Senate Chaplain Calls Upon Christian Powers To Overturn Congress
Barry C. Black is a professional Christian preacher who is paid by the United States Senate to be one of only two official government religious officials. It takes some chutzpah, then, for Chaplain Black to rise before the Senate and encourage a religious rebellion against the legislative government.
Yet, that’s exactly what Barry C. Black did, using his official, government-sponsored morning prayer yesterday. He called upon the source of the mystical, supernatural powers that Christianity claims for its own to intrude into the halls of the U.S. Congress, and overturn everything that does not suit its desires:
“Lord, keep them from disunity, ignited by selfish fires, that will hinder Your purposes in our world. Pardon and overrule what has been left undone or done amiss as You strengthen all that has been worthily achieved.”
The American people were supposed to have left all lords behind when it broke from the English monarchy. As for the intervention of some divinity from Eurasia who has veto power over the U.S. Senate, well, that’s not a very democratic idea, is it?
Barry C. Black’s mere presence as a government-established, tax-funded religious preacher is a profound violation of the Constitution’s required separation of church and state. If I were Preacher Black, I wouldn’t push it with declarations about how my religion’s god is going to come into Congress and destroy any laws he doesn’t like.
re “violation of separation of powers” — while I agree with your contention, the reality is otherwise and your up-tightness about this alleged “violation” amounts to the flogging of the proverbial dead horse. Meanwhile, I don’t like the naming of the Episcopal Cathedral in Wash DC as the “National Cathedral.” — There is NO ‘cathedral’ for our nation no more than there is a Mosque, people!
NOTE:
“The constitutionality of the chaplains’ prayers was upheld in 1983 by the Supreme
Court (Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783) on the grounds of precedent and tradition. The
Court cited the practice going back to the Continental Congress in 1774 and noted that the
custom “is deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country” from colonial
times and the founding of the republic. Further, the Court held that the use of prayer “has
become part of the fabric of our society,” coexisting with “the principles of
disestablishment and religious freedom.”