Ebenezer Baptist Church on March 3, 2024. (Credit: EbenezerATL)
Ebenezer Baptist Church – a symbol of the civil rights movement and the ongoing battles for equity and justice – was again the site of peaceful protest as a group of students from the AUC rose from the congregation on Sunday, March 3 to call for an end to U.S. support for Israel in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Ebenezer pastor Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock had barely begun his Sunday morning sermon when the students stood up and removed their jackets to reveal t-shirts that said, “Stop Arming Israel,” and then filed out of the sanctuary and left the church. The students claim to represent the Atlanta University Consortium.
Sen. Warnock, the first Black senator from the state of Georgia took the floor on Feb. 29 to address the U.S. Senate and called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict and the provision of aid to the Gaza Strip along with the release of all hostages being held by Hamas.
“I want to thank God for the students and the young folk. I wish they’d hang out, so we could talk after church,” Warnock said. “Let them know that they’re welcome to stay. Let’s talk after church.”
“The whole world must see that Israel must exist and has the right to exist,” Warnock said. “The dignity of self-determination is among the values he was seeking to uphold. Israelis deserve it. So do Palestinians. Two peoples, two states living alongside one another in freedom and in peace. That must remain our North Star. And if we would be true to our own values, we must call to task any politician who would reject that right to self-determination, especially if that rejection comes while, at the same time, one is engaged in massive and indiscriminate bombing of the very same people. From the ugly and dangerous specter of it all, the world cannot and must not turn away.”
Warnock’s sermon on Sunday, March 3 was entitled “A Seat at the Table.”
