Authors Andrew L. Seidel
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I'm getting a lot of questions about the prayer before the #ImpeachmentTrial at the Senate. This #THREAD has your answers.
The prayer is given by Senate Chaplain Barry Black. Yes, the Senate has a chaplain. Yes, your tax dollars pay his salary. And the numbers are shocking:
I wrote about this back in 2016. https://t.co/vdc8EGhxPW
From 2000-2015, Congress spent more than $10 million on prayers, the vast majority of which are to the Christian god (more than 96% of prayers in the House were Christian).
The Senate Rules give the chaplain ONE job: to pray.
https://t.co/6dEjnnfy0x
Do chaplains do other things? Sure. But they're paid to pray. The claim that they accommodate the religious freedom of Members of Congress may have made sense when DC was an unpopulated swamp...
...but not in an age where houses of worship are on every street corner in DC and when members can zoom with religious counselors of their choice back home or anywhere else. Religious consolation is easy to find.
They chaplains are paid to pray.
And they are paid an awful lot.
The House Chaplain makes $172,500 (2018)
The Senate Chaplain makes $160,787 (2018)
Again, their only job is to say the opening prayer.
https://t.co/a3YrOqPgOZ
The prayer is given by Senate Chaplain Barry Black. Yes, the Senate has a chaplain. Yes, your tax dollars pay his salary. And the numbers are shocking:
I wrote about this back in 2016. https://t.co/vdc8EGhxPW
From 2000-2015, Congress spent more than $10 million on prayers, the vast majority of which are to the Christian god (more than 96% of prayers in the House were Christian).
The Senate Rules give the chaplain ONE job: to pray.
https://t.co/6dEjnnfy0x
Do chaplains do other things? Sure. But they're paid to pray. The claim that they accommodate the religious freedom of Members of Congress may have made sense when DC was an unpopulated swamp...
...but not in an age where houses of worship are on every street corner in DC and when members can zoom with religious counselors of their choice back home or anywhere else. Religious consolation is easy to find.
They chaplains are paid to pray.
And they are paid an awful lot.
The House Chaplain makes $172,500 (2018)
The Senate Chaplain makes $160,787 (2018)
Again, their only job is to say the opening prayer.
https://t.co/a3YrOqPgOZ