trump, your thoughts on Biblical Christianity will he taken with a huge pound of salt by people who are reasonably familiar with the Gospel. Just so you know.
— Joy-Ann Pro-Democracy & Masks Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) April 5, 2021
And then Ellis attacked both Hasan and Reid as “Leftists who don’t even pretend to be Christians.”
Leftists who don’t even pretend to be Christians (like @JoyAnnReid and @mehdirhasan) defend Warnock’s heresy just because he’s a Dem.
They intentionally confuse supporting Trump w/ worshipping Trump because their god and idol is government.
Jesus is the only true Lord & Savior.
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) April 5, 2021
Reid’s Christian faith is not in question, and Hasan is Muslim. Neither are “pretending.” But Ellis’ attack is larger than against the MSNBC hosts or “leftists.”
The message Ellis is sending, whether she meant to or not, is that in America you have to either be a far right wing Christian or “pretend” to be one – which goes against everything our Founders stood for. She’s attacking a person who has talked about his Islamic faith openly as someone who doesn’t “even even pretend to be Christian,” as if pretending to be Christian is something people should do – or have to do in Ellis’ America.
What about people of no religious faith? What about atheists? Agnostics? What about people who are spiritual but not religious? Or people who believe in god, a god, or gods, but no organized religion? Or people of different faiths, like Hasan? What about people of the Jewish faith? Or other faiths?
Last week Gallup reported that “Americans’ membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.”
Are they not acceptable to Ellis?
Why does anyone have to “pretend” to be Christian to be acceptable to Ellis and the religious right, many of whom have bastardized the Christian faith, used it as a sword, a shield, and for political advantage while not practicing its most important tenets?
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