Pastor Jamal Bryant, who leads New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, had a few words for Hershel Walker – and they weren’t the encouraging kind.
During a sermon he preached on Sunday, Oct. 30, Bryant criticized the Republican Party, saying it was using Walker’s candidacy to prevent Georgia from making much-needed progress.
“When the Republican Party of Georgia moved Herschel Walker from Texas to Georgia so that he could run for Senate, it’s because change was taking [place] too fast in the post antebellum south,” Bryant said. “The state had been flipped blue and there are some principalities that were not prepared for a Black man and a Jewish man to go to Senate at the exact same time.”
Bryant then turned his attention to Walker, criticizing the former NFL player as an unqualified ‘yes man.’
“So they figured that they would delude us by picking somebody who they thought would, in fact, represent us better with a football than with a degree in philosophy,” Bryant said, referencing the doctorate held by Walker’s opponent and current Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.
“They thought we were so slow, that we were so stupid, that we would elect the lowest caricature of a stereotypical broken Black man as opposed to somebody who is educated and erudite and focused,” Bryant continued. “Since Herschel Walker was 16 years old, white men been telling him what to do … and you think they not gon’ tell him how to vote? In 2022 we don’t need a Walker; we need a runner!”
“Georgia, I need you to know, the slave negroes y’all are used to don’t live here no more. We can think for ourselves, function for ourselves and vote for ourselves,” Bryant concluded.
After the clip was shared on social media, reactions to Bryant’s words were split.
“Pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant ain’t speaking nothing but the truth,” @SoVerySweetDiva tweeted. She added, “it’s time for everyone out here to start dealing with the truth and the reality of the situation we don’t need no more fake politicians and we really don’t need nobody who isn’t qualified!!!”
Twitter user @blacknarrative_ wrote, “not endorsing Walker, but too many black people are easily impressed. Knowing the history of Jamal and New Birth, why is this church still open??”
Walker and Warnock are in a nationally-watched race that is too close for comfort for either candidate. According to NBC News, the race will test if Georgia can sustain its recent shift from red to blue. It will also determine if the Warnock can withstand Walker’s challenge after making history as the first Black person elected to Senate in the state.
Both men are making the case of why they are the better choice.
“You went to Washington to say you gonna represent Georgia and you decide to represent Joe Biden. You went to Washington and say you gonna represent the people, but yet you voted with him 96% of the time,” Walker said of Warnock at a recent rally.
Though not as insultingly, Warnock agrees with Jamal Bryant that Walker is not qualified.
“I think the people of Georgia are fired up. And they can see the differences between me and my opponent. I can tell you there’s no comparison at all,” Warnock said at a recent campaign stop. “Character matters. And this is somebody who has demonstrated that not only is he not ready for the job, he’s not fit.”
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