Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black, a retired Rear Admiral, offered what sounded like his personal opinion mixed in with his opening prayer on Tuesday. It may not be particularly unusual for a religious figure to weigh in on a political issue these days but when that person holds a special place in the U.S. Senate, he or she should strive to stay in their lane. Deliver an opening prayer, not a political policy suggestion.
Black has been in his position as Senate Chaplain for twenty years. Maybe he’s reached the point when he should retire. The mass murder in the small private school in Nashville on Monday weighed heavily on everyone across the country. The murders of three nine-year-old children and two adults, plus the murderer, was a shocking news story. However, adding to the horrible reality was the immediate politicization of the event. Some people blamed Christians and turned the transgender shooter into the true victim of the tragedy, and some people blamed guns. The immediate default position of gun-grabbing progressives is to immediately call for Congress to pass new legislation restricting the purchase of guns. The Senate Chaplain fell into the second category.
It is not unreasonable to think that’s not his job. He’s entitled to his personal political opinions, as we all are, but while he is fulfilling his professional duties he is expected to keep those to himself. When someone starts talking about gun control, no matter how veiled the talk is, everyone knows which political party is being targeted.
On the Senate floor, the chamber’s longtime chaplain, retired Rear Adm. Barry C. Black, alluded to the fact that three of the victims in the Monday shooting at the Covenant School were 9-year-old students.
“Lord, when babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers,” Black declared in his distinctive baritone. “Remind our lawmakers of the words of the British statesman Edmund Burke: ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.’”
Black added: “Lord, deliver our senators from the paralysis of analysis that waits for the miraculous. Use them to battle the demonic forces that seek to engulf us. We pray, in your powerful name, amen.”
I’ll get picky here and say that not only is there no proof that Burke ever delivered that quote in any of his work but the quote attributed to him does not include “good people” but “good men.” Black even went the woke language way of canceling men in favor of generic people. Sad.
“When babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers. Remind our lawmakers of the words of the British statesman Edmund Burke: ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.'”
— Senate @Chaplain_Black #Nashvile pic.twitter.com/7nP11shNmR
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) March 28, 2023
Minimizing offering thoughts and prayers is a common snark delivered by progressives. Isn’t it a little odd for a chaplain to do that? That’s what happens when politics pollutes religion. I kept an eye on Senator Patty Murray who was standing there with Black. I wanted to see if her facial expression changed when he said what he did at the very beginning of his prayer. It looked like she played it cool.
Anyway, this isn’t the first time his words have made me raise an eyebrow. Perhaps the longer he’s on the job, the more relaxed he feels and mistakes happen. That would be a generous interpretation in this case, though. This slam wasn’t a mistake, it was what he intended to say and he started the prayer off with it.
The position of Senate Chaplain is a “nonpartisan, nonpolitical and nonsectarian” one.
Black has served since 2003 as Senate chaplain, a “nonpartisan, nonpolitical and nonsectarian” elected officer of the Senate. In addition to opening daily sessions with a prayer and holding a weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, the chaplain provides “spiritual counseling and guidance to members and staff” and assists them with theological questions, according to the Senate website.
When the video clip began circulating Tuesday and criticism came in, Black justified his breach by saying he’s only human.
“I am a human being who is reacting to the horrific [events] that all Americans, most Americans, are seeing,” Black said. “And this has been a priority of mine that we do better at attempting to solve this problem.”
When asked to clarify his position, Black quoted no fewer than three poets, two historic figures and four Bible verses, including the New Testament’s James 2 (“Faith without works is dead”) and the “Parable of the Four Soils.” He also cited the civil rights movement, noting that during the more than half-century between Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, civil rights leaders tried everything they could, even if it did not immediately result in institutional change.
“They kept striving, and that’s all I am attempting to say. It is not enough to expect the miraculous without our participating in making the miraculous happen,” he said. “If we keep planting, yes, there will continue to be setbacks, but, eventually, we will find good soil, as Matthew Chapter 13 puts it, and we will see a harvest that is more than we could have possibly anticipated.”
Later, Black added: “I am calling for problem solving — that’s what is accurate to say. And however that is done, let’s get it done.”
As far as he could recall, Black said, there had not been a major shooting he had not at least acknowledged on the Senate floor in his two decades as the chamber’s chaplain, even if he did not devote an entire prayer to it. He had, in fact, already commented on the Nashville shooting in Monday’s prayer, but he said it remained in his heart as he was writing Tuesday’s prayer, about five minutes before he was set to deliver it.
It sounds like the chaplain needs to resign and either run for political office or head up a social justice organization. Thank him for his service and tell him it’s time to move on. Let the Senate vote for a new chaplain.
