Raphael Warnock’s Church Pays for His Home. It’s Also Trying To Evict the Poor From Theirs

FROM THE PARTY OF COMPASSION: ‘They Treat Me Like a Piece of S—’: Raphael Warnock’s Church Pays for His Home. It’s Also Trying To Evict the Poor From Theirs. “Ebenezer Baptist Church owns an apartment building where residents are being served eviction notices for $28.55 in past-due rent.”


No room at the Inn for the Poor in Spirit.

What Warnock Condemns:
'"Unemployment benefits have expired, rent is due today, and many Georgia families are at risk of eviction in the middle of a pandemic," Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) wrote in a tweet in August 2020, charging that by failing to act, his political opponents were "clearly only concerned with serving their own interests."'

Claims fellow Senators that disagree with hem are consumed with their self-interest, while he virtue signals that he's more than willing to spend other people's money on charity.

But what about his Church that still pays for his housing and provides him a Pastors Allowance?

'Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the senator serves as senior pastor—drawing a salary as well as a generous $7,417 monthly housing allowance—has moved to evict disadvantaged residents from an apartment building it owns, one of whom it tried to push out on account of merely $28.55 in past-due.'

Pay up the $28.55 or leave? This from the judgemental virtue signaller of Greater Compassion?

The Church owns Columbia Towers on MLK Blvd:

'A dozen eviction lawsuits were filed against Columbia Tower residents over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, the first one in February 2020 and, most recently, in September 2022. The total sum of past-due rent cited in the lawsuits is just $4,900, a figure that could have been covered by one of Warnock’s monthly housing stipends from the church.'

Ugly.

Warnock has virtue signalled 'as an ally of struggling Georgians working to meet rent in the face of pandemic-era challenges.'

'Ebenezer Church is not hard-up for cash—audited financial statements show that Ebenezer closed out 2021 with cash and "cash equivalents" exceeding $1.2 million—and it is unclear why Columbia Residential moved so aggressively to evict its tenants.'

EBENEZER SCROOGE

'Columbia Tower residents were unaware that Ebenezer Baptist Church owns their building, described living under the rule of landlords who don’t hesitate to go to court to evict them and their neighbors, even if they’re just a few days short on rent.'

Pay Up or Get Removed.

"They're not compassionate at all," said Columbia Tower resident Phillip White, a 69-year-old African American who served in Vietnam and received an eviction notice on Sept. 20 for failure to meet a $192 rent payment. It was Columbia Tower’s second attempt to evict White, who received his first eviction notice in September 2021 for $179 in past-due rent. That case was dropped after White paid up, plus an additional $325 in fees.'



Walker has his shortcomings but he doesn't have a habit of throwing the poor out of their homes that I've heard about.

 

Where are our Libs screaming about hypocrisy with Walker?

 

I mean "famous football player has sex"? that isn't really much to work with, lol

 

Hmm $179 a month, that ain't bad rent!

 

I’m sure FBLM will step in with all that donated cash and help out.

 

Maybe you could first convince us that he even knew about this, and had some control over the decision-making that went into who gets eviction notices for non-payment of rent on church rental properties. It should also occur to you to wonder how your very public outrage here, stacks up with the history of eviction for non-payment in thousands and thousands of cases that do NOT involve the private thrill of bashing a Democratic candidate for Senate?

Have you ever started a thread about anyone getting an eviction notice in your years here?

 

He’s getting his house paid for by the church. Tell the church to pay for peoples homes who actually need it and pay for his own damn house.

 

And? Not unusual for the church to pay for the pastor's home. It is done quite regularly from Kenneth Copeland to Joel Olsteen to Matthew and Laurie Crouch. it may not be a parsonage, but it is nothing new and not controversial at all. Second, as for the apartment and eviction, I think there needs some more clarity here because your article does not seem to do that. How long have the renters been behind and what efforts has the church offered to extend those past payments? But then again, Kushner did the same thing during Covid and all the Conservatives said it was okay, including you Zorro I might add. So, keep the same rules instead of changing the goalposts for political reasons.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...gion-texas-tax-free-clergy-homes-16678079.php

 

Give a link to where I stated that or retract your claim.

 

That may have been the amount they were short.

 

How many protestant churches have you attended? Its actually a pretty common practice for the church to pay the rent for the accommodations on church property because the actual salary is historically low and its relatively difficult to get decent clerics to be willing and able to move into the local area for such a low wage. He deserves the benefit package that he contracted for when he signed on, just as much as you and I do. If you are concerned, maybe you could sign a check of yours to the tune of the back due rent. I wouldn't myself unless I knew a lot more about this man and the circumstances that caused this problem. He's not a hard luck case worthy of extra charity (beyond what he may already have received), just because its convenient for your political agenda.

We really don't know much about this man and his story that is not coming from his own lips.

 

Yes, but is that amount of being short a year old, a day old, or a month old? That is the question that determines whether it is an "Ebeneezer" type of incident or not.

 

Why did you post the article to begin with? Care to guess honestly?

 

You know I think its entirely fair to ask a candidate for the US Senate about how his values are reflected in his charitable giving. Its great to see if a Democrat 'walks the talk' by looking at his income taxes to see his donation pattern. I'd be pretty uncomfortable voting for a candidate who never gave a dime to any charity or any time to any charity. But it is HIS money, and his priorities, to provide help to his preferred charities. We do not assign him a duty to hand over a check to some random guy who needs help with his rent because his Church is somehow connected to that debt.

