The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) donated to Democratic senatorial candidate Raphael Warnock’s Atlanta-based church after the pastor campaigned for Hilary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
QUICK FACTS:
- The church where Democratic Senator candidate Raphael Warnock has served as lead pastor for nearly 20 years received funding for an energy project from the Clinton organization after he openly defended Hilary Clinton in 2016.
- “The world faces the significant challenge of climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, and burning of coal is a major contributor to those emissions,” the CGI said at the time. “As people of faith, the principles of stewardship, justice, community of life, and awe of inform our call to care for creation.”
- In June 2016, the CGI announced that it would award a one-year $550,000 grant to Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Warnock welcomed the grant, saying that although climate change impacted all people, it “disproportionately impacts poor, marginalized, black and brown communities.”
THE CLINTON’S ORGANIZATION ON DONATING TO DEMOCRAT RAPHAEL WARNOCK’S CHURCH:
“The Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church has a recognized and highly active creation care ministry in which the church works with its many congregants to learn and teach strategies for stewarding resources and caring for God’s creation.”
BACKGROUND:
- Last month, Georgia launched an investigation into a charity controlled by Ebenezer Baptist Church that provides Warnock a $7,417 monthly housing allowance and owns an apartment building that is trying to evict tenants.
- The Georgia Secretary of State Office’s Securities and Charities Division on Wednesday sent a letter to Ebenezer Building Foundation demanding that the charity explain why it’s operating in the state without an active registration.
- Ebenezer Building Foundation identifies Warnock as its principal officer in its Form 990s and says it delegates all management duties to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Warnock pulls a salary on top of a lucrative tax-free housing allowance as he serves in the Senate.
- “The Division’s records indicate that Ebenezer Building Foundation … is not registered as a charitable organization with the State of Georgia,” an attorney with the Georgia Securities and Charities Division wrote in the letter to Kenneth Palmer, a member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church Board of Trustees.
- The letter warned Palmer, who also serves as the chairman of Ebenezer Building Foundation, that soliciting charitable contributions and operating a charitable organization in Georgia without an active registration or an applicable exemption are violations of state law and will subject the charity to administrative penalties.
