SAUL GONZALEZ, correspondent: If growing old means growing slow, well then 89-year-old Delmar Holbrooke hasn’t gotten the memo.

DELMAR HOLBROOKE: I’m really getting ready for 90, “the big 9-0.” My family is already planning it. I am going to ski up at Mountain High early in the morning, come down and play a round of golf, and then head out to the beach to surf.

GONZALEZ: You’re not a sit on the couch kind of guy?

HOLBROOKE: No way.

GONZALEZ: Holbrooke credits his energy to a life of exercise and healthy eating, but also his faith.

(to Holbrooke): Would you be as healthy as you are, in your opinion, without your faith?

HOLBROOKE: Oh, no, no. I am what I am because of my faith. To me that is just as clear as can be.

GONZALEZ: Like many other residents of Loma Linda, California, Holbrooke is a Seventh-day Adventist. That’s the Christian denomination that observes the Sabbath on Saturday. Adventists also emphasize a healthy diet and lifestyle as important expressions of their faith, and because of that emphasis, researchers say Adventists often have remarkably good health.

PROFESSOR LARRY BEESON (Loma Linda University): Adventists have an evidence of living longer and dying at a later age. They die of the diseases of the general population, but at a much later age—eight, ten years later.

GONZALEZ: Larry Beeson is an associate professor of public health and epidemiology at Loma Linda University. It’s a health and science institute affiliated with Seventh-day Adventists that’s been studying members of the faith since 1958.

(to Beeson): And they get to that age…?

BEESON: …through a variety of different things. It’s not just one thing. It is their religious—how they relate to God and their fellow man, their diet, their exercise, their avoidance of tobacco and alcohol. All of that collectively contributes to longevity.

GONZALEZ: And because it has such a high percentage of Adventists who live long and active lives, researchers have dubbed Loma Linda one of five so-called health Blue Zones in the world.

BEESON: A Blue Zone is just an area where there is an unusual occurrence or more than what we would expect of people who live to be the late 90s, early 100s.

GONZALEZ: Diet seems to be especially important to Adventists’ good health and long life expectancy. Nearly 30 percent of Seventh-day Adventists practice some form of vegetarianism compared to only about three percent for the US population as a whole. In fact, at many Adventist institutions, such as the Loma Linda Health Center, only vegetarian meals are served.

PASTOR DANIEL MATHEWS(Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists): I do follow a plant-based diet and have followed a vegetarian diet all my life, and I know you and all your viewers are going to look at me strangely, but I never tasted any meat.

GONZALEZ: Dan Mathews is a third-generation Seventh-day Adventist and a pastor. We talked to him about the connection between diet, health, and religious belief within his faith tradition.

MATHEWS: Genesis 21:29 states that God gave mankind grains and fruits and nuts and herbs bearing seeds—the initiation of a plant-based diet. To not take care of our bodies, which is a part of the stewardship of the earth, to not take care of our bodies is an affront to our God.

VIRGINIA CROUNSE: I feel good. Yeah, I do. I feel energetic.

GONZALEZ: We met seventy-three-year-old Adventist Virginia Crounse as she was relaxing in a whirlpool. She shared her diet and fitness routines with us.

CROUNSE: I actually eat most of the time two meals a day. I’ll eat like granola or oatmeal for breakfast with two or three fruits, fresh fruit. As long as I can remember, I exercise daily, at least six days a week. I walk at least two miles, rain, sun, or snow.

GONZALEZ: It’s not well known, but Seventh-day Adventism has already made its mark on American culinary history in what millions of people eat each and every morning. It’s the creation and mass marketing of breakfast cereal by a guy named Kellogg. That’s John Harvey Kellogg and his brother, Will Kellogg, both Seventh-day Adventists who developed corn flakes, one of the first mass-marketed breakfast cereals, in the late 19th century. They saw cereal as a health food alternative to the fatty breakfast foods of their day.

BEESON: Corn flakes and the other kinds of foods that came out of the Kellogg’s industry was really trying to deal with the whole grain thing and not trying to throw away all the nutrients when you refine and become white bread. You’re throwing a lot of nutrients away.

