Barry C. Black, who celebrates 20 years as Senate chaplain on Wednesday, says he feels free to speak his mind in ministering to — and sometimes admonishing — the 100 lawmakers who make up the core of his spiritual service on Capitol Hill.
“I think I am nonpartisan,” Mr. Black said in an interview with The Washington Times. “With the lawmakers, I’m not expected to put my mind in neutral and not express my opinion about various issues. So I’m able to do that and share with them, and I love the opportunity to participate in the great conversation.”
Mr. Black, who turns 75 in November, scored a number of firsts by becoming the Senate’s 62nd chaplain in 2003. He is the first Black man, the first military chaplain and the first Seventh-day Adventist pastor to hold the position.
His daily ritual of opening the Senate in prayer — along with occasional guest clerics — usually consists of asking for divine guidance on behalf of the legislators as they debate various issues. He is perhaps best known for his assortment of bow ties, his stentorian voice and his ability to deliver a 20-minute sermon without notes. Those attributes, plus his military bearing, are more than enough to make him stand out in a crowd.
As Senate chaplain, Mr. Black can call out obstinate sides during a government shutdown, as he did in 2013. By the 11th day of that shutdown, his prayer was for God to “give our lawmakers the wisdom to distinguish between truth and error. … Give them a hatred of all hypocrisy, deceit and shame as they seek to replace them with gentleness, patience and truth.”
“My philosophy is, you find a venue in which you can use your God-given abilities and talents, and you will never work another day in your life,” Mr. Black told The Times.
Asked about his “congregation” — the senators, their hundreds of staff and Senate employees — the chaplain said meeting the needs of a religiously diverse community is not as difficult as it might appear. Mr. Black said Jewish senators and staff members embrace the same Hebrew Scriptures as the early Christian disciples, and Muslims have a commonality with Abraham and his son Ishmael.
“The Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism has a golden rule: What you don’t want, you don’t do to someone else,” he said. “The challenge of providing ministry and support to people from varied backgrounds and religious traditions is not as daunting as it may seem.”
Despite denominational differences and even divergence among the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, a love of country and a dedication to serve unite those working in the Senate and those elected to the chamber, Mr. Black said.
“There is a genuine love for country, a genuine patriotism, a genuine desire to protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Mr. Black said. “And the lawmakers take an oath to that, and the members of their staff are supporting that.
“I’m a Christian facilitating for those who may not embrace Christianity in an overt way but still have many of the principles of Christianity in their sacred Scriptures,” he added.
Mr. Black was selected for the Senate post in 2003 as his 27-year career as a Navy chaplain drew to a close. A rear admiral, he was the chief of naval chaplains, supervising 1,000 chaplains and tending to the spiritual needs of people from 190 religious traditions.
Chaplaincy call came early
Mr. Black entered the Seventh-day Adventist ministry in 1972 after attending the denomination’s Oakwood College (now Oakwood University) in Huntsville, Alabama, and its theological seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan. He later earned master’s and doctoral degrees in ministry and psychology at North Carolina Central University, Palmer Theological Seminary and Alliant International University.
He served churches in North and South Carolina, including a congregation in Durham, North Carolina, where several unusual visitors sparked his interest in military ministry.
“There were about four sailors who would drive from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to Durham to regularly attend my worship service,” he said. “I asked them, ‘Why in the world would you drive hours to come to church?’ And they said, ‘In the military, we’ve never seen an African American chaplain.’ So that was one of the things that made me interested in maybe changing that situation for them.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Church opposes combat. The church encourages its members who enter the armed forces to seek noncombatant roles, such as medics, but it has an active program to sponsor clergy as military chaplains. Mr. Black was recruited for that program and became a Navy chaplain in 1976.
The transition to the Senate, he said, included education about the legislative process from the inside. Without naming individuals or specifics, Mr. Black recalled a time just weeks into his first two-year term as chaplain when a senator commented about a hotly debated issue on the floor.
The senator told him that much of the talk was for public consumption and predicted the actual vote a day ahead of the roll call. Mr. Black said the lawmaker’s prophecy came to pass exactly as stated.
“I realized that a lot of what I saw was scripted. And the outcomes were known with a specificity that I never anticipated,” he said. “That’s one of the major things I’ve learned.”
Another challenge has been ministering to his charges when one or more are involved in a presidential run. In 2008, he said, five senators — including nominees John McCain and Barack Obama — made bids for the Oval Office. Sens. Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton and Joseph R. Biden rounded out the Democratic primary field that year.
“I had a friendly relationship with both of them, so it was very, very interesting,” Mr. Black said. “Sen. McCain, with his Navy background, [was] a very, very special friend. And then, of course, Sen. Obama.”
He said Mr. Biden is “a very good friend. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him.”
He calls his two decades on Capitol Hill a “providential” appointment but says his long tenure was unanticipated.
“When I came, if someone had told me that I would be here for two decades, I would have thought they had inhaled something illegal. I never intended that at all.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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