Thursday, October 10, 2013
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Senate Chaplain Barry Black poses for a portrait in his office on Capital Hill in Washington Friday, July 9, 2010. (Drew Angerer/AP)
As the government shutdown continues, Barry Black, the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate and a rear admiral in the United States Navy, is no longer straddling the middle.
He calls the delay of death benefits to the families of recently killed service members “incomprehensible.”
Black told Here & Now‘s Robin Young that his 27-year service as a chaplain in the Navy and Marines has made the issue of death benefits resonate with him. One of his duties was to tell the family when a soldier died.
“I know what it feels like to be reading the newspapers searching for an understanding of what kind of support and back up you’re receiving from your government, so the idea of adding wait to the burden of grieving families is, to me, unthinkable,” Black said. “There comes a time when it doesn’t matter who is right or wrong.”
Guest
Barry Black, chaplain of the United States Senate.
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October 10, 2013
Transcript
ROBIN YOUNG, HOST:
Well, the private foundation Fisher House has stepped in to make up for those stalled benefits to families of service members killed in action. The group will be reimbursed when the shutdown ends. And the Tampa Bay Special Ops Warrior Foundation will also present an additional $20,000 to the families of troops killed in Afghanistan over the weekend.
There has been outrage over the delay of the so-called death gratuities to help families, and yesterday the Senate chaplain, retired Navy Rear Admiral Barry Black, let loose on lawmakers in his opening prayer.
BARRY BLACK: Lord, when our federal shutdown delays payments of death benefits to the families of children dying on faraway battlefields, it's time for our lawmakers to say enough is enough.
YOUNG: And Chaplain Barry Black joins us now. Chaplain Black, you've been gently scolding lawmakers in the prayer over the shutdown but this was specific.
BLACK: Well, I think it engendered an empathy more intense than anything I've felt so far. I spent 27 years serving in the Navy and Marine Corps. One of my responsibilities was to inform the next of kin when there was a loss of the loved one. I know the trauma that that causes.
I also have been deployed. I've been in harm's way. I know what it feels like to be reading the newspapers searching for an understanding of what kind of support and backup you're receiving from your government. So the idea of adding weight to the burden of grieving families is, to me, unthinkable. It's just an absolutely incomprehensible thing for me.
So it does engender an intense empathy because I've been there, I've done that, and I have the T-shirt.
YOUNG: What would you say to people who say look, they have to see what it is, that this is what government is: it's payments to the families of dead troops, it's inspectors being called back because of a salmonella scare. You can't cherry-pick which you're going to restore? And then there are the other people who say the shutdown is good because we have too much government. What do you say to them?
BLACK: Well, the French philosopher and mathematician Pascal once said the heart has reasons that the mind can't understand. There comes a time to get beyond logic. There's a wonderful Bible verse in the Jewish scriptures, Isaiah Chapter 1, Verse 18, where God says to human beings come down, let us put an end to reason.
There are boundaries that are so sacrosanct that you don't cross them. And the care of our children who are giving the last full measure of devotion, you don't cross that boundary. I was saying to one journalist, I was talking about "The Godfather" movie and the back-and-forth and brinksmanship that took place in that very violent movie. But then the son of the don was killed, Santino, and the don said, the Marlon Brando character, he said this war is over.
There comes a time when it doesn't matter who is right or wrong, as Tina Turner sang in one of her songs, I don't care who's right or wrong, I don't want to fight anymore.
Don Corleone is right: this war should end.
YOUNG: Boy, it's rare when I hear references to Tina Turner, "The Godfather," Isaiah and Pascal in the same paragraph. We just did. By the way, have senators come to you for private consultation on the shutdown?
BLACK: Yes, yes, I've had - sitting in the office for over an hour talking to individual senators. And then there's a weekly prayer breakfast where 20 to 25 senators come together from both sides of the aisle and fellowship together and listen to a lawmaker talk about his or her personal faith pilgrimage and actually pray together at the end of each of the prayer breakfasts. And so...
YOUNG: Well, then, what's wrong, then, Chaplain, that we don't ever feel that they are doing anything together?
BLACK: Well, the legislative process can be cumbersome. It is adversarial by nature. But at some point in the legislative process, you know, hopefully you're going to have bipartisan cooperation. Hopefully you're going to have enough people saying let's find some common ground, and let's get this thing done.
YOUNG: By the way, do you think in the coming days you might get up and pray that legislators restore Head Start benefits? Because they seem to be, you know, listening to you. Harry Reid, who of course would want that to happen, he wants the shutdown to end, but he was said to be really listening intently to you, and he got up and he commented on what you said. And do you think you might pick other issues?
BLACK: Well, I'm not going to cherry-pick in my prayers, if that's what you're asking. No, I mean, you're not going to delay the death benefits of young people giving their lives and have a chaplain who spent 27 years serving them and have him get up and pray a now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep-I-pray-the-lord-my-soul-to-keep prayer, I'm sorry.
You know, no, I apologize if that looked like I was isolating, you know, one issue, but that is just too important to me. It's the death of Santino for me. It's the this war should end for me. It's the enough is enough for me.
YOUNG: By the way, we should mention you're a federal employee. You're not being paid.
BLACK: No, that's correct.
YOUNG: Admiral Barry Black, chaplain for the United States Senate. Chaplain Black, thanks for speaking with us.
BLACK: Thank you so much, Robin, it's my pleasure.
YOUNG: And when we come back, Jeremy Hobson has the view of the shutdown from Phoenix, Arizona. You're listening to HERE AND NOW. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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