WASHINGTON (ABP) — United States Senate Chaplain Barry Black has canceled a scheduled appearance at a conference featuring prominent Religious Right activists — and will be replaced by the Southern Baptist Convention's ethics guru.
Black informed organizers of the “Reclaiming America for Christ Conference” Jan. 31 that he would not be appearing, according to a press release from the group.
The release also noted that Richard Land, head of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, would replace Black in the conference line-up.
Black, a Seventh-Day Adventist and former Navy chaplain, has served the spiritual needs of senators and their staffs since 2003. The Senate website describes the chaplain's office as “nonpartisan, nonpolitical, and nonsectarian.”
However, it also says: “During the past 207 years, all sessions of the Senate have been opened with prayer, strongly affirming the Senate's faith in God as Sovereign Lord of our Nation.”
Coral Ridge Ministries is hosting the March 2-3 meeting, to be held at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Both organizations were founded by D. James Kennedy, one of the elder statesmen of the Religious Right.
Black's decision not to attend the meeting was first reported Feb. 1 by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.
The decision reportedly came after Black discovered that other featured speakers at the conference included controversial conservative author Ann Coulter, Frank Pavone of the Catholic anti-abortion group Priests for Life, Tony Perkins of the Family Research and longtime conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.
“He was not happy, particularly in light of the fact that in the beginning … we were not given the full information,” Meg Saunders, the chaplain's spokeswoman, told Roll Call.
Black's decision also came on the same day that watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent him a letter asking him to pull out of the conference.
In the letter, AU head Barry Lynn noted the non-sectarian, non-partisan nature of Black's office and the religiously diverse constituency he must serve. He said Kennedy's group does “not recognize or value this diversity. Rather, he argues that certain types of Christians — those who agree with his interpretation of the Bible — are the rightful owners of the country and that the nation must be 'reclaimed.'”
The press release from Coral Ridge Ministries noted that the group was “sorely disappointed that Dr. Black, a good and godly man, has felt it necessary to cancel his long-scheduled appearance” and said it was “a missed opportunity to benefit from his thoughts on the intersection of Christian faith and public service.”
It also disputed Black's spokesperson's contention that the invitation that Coral Ridge extended to Black did not adequately describe the conference. The group published the Oct., 2005 letter it sent the chaplain asking him to speak.
The letter described the event as a “grassroots training conference” to “specifically inform, train and equip Christians to be salt and light in their own communities.” It said Black's speech “would encourage individual involvement to help restore our God-given freedoms and to defend and implement the biblical principles on which our country was founded.”
-30-