{"id":22461,"date":"2024-05-24T14:39:15","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T18:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=22461"},"modified":"2024-05-24T14:39:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T18:39:15","slug":"us-senate-chaplain-criticized-for-offering-up-prayers-for-those-mourning-iranian-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/us-senate-chaplain-criticized-for-offering-up-prayers-for-those-mourning-iranian-president","title":{"rendered":"US Senate Chaplain Criticized For Offering Up Prayers For Those Mourning Iranian President"},"content":{"rendered":"
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khamenei.ir \/ Wikimedia Commons | Inset: Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

US Senate Chaplain Barry Black<\/a> responded to criticism after he offered up a prayer<\/a> for Iranian people \u201cwho mourn the death of their president.\u201d Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash on May 19, along with several other officials. The exact cause of the crash remains unknown. Black\u2019s prayer received criticism, as Raisi was also known as \u201cthe Butcher of Tehran,\u201d having been instrumental in the murder of as many as 5,000 political prisoners in 1988. The Fulcrum<\/a> compared Black\u2019s prayer \u201cto praying for the Germans who mourned the death of Hitler, or the Russians who mourned the death of Stalin, or the Chinese who mourned the death of Mao, etc., etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to CBN News<\/a>, Black stated he felt compelled to show compassion for the Iranian people as they mourned their president. \u201cThat same Christ, when crucified, the first words from His lips were words that said, \u2018Forgive them. They know not what they do.\u2019 He was praying for His executioners,\u201d said Black. He added that Jesus \u201cnot only admonished that we pray even for enemies, but He demonstrated it as He was being crucified for those who nailed Him to the cross.\u201d He described his decision as an act of obedience. \u201cI am basically doing what my boss, Jesus, has commissioned me to do. [Christ] is the model. He prayed in the upper room when one of His own was about to betray Him. He was about to be betrayed, and then He washed His betrayer\u2019s feet. I just felt that, as a Christian preacher, I was filled with compassion for the Iranian people I saw on TV. There were people that were crying out to their God, that this accident, they didn\u2019t have clarity about,\u201d he said. Black isn\u2019t alone in offering condolences to the Iranian people. The UN, NATO, and the US State Department offered official condolences<\/a>, to the criticism of many.<\/p>\n

While Raisi was buried four days after the crash<\/a>, with large crowds being shown mourning, his critics and those who were impacted by his political executions may have less of an avenue to express their derision. Esmat Vatanparast<\/a>, who lost 11 family members during the political executions, celebrated Raisi\u2019s death. \u201cMy happiness has no limits. Today is a beautiful day for the people of Iran,\u201d she told RFE\/RL’s Radio Farda, a station which seeks to bring uncensored news to the people of Iran. Vatanparast fled to Sweden after her family members\u2019 deaths. Dadban, an Iranian group of lawyers that represents Iranian political prisoners, wrote on X<\/a> that it had received reports of Iranians being told to take down posts and sign celebrating the death of Raisi. Iranian expatriates can be seen in various other countries celebrating Raisi\u2019s death. \u201cI’m happy at this moment because a symbol of murder is gone,\u201d former political prisoner Mehdi Aslani told Radio Farda. \u201cI would be lying if I said the news of the death of this executioner did not bring me joy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Senate Chaplain Barry Black responded to criticism after he offered up a prayer for Iranian people \u201cwho mourn the death of their president.\u201d Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash on May 19, along with several other officials. The exact cause of the crash remains unknown. Black\u2019s prayer received criticism, as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":22467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nUS Senate Chaplain Criticized For Offering Up Prayers For Those Mourning Iranian President<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash on May 19, along with several other officials.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/us-senate-chaplain-criticized-for-offering-up-prayers-for-those-mourning-iranian-president\" \/>\n<meta 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