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In Wake of Abortion Scandal, Herschel Walker Attends Closed-Door Prayer Event

By Jack Jenkins
herschel walker
Herschel Walker, GOP candidate for the US Senate for Georgia, speaks at a primary watch party on May 23, 2022, at the Foundry restaurant in Athens, Ga. (Photo: AP/Akili-Casundria Ramsess via RNS)

Georgia Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Herschel Walker attended a closed-door prayer event at a prominent evangelical church in Atlanta on Tuesday, huddling with religious supporters a day after he denied allegations he paid for an abortion in 2009.

The event, a “Herschel Walker Prayer Luncheon,” was convened at First Baptist Atlanta, which was once led by prominent evangelical leader the Rev. Charles Stanley. Press was reportedly barred from the event, with an official saying the decision was made by the church and Walker’s campaign.

Kelly Stewart, First Baptist’s director of business operations, told media the event was not preplanned, but an Eventbrite invitation for the luncheon was later found online, and it was unclear how long ago it was created. The luncheon came together, she said, because Walker’s campaign “was looking for a place to bring the prayer warriors to gather for Mr. Walker.”

Stewart said the event drew around 240 people and largely consisted of the church’s current pastor, the Rev. Anthony George, asking Walker questions about his faith and “religious liberties.” She said Walker also offered his personal testimony, after which the group prayed over him. Footage of the event shared on social media and found by Word and Way also showed George celebrating the presence of conservative Christian activist Ralph Reed in the crowd.

“Everyone gathered around him and prayed for him and prayed for our country,” Stewart said.

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However, Stewart said the pastor did not ask Walker about a new report published by the Daily Beast on Monday alleging the candidate paid for the abortion of a woman he impregnated in 2009.

“We did not get into personal things with him,” Stewart said. Facebook videos of the event did not feature George asking Walker about the reporting, although the pastor appeared to allude to it on multiple occasions and also spoke critically of the press.

According to the Daily Beast’s report, the woman, who remained anonymous, shared with the outlet a $575 abortion clinic receipt, an image of a signed $700 personal check from Walker and a “get well” card featuring what appears to be his signature.

Walker denied the allegations on Monday, calling it a “flat-out lie” and threatening to sue the Daily Beast over the article. The outlet has since said it stands by its reporting.

“I can tell you right now, I never asked anyone to get an abortion,” Walker told Fox News host Sean Hannity Monday evening. “I never paid for an abortion — it’s a lie.”

Walker’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the event.

First Baptist is one of several churches to have hosted Walker during his campaign this year, including when George appeared with the candidate during worship for a question-and-answer session in front of the congregation. After Walker told George, “I’m not just going to Washington, I’m taking Jesus with me,” the pastor asked the former NFL star about his “pro-life” stance.

“When somebody asks me that question, I say it’s strange, it’s so strange, because I’m a Christian,” Walker replied. He later added: “Did I not say I’m a Christian? That means you’re supposed to be pro-life.”

As a candidate, Walker has also said he would support a national ban on abortions, including a version with no exceptions for cases involving rape, incest or a woman’s health.

Walker’s son, Christian Walker, published a series of tweets and videos Monday and Tuesday arguing his father — not the Daily Beast — was lying.

“The abortion card drops yesterday — it’s literally his handwriting on the card. They say they have receipts,” the younger Walker said in one of his videos. “He gets on Twitter. He lies about it. Okay, I’m done. Done. Everything has been a lie.”

Christian Walker, who participated in a campaign event for his father late last year, went on to criticize fellow conservatives who voice support for “family values” but overlook elements of the Georgia candidate’s past, such as reports regarding Herschel Walker’s children: Walker’s son said his father “wasn’t in the house” raising four children conceived with “four different women,” but was instead “out having sex with other women.”

“I don’t care about someone who has a bad past and takes accountability. But how DARE YOU LIE and act as though you’re some ‘moral, Christian, upright man,’” Christian Walker tweeted. “You’ve lived a life of DESTROYING other peoples lives. How dare you.”

Herschel Walker appeared to respond to his son on Twitter Monday night, saying, “I LOVE my son no matter what.”

Despite the criticism, many prominent Republicans and conservative groups are standing by Walker’s candidacy, according to NBC.

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision earlier this year overturning Roe v. Wade, effectively returning the question of abortion access to the states, abortion has proven to be one of several issues motivating voters across the country in the lead-up to the midterm elections next month — including in Georgia. 

Walker’s Democratic opponent, pastor and current U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, has publicly expressed support for abortion rights and identified as a “pro-choice pastor.”

Jack Jenkins is an award-winning journalist and national reporter for the Religion News Service.

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16 Responses

    1. I am hopeful that more believers would be honest about there mistakes before and after their conversion. So many have done things we are ashamed of and have repented, but continue to live under the shame. The Lord will uncover our sin and forgive. It is freedom regardless of the end result. He is faithful

  1. The 2020 GOP pro life plank:

    “Republicans are 100 percent against abortion, except to save the political life of the father.”

  2. I wish pastors and churches would stay away from supporting any candidate or politician, it’s a losing and unbiblical tactic. Proclaim the Gospel, proclaim who the God of the Bible is, proclaim the truth of the Bible. The Roman government was completely corrupt but Jesus never railed against it, he was concerned about the salvation of sinners, religious leaders that taught incorrect views of God, and hypocrisy. Know your Bible and you will know how to vote.

