An Evening with Senator Raphael Warnock
The Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church and U.S. Senator from Georgia, returns to Washington National Cathedral on Juneteenth for a powerful conversation on faith, democracy, and moral imagination. Together with Canon Theologian Kelly Brown Douglas and Canon Missioner Leonard L. Hamlin, they explore the urgent themes of Senator Warnock’s new book, The Crooked Places Made Straight, a prophetic call to reach for the highest and noblest aspects of our national character.
This event is available in-person and online. All in-person tickets include a copy of the book.
Tickets
About the Book
In The Crooked Places Made Straight, Senator Reverend Raphael G. Warnock, a transformational voice in Congress and pastor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, offers a sermon for the public square rooted in the book of Isaiah. Writing for the semiquincentennial of America, Warnock argues that we suffer not from a shortage of resources but from a poverty of moral imagination. He draws on ideals resonant across faith traditions and moral frameworks to offer a bold vision of how to live and relate to one another in this land, what he calls a moral topography, a geopolitics that centers love and justice, or as Dr. King would say, the beloved community.
The Crooked Places Made Straight examines six crises at the center of American life: voting rights and voter suppression, gun violence, mass incarceration, the persistence of poverty, dark money in politics, and the climate emergency. This is not a naive faith. Senator Warnock knows well the perils of public corruption, the frustration with institutional leadership, and a political class more interested in preserving its own power than in serving the people. For Warnock, democracy is the political enactment of a spiritual idea and a vote is a kind of prayer. This is his inspiring vision for a more just and equitable America where communities thrive with hope and possibility and every child has a chance.
About ‘A Better Way’
This event is part of the A Better Way initiative. At Washington National Cathedral, we believe the gospel compels us to live faithfully at the intersection of the sacred and the civic. A Better Way is our commitment to embodying dignity and respect in public life, offering hope, and providing a moral framework in a divided world.