If Warnack prefers to send his money to a local homeless shelter, or the Red Cross, or Amnesty Intl, or the American Cancer Society, provide more personal time to helping at a shelter for teens instead, or teaching the illiterate, that is entirely up to him.

 

Giving to charity and evictions are two separate things. And you cannot claim a charitable deduction if you specifically donate to an individual, not a qualified organization. I have not seen his tax returns or if he has released them. And I have only heard reports criticizing what Hershal has said about donations with little or no evidence to prove either claim. But at the same time, charitable donations do have their quirks too. Mormons are taught that in order to get into "heaven" you must donate at least 10% of their income, and they do it faithfully as a matter of work. So does faith begets works or does works begets faith, is the question. And that is complicated, to say the least.

If you are on the campaign trail, you should be as honest as possible with how your life is, how your business is, etc. Try to not create an image that is not based on reality and that is what a lot of candidates, on both sides, do these days.

 

I am using 'charity' in its larger sense. Sort of that 'charity begins at home' sense, where it is charitable to help someone else in need, whether we are talking about giving to a person, or an organisation. I am certainly not demanding access to income tax records before I vote for any candidate, its just an example of learning where those priorities lie, which issues are most important etc. I don't care how the impulse to give is satisfied, but I like to know that one exists!

 

I posted in the thread where they are and crickets.

 

He is head of the church and they own 99% of it. He is listed as the Principle Officer on the IRS tax filings. Your attempts to absolve Warnock of the lack of compassion here by trying to put it back on the poster fail. AND the fact he it taking an $89,000 annual housing allowance from the coffers of the church on TOP of his salary to get around the tax limitations and his own tax bills. And the property gets tons of city state and local funds. It runs as a charitable operation so that even though the property is worth $1.72 million it only paid only $77.70 in property taxes over the past SEVEN YEARS. It has received over $15M in government funds since 2005. And then are the the tax filing questions.

BTW Walker has said he would pay all the rents that were in arrears to stop the evictions.

 

Well, here is where I am at. I don't have an issue with it because: the apartment building seems to include "disadvantaged" people Poor and perhaps section 8.

In order to keep a community wholesome and safe...the owners need to be able to kick out the problem children. In our world of legalities that is hard to do. In my city we have complexes --section 8 complexes--ripe with crime and drugs....people living there as "guests" that shouldn't be there....

I'm all for an apartment complex catering to the poor but the owner of housing should have clear option to depart people not good tenants.

 

How many get an $89,000 a year "housing allowance"? And I have long objected to such televangelist and their lavish lifestyles let's throw in Baker and Swaggert. But that also includes Warnock too with this revelation. And Kushner was not a church nor run the business in which he had a part ownership was a for profit company and not acting as a CHARITABLE organization nor was he running for an office nor where is tenants poor minorities nor was he getting huge sums from taxpayers dollars to subsidize his business.

Did you read the OP link and about the woman how sent her payment but got one number on her account wrong so she fixed it the next day and by the time she got home there was an eviction notice on her door.

 

Where did you get the idea they were evicting problem children? Did you read the OP article? It explains more clearly why this is an issue.

 

But you did mention tax returns and charity, so i went with that and focused on that. This is what I focused on, "You know I think its entirely fair to ask a candidate for the US Senate about how his values are reflected in his charitable giving. Its great to see if a Democrat 'walks the talk' by looking at his income taxes to see his donation pattern." However, there is a lot of information not being reported. Is the property management service doing this or is the church? With a lot of these apartment buildings, there is a property management company doing the renting, collecting, and evicting for lack of payment. All the church is wanting is something that the church board decided and that is not being reported. Second, did he know if they were in trouble? And no one has asked that question with certain political "groups" assumed in how the article was written. The reality is that this article is not going to have the effect that some may want it to have and that is the problem for the GOP side.

 

Quite a number actually ranging from Bishops and Archbishops of Catholic Diocese to Eastern Orthodox to Evangelical Churches if you are asking about the parsonage account that is beyond their normal salary. But the point is it really depends on the church and its members. At my church, we have an annual budget meeting for its members and it includes everything from mission fields to pastor salaries to everything, but it really depends on the church, especially in the Protestant area of Christianity.

The second point that I was making was about hypocrisy. In the Covid Relief Bill that Trump signed in mid-2020, there was a provision in that bill for companies like Kershner not to evict people if they got a PPP loan, among other things. Kershner did get PPP loans and was still evicted, which is technically against law. Or in other words, hypocrisy.

 

I have not seen anything wrong with their tax filings. And since 2013, the GOP has made it clear that the IRS cannot really investigate unless it is very blatantly obvious, such as Westboro Baptist Church, for instance. In fact, in 2016, the House and Senate passed a bill that disallows the IRS from revoking a church-exempt status if they participate actively in a political campaign or as a church specifically endorse a political candidate. Second, religious organizations can and do receive government money, but it depends on the reason why. And that has to do with a Supreme Court Ruling from a conservative Court. So, it is not something that is going to help you here.

As for walker, he has not, according to articles, that none of his businesses or his personal life has not shown that capability and all of a sudden he is offering now. You do know he is trying to portray an image that may or may not be true.

 

You made a claim about what I posted. Link to my post that supports your claim or retract your claim.