Updated June 16, 2026 at 10:46 AM MST
Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, became the state's junior U.S. senator over a decade after he was selected to serve as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, a church that was once led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. His role as a senator brought him to Washington National Cathedral in 2023, where he marked Juneteenth that year with a sermon framed around the life of the prophet Isaiah.
"Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked places shall be made straight, the rough places smooth, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together," Warnock said during the sermon.
Warnock expands on that message in his new book, The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America, where he argues that democracy is "the political enactment of a spiritual idea."
In an interview with Morning Edition host Michel Martin, Warnock said the country's divisions are less political than moral. "What we're dealing with right now is not the difference between right and left, it's really the difference between right and wrong," Warnock said. He added that "it's really too bad when my party cedes so much of the faith and values space … to those on the right."
In his conversation with Martin, he explains why he believes faith should confront systemic injustice, not just personal behavior, and calls for a broader moral imagination in American politics.
Listen to the interview by clicking on the blue play button above.
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