This past Sabbath, February 17, the Berean SDA Church in Atlanta, Georgia, lavishly honored Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney best known for having hired her (married) boyfriend to work on her crackpot case against President Trump.
The leadership of the Berean Church apparently found no impediment to honoring Willis (as part of black history month) in the admitted fact that Willis engaged in a long-running affair with a married man, Nathan W. Wade, and broke up Wade’s marriage.
Wade and Willis met at a judicial conference in October, 2019. In November, 2021, Willis hired Wade to ramrod her RICO case (Racketeer-Influence and Corrupt Organizations) against President Trump (because he complained too bitterly about the obvious theft of his election victory in Georgia). Exactly one day after Willis hired him, Wade filed for divorce from his wife of more than 20 years, Joycelyn.
Willis and Wade denied that they were already involved sexually when she hired him, but Robin Bryant Yeartie, a friend and colleague of Willis’, testified that Willis told her that she and Wade were romantically involved before Willis hired him to oversee the case. Yeartie said she saw the couple hug, kiss and be affectionate just weeks after they met in 2019.
Wade had no experience with RICO cases, was not a specialist in criminal law, and had never prosecuted a felony criminal case. His firm, Wade & Campbell, touts his areas of emphasis as family law and plaintiff’s personal injury law:
“Whether you are in need of representation after a major car accident or are going through a change in your personal life that requires representation with a family law issue; whether you have a contract dispute, or whether you are involved in any type of civil litigation, Nathan J. Wade will be a zealous advocate for you.”
Despite having no expertise in the relevant areas of law, Willis hired Wade at the rate of $250 per hour (a typical rate—but other lawyers with actual expertise in RICO cases were being paid $100 per hour) and Wade would bill almost 3,000 hours (18 months of very full-time work) in the past two years and three months, for a total of about $730,000.
As the divorce case between Nathan Wade and his wife, Joycelyn Wade, neared a climax, it emerged that Wade and Willis took several trips together, including a Caribbean cruise, a trip to Aruba, and a trip to the Napa Valley in California.
So it would appear that Willis (1) engaged in an affair with a married man, breaking up his marriage, (2) hired her boyfriend to “manage” a case he was not qualified to lead, funneling some three-quarters of a million of Fulton County money to him, and (3) personally benefited from the money she paid him, through vacation trips and a cruise.
That is the background to what happened last Sabbath.
What happened last Sabbath? The morning worship of God was suspended for 20 minutes while the congregation worshiped Fanni Willis.
She was given the pulpit of several minutes to say whatever she wanted. She was given an acrylic monument of some sort, she was given flowers, and she was given a Conflict of the Ages set of books. She was held up before a large Seventh-day Adventist congregation as being someone to admire and honor, a great person.
This raises a lot of questions. Why did no one in the leadership of the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, e.g., the senior pastor, Dr. Sherwin Jack, say, “Yes, she is a prominent black elected official, and we absolutely love how hard she is working to destroy Donald Trump, but her personal life as a homewrecker excludes her from being honored in our sanctuary”?
Does sexual morality matter at all in black Christianity? In black Adventism? Where does Dr. Jack stand on homewrecking? Is it usually bad, but okay for district attorneys whose politics we agree with?
There’s a lot involved here, but it would take another long article to even begin to unpack it.
Below is the video. The Fani Willis portion begins at the 35 minute mark:
Here are short videos cut out of the longer service.
He who commits adultery is senseless.
Doing so, he destroys himself.
He is wounded and disgraced.
His shame will never be wiped away. Prov. 6:32-33