Senate Chaplain Barry Black is hopeful some divine intervention might encourage U.S. senators to bring the government shutdown to a swift end.
On Monday, Black offered a brief ― but pointed ― prayer from the Senate floor in which he told senators, “No gold medals are given for breaking shutdown records.”
“Eternal God, our king, when our children and grandchildren want to know what we were doing in the 119th Congress during the famous shutdown, may we not have to give these answers: ‘I helped set a new record for keeping the government closed,’ ‘I failed to appeal to the better angels of my nature,’” he said, as seen in video footage shared by Forbes.
Watch a clip of Barry Black’s Oct. 27 prayer below.
Black went on to cite Matthew 7:12, which states, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.”
“This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and prophets,” he said. “Lord, remind our lawmakers that no gold medals are given for breaking shutdown records, but a crown of righteousness is given to those who take care of the lost, last and least. We pray in your loving name. Amen.”
Black, who has served since 2003, has alluded to the shutdown numerous times in his prayers for the past several weeks ― though he notably came across more urgently in his words Monday.
“During this time of legislative stalemate, help our lawmakers to test all things by their own consciences, seeking to do right as you give them the ability to see it,” he said Oct. 1, the first day of the shutdown.
Now in its 27th day, the current government shutdown is the second longest in U.S. history. If it stretches past Nov. 4, it will officially surpass the most recent shutdown ― which lasted 34 days across the holiday season, from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 24, 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term ― to become the longest.