Senate chaplain says lawmakers must ‘move beyond thoughts and prayers’ after Tenn. shooting

On the Senate floor, Retired Army Major General Barry C. Black, the longtime chaplain of the House, said three of the victims of Monday’s shooting at a Covenant school in Nashville were nine-year-olds. alluded to.

“Lord, when a baby dies in a church school, it’s time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers,” declared Black in his distinctive baritone. I would like lawmakers to remember Burke’s words: ‘All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.'”

Black added: Use them to fight the demonic forces trying to overwhelm us. I pray in your mighty name, Amen. ”

The prayer was a very penetrating call to action from the pastor, a “nonpartisan, nonpolitical, nonsectarian” elected senator. In addition to initiating daily prayer sessions and holding weekly Senate prayer breakfasts, the pastor provides “spiritual counseling and guidance to members and staff,” according to the Senate website, and theological help with any questions.

Black has been a Senate chaplain since 2003 and has spent 20 years on the floor, Service to the late Senator Robert J. Dole Before the session with (R-Kan.) first impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. During the latter, Black said to God, “Remind our senators that they alone are responsible to you for their actions…that they cannot get around it by ignoring you.” Remind us, we always reap what we sow.

Black did not immediately respond to a request for an interview on Tuesday.

At about the same time Black called for action in the Senate, members of the House of Representatives were showing a polarized response to the recent school shooting.

When asked his thoughts on the Nashville shootings, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R, Laos), who himself was seriously injured in the 2017 shootings, said he wanted to support victims and their families. He dismissed the gun control debate, saying he prayed for

“It really pisses me off when I see people trying to politicize it for their own personal agenda, especially when we don’t even know the facts,” Scalise said on Tuesday. told reporters. “Everything that seems to be on the other side [Democrats] You want law-abiding citizens to take their guns away before they know the truth…that’s not the answer, by the way. ”

Shortly after, in the press conference that followed, House Democrats renewed their call for a “meaningful gun safety law.”

“Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-California) told reporters that families must feel safe sending their children to school. “But for this to happen we need rational Republicans at the negotiating table. It’s maddening that we can’t find a handful of Republicans.” [who] He is willing to put people on the extreme right over extremism. ”

Azi Paybarah contributed to this report.