GONZALEZ: In our own time, as Americans search for ways to improve their diets and health, some researchers believe they can borrow some simple lifestyle ideas from Seventh-day Adventists.

BEESON: Reducing your smoking, reducing your saturated fat intake, exercising more—all that can be done by anybody. They don’t have to become an Adventist to gain the benefits that we’ve observed in the Adventist health study.

GONZALEZ: It is accessible to all of us.

BEESON: Absolutely.

GONZALEZ: At the pool, Delmar Holbrooke has his own advice.

HOLBROOKE: You have to keep your mind alive and continuing to grow, and your body just as much.

GONZALEZ: For Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, I’m Saul Gonzalez in Loma Linda, California.

Click here to view the original April 10, 2009 story and additional Wintley Phipps videos.

Pastor WINTLEY PHIPPS (singing at National Prayer Service, Washington National Cathedral):  “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound . . .”

KIM LAWTON:  Grammy-nominated Gospel singer Wintley Phipps is a familiar voice at big national events. At President Barack Obama’s National Prayer Service following his Inauguration, Phipps’s rendition of “Amazing Grace” brought the entire National Cathedral audience, including the new president and first lady, to their feet. But he says it’s just as meaningful to him when he sings in places like prisons.

Pastor  PHIPPS: There is a sense that you’re giving hope to people who really need it.

LAWTON:  For Phipps, who is also a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, music is a ministry and, he says, one of the deepest expressions of his Christian faith.

Pastor PHIPPS: Music is almost to me an echo of the sounds of the divine world, and when you hear these sounds, it stirs something deeply spiritual within you.  Music also is the most powerful way of impressing the human mind with hope.

LAWTON: Hope has been a hallmark not only of Phipps’s musical career, but in his charitable efforts as well.  In 1998, Phipps founded the Dream Academy, a national nonprofit for at-risk kids. Born in Trinidad, he says hope was crucial in overcoming his own at-risk childhood.

Pastor PHIPPS: I was born to a troubled home, and I used to get away from my parents’ troubles — I had a little red tricycle, and I’d go in the back yard of my house, and I would turn the tricycle on its side and use one of the backside wheels as a steering wheel, and I would sit there for hours, and I would dream that I was flying to faraway places in the world and meeting important people when I was six, seven years old, and then I wanted to be like Tom Jones.  I’d go around the house singing, “It’s not unusual to be loved.”  I just wanted to be Tom. But something was missing to me.

LAWTON: Despite a difficult family life, Phipps says his mother always prayed for him and told him that God had a special plan for his life.  As a teenager, Phipps embraced her faith as his own.

Pastor PHIPPS:  At the age of 16, God walked into my life and said, “I’ve seen your dreams. Give me your dreams, and I’ll let you see what I’ve been dreaming for you.”

Singing at National Prayer Service

LAWTON:  He attended an historically black Seventh-day Adventist college in Alabama, where he met Linda, now his wife of 32 years.  Then, Phipps says, God began providing opportunities for him to sing in national venues such as a 1984 appearance on “Saturday Night Live” with Jesse Jackson.  He came to the attention of Billy Graham’s team and became a frequent performer at the evangelist’s crusades.

Pastor PHIPPS (singing in Washington): “Talk about a child that do love Jesus.”

LAWTON: Phipps also became a favorite in Washington. He’s sung for every president since Ronald Reagan.

Pastor PHIPPS: I’ve never had a manager or never had an agent, and yet some of the most wonderful moments that a singer could ever dream of have happened to me, and I believe it’s providential.

LAWTON: The idea for the Dream Academy came after he got involved with a prison ministry.

Pastor PHIPPS: I did not know that so many young men in prison looked like my sons, and when I saw it I was shaken. One of every three young black men in America between the ages of 18 and 30 are in prison today or supervised by the court system either on probation or parole.