  3. Most Republicans should quit pretending to follow Jesus and his teachings. Small offenses by others used to receive strong rebukes, today major offenses will get you elected. Unbelievable.

    1. and what are your views concerning top Democrats who claim to be “Good Catholics”? any hipocracy there or is it just Republicans you have an issue with?

      1. Bill –
        I usually don’t respond to “whataboutism” as that is a worldly response to being confronted with sin – to deflect, downplay or justify it. “They do it too!” and “but what about HIM??” wasn’t tolerated by my mom or Sunday school teacher when I was 5, and I can’t believe we do it as adult believers.
        But I DO have an issue with hypocrites regardless of political affiliation. I also know we are called to judge other believers according to our faith and scripture. So if any Republican, Democrat, or independent is a professing Christian, I hold them accountable. No whataboutism, no Christianese language.

        1. Marin,
          Jesus engaged in “whataboutism” extensively. He taught the parable about the servant whose debt was forgiven but the servant didn’t forgive his own servant’s debt, and so was punished severely for it.

          Similar situations require similar treatment if we are to be just before God. Calling someone a hypocrite when your own closet needs cleaning from the piles of hypocrisy is something that needs to be called out.

          1. This is not what Marin is talking about. Whataboutism means an inability to look at ourselves or those we support with without making comparisons to people we oppose.

            Senator Warnock has no bearing on whether or not Walker is a hypocrite. He has no bearing on whether not nor Walker is a liar. He has no bearing on whether or not Walker shows a depth of thought when it comes to his policies. Warnock has no bearing on whether anyone can trust Walker at all.

            And in case you haven’t guessed, this is not just a Walker-Warnock issue.

  4. Herschel Walker’s campaign has been an embarrassment from the start for too many reasons to list here. I personally believe that the “hype” around him has been a poor attempt at dividing the Black vote while also proving the GOP doesn’t have a race problem. It’s the “see, we have a Black friend!” argument on a political stage that has insulted the intelligence of voters and made a joke of the process and party platform. The GOP tried this here in Illinois with Richard Irvin. HUGE, embarrassing fail.
    I want to believe ALL voters are too smart for this. But the fact he may still win speaks to the desperation of both the party and the public.

  5. The hypocrisy of so many public Christians is frankly breathtaking.
    If he is a Christian and repented, why lie about it? He should be completely open and honest about these very painful activities in his past. Humiliating? Sure, but it would have allowed him to move forward with a modicum of self respect and dignity. Now he (and his Evangelical Christian supporters) are a laughingstock.
    This kind of behavior is another nail in the coffin of evangelizing America.

    1. Your depiction of hypocrisy here is itself hypocritical. Christians aren’t saying that Walker is right or moral, just that he’s a much better choice than radical abortion proponent Warnock. Why is that so hard to understand? Christians do.

      1. Keith,

        I think what is happening here is that God is testing us. Are we willing to do the right thing, and possibly lose politically? Or do we do what is wrong in order to gain political power “for God”?

        We supported a sex offender and admitted cheat in order to take the White House. We got behind a 10 Commandments judge in Alabama who was credibly accused of sexually grooming small girls.

        We got behind a number of candidates this year who sexually abused women, but had potential of winning for the GOP. One example is where Donald Trump Jr. campaigned for Eric Greitins, former governor of Missouri who resigned after it was discovered that he sexually abused a woman, tied her up, took pictures then blackmailed her into silence. But Trump Jr. says Greitins is a fighter and that acting like Jesus “has gotten us nowhere.”

        Now we have Hershel Walker. He has caused more crisis pregnancies and fathered more children than he has ever admitted. Multiple women claim that he physically abused them, one claiming he held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. His son, a Trump supporter, claims that he threatened his life and his mom’s life, forcing them to move six times in six months. And as we all now know, Walker is pro-abortion, when it conveniences him.

        How about we do what we know is right, and leave the overall results to God?

      2. Keith –
        The problem is how Christians move the needle to justify their decisions. The SAME Christians who attack Democrats for immoral behavior and profane language – and say being of good character is an important part of being a political leader – suddenly do the “I am not voting for a pastor but a leader”, “his sins are between him and God, I’m not here to judge” about face when bad behavior comes from one of their own.
        Be consistent. If you’d be disgusted by Herschel’s lies and immoral character if he were a Democrat, be equally disgusted given he is a Republican.
        And Herschel himself is a hypocrite. He gave these moral grandstanding speeches on absentee fathers in the Black community knowing he is one; he was forced into acknowledging all of his children – and he hasn’t been around to raise them.
        I’ll say it again: if Herschel Walker were a Democrat, Christians would be up in arms, using his track record as proof of questionable morals, decisionmaking, and inauthentic faith. But instead they use “Christianese” language to dodge some obvious red flags and gain political power.
        Herschel was not your only choice. Go back to the primary and ask how the GOP slate went off the rails.

  6. Graham compared HW to Kavanaugh and without realizing how on point he is. HW like Kavanaugh lied on every front, adamantly denied plus committed perjury and mcconnell put him in a seat of major importance JUST to keep GOP in the money/control. The only difference in HW and kavanaugh one can spell his name. seems every republican who got in office from lying or cheating is stomping hard for ol walker, birds of a feather….

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