It’s not every day that the United States Senate gets handed a moral reckoning before it even starts business.

On the 27th day of the ongoing government shutdown, Senate Chaplain Barry Black took to the floor with a prayer that did not mince words — urging lawmakers to reflect on their responsibilities, invoking Scripture, and warning against prideful gridlock, as Breitbart reports.

His remarks came Monday as tensions continued to escalate over the stalemate, which now inches perilously close to breaking the record 35-day shutdown from 2018 — a record no one should be seeking to surpass.

Chaplain Calls Out Lawmakers With Pointed Prayer

Black, who has served as Senate chaplain since 2003, used Monday’s opening invocation to take direct aim at the dysfunction gripping the chamber. Without naming names, he condemned the inaction fueling the impasse as a failure of both morality and leadership.

“Eternal God, our King,” Black began, before laying into Congress with the kind of clarity few elected officials seem willing to muster.

“When our children and grandchildren want to know what we were doing in the 19th Congress during the famous shutdown,” he prayed, “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. I forgot Matthew 7:12.”

Biblical Standards, Real-World Consequences

Matthew 7:12, the verse Black referenced, is one many Americans learned as children: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Apparently, some in Congress need a refresher course in elementary biblical ethics.

Black didn’t stop there. He went on to admonish lawmakers for chasing headlines over solutions, saying, “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.”

This isn’t Black’s first spiritual intervention. He previously rebuked Congress during the 2013 shutdown after the government failed to issue timely death benefits for fallen soldiers — a national embarrassment that needed no embellishment.

Political Gridlock Shows No Sign of Budging

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Monday called for Senate Democrats to put country over political messaging and bring the shutdown to a close.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, holding fast to progressive priorities, has rejected efforts at a clean continuing resolution (CR). Democrats, as usual, oppose compromise when it doesn't advance their agenda.

And while House Republicans and the President push past ceremonial talking points, the Democratic playbook is to prolong the pain in hopes of extracting political oxygen from the crisis.

Morality Versus Messaging In The Senate

Black’s words hit like a thunderclap precisely because they cut through the spin. When a nonpartisan minister of the Senate feels led to publicly rebuke elected officials, it’s no longer just “politics as usual.”

These aren’t obscure policy disagreements about line items and funding formulas. Millions of American livelihoods hang in the balance while political leaders squabble over ideological trophies.

Black’s consistent focus on compassion and conscience shouldn’t be ignored — especially coming from someone who has stood above the partisan fray for more than two decades.

The High Cost of Dysfunction Grows

There’s a reason government shutdowns aren’t celebrated — they’re symbols of systemic failure. Unfortunately, too many lawmakers are more concerned with talking points for cable TV than serving the people who sent them to Washington.

While federal workers go without pay, vital services stall, and global confidence in American governance wanes, some in Washington are playing chicken with Americans’ economic stability.

It’s a shame when we need the Senate chaplain to do what the Senate won’t — put principles over politics and call out the absurdity of Congress applauding itself for doing nothing.