By: Charlene Aaron
US Senate Chaplain Barry Black knows what it is like to pray about political differences in our nation’s capital.
As the 62nd chaplain of the Senate, Black is the spiritual leader for some of the most powerful people in the country. He pastors 100 senators and he ministers to hundreds more in Washington, DC.
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As protests and riots continue following the deaths of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, Chaplain Black is also praying about the need for healing and change in America.
“We have had challenges with race almost from the start because when we said all people are created equal, we were not talking about, certainly not people of African heritage,” Black told CBN News. “And so, we have had to work toward a more perfect union.”
During a recent opening prayer in the Senate, Black referenced recent officer-involved shootings and the need to sympathize with those affected.
He believes that is something that Christ would do.
“I think that our Lord and our God has a passion for the marginalized,” explained Black. “In the judgment story in Matthew 25, how do you make a difference in the lives of the marginalized? Did you feed the hungry? Did you give water to the thirsty? Did you clothe the naked? Visit the sick, minister to the incarcerated. And then did you take care of the stranger? So, God has this passion for the marginalized and the oppressed.”
As hate, sin, and despair fill the streets, Black is calling for a spiritual vaccine.
“I think that people of faith need to be thinking about spiritual health and that is a vaccine that will help eviscerate hate, eviscerate arrogance, eviscerate pride, and teach us how to fulfill the entire law,” he said.
Black believes that love is the needed inoculation.
He said, “Galatians 5:14 says you fulfill the entire law, wow, when you love your neighbor as yourself,” said Black. “That really is the vaccine. If we could only learn, teach, positively reinforce people in such a way that they actually grew in spiritual maturity in health until they love their neighbor as they love themselves. You love your neighbor as yourself then you’re down there with a knee on your neck in Minneapolis when you watch the George Floyd tragedy.”
Despite the unrest across the country, Black says there are signs that God is at work.
“I firmly believe in the truths of Romans 8:28, in everything God is working for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purposes. And I firmly believe that there are a lot of people who love God in this great nation of ours,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chaplain is urging Christians to embrace the Biblical mandate found in 2 Chronicles 7:14, which calls for humility and repentance as the way forward.
“If every born again believer would pray daily 2 Chronicles 7:14 and then do their part in that promise, ’cause it’s an ‘if-then’ promise, we would bring about a revival in this nation that would dwarf the Great Awakening in the earlier days,” said Black. “That is what I pray for and that is what I think people called by the name of Jesus Christ should pray for as well.”