LAWTON: Phipps then learned that 60 percent of the young people who end up in prison are the children of prisoners. He wanted to break the cycle of intergenerational incarceration. The Dream Academy offers after-school mentoring and interactive academic tutoring to children of prisoners and kids falling behind at school.

Pastor PHIPPS: One of the most exciting things that can ever happen in a child’s life is to know that , “You mean God thinks about me?  Or God dreams about me?”  And he’s got a dream for my life?”  And when you catch a little glimpse of what that dream is, wow, it changes everything.

LAWTON:  Phipps has enlisted the support of some of his famous connections for the project.  One of his biggest benefactors is his longtime friend Oprah Winfrey.  The lesson of faith, he says, is that things aren’t always as they seem and that hardship can be overcome.  In these uncertain economic times, he’s released a new music DVD called “No Need to Fear.”

LAWTON:  It’s a theme he finds throughout the old spirituals that he often performs.

Pastor PHIPPS (singing): “Swing low sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home . . .”

The Negro spiritual teaches us that you’re going come up rough sides of mountains, and you’re going to have difficulties.  But faith gives you that ability to weather any storm.

(singing): “I looked over Jordan and what did I see?”

LAWTON:  It’s the core theme as well for the song that has become his signature, “Amazing Grace.”  He finds great spiritual lessons in the history of the song.

Pastor PHIPPS:  A lot of people don’t realize that just about all Negro spirituals are written on the black notes of the piano, and they just keep recurring.  Probably the most famous white spiritual that’s built on this slave scale was written by a man by the name of John Newton who, before he became a Christian, used to be the captain of a slave ship and many believe heard this melody that sounds very much like a West African sorrow chant (hums “Amazing Grace”).  And it has a haunting, haunting, plaintive quality to it that reaches past your arrogance, past your pride, and it speaks to that part of you that’s in bondage, and we feel it. We feel it. It’s just one of the most amazing melodies in all of human history.

(performing “Amazing Grace” on stage): “To sing God’s praise than when we’ve  first begun. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Amen.”

LAWTON: Another lesson, he says, on how hope always triumphs. I’m Kim Lawton in Vero Beach, Florida.

Pastor WINTLEY PHIPPS (singing at National Prayer Service, Washington National Cathedral):  “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound . . .”

KIM LAWTON:  Grammy-nominated Gospel singer Wintley Phipps is a familiar voice at big national events.  At President Barack Obama’s National Prayer Service following his Inauguration, Phipps’s rendition of “Amazing Grace” brought the entire National Cathedral audience, including the new president and first lady, to their feet. But he says it’s just as meaningful to him when he sings in places like prisons.

Pastor  PHIPPS:  There is a sense that you’re giving hope to people who really need it.

LAWTON:  For Phipps, who is also a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, music is a ministry and, he says, one of the deepest expressions of his Christian faith.

“I would dream that I was flying to faraway places in the world and meeting important people when I was six, seven years old”.

Pastor PHIPPS:  Music is almost to me an echo of the sounds of the divine world.  And when you hear these sounds, it stirs something deeply spiritual within you.  Music also is the most powerful way of impressing the human mind with hope.

LAWTON:  Hope has been a hallmark not only of Phipps’s musical career, but in his charitable efforts as well.  In 1998, Phipps founded the Dream Academy, a national nonprofit for at-risk kids.  Born in Trinidad, he says hope was crucial in overcoming his own at-risk childhood.

Pastor PHIPPS:  I was born to a troubled home, and I used to get away from my parents’ troubles — I had a little red tricycle, and I’d go in the back yard of my house and I would turn the tricycle on its side and use one of the backside wheels as a steering wheel, and I would sit there for hours, and I would dream that I was flying to faraway places in the world and meeting important people when I was six, seven years old.  And then I wanted to be like Tom Jones.  I’d go around the house singing “It’s not unusual to be loved.” I just wanted to be Tom. But something was missing to me.

LAWTON: Despite a difficult family life, Phipps says his mother always prayed for him and told him that God had a special plan for his life. As a teenager, Phipps embraced her faith as his own.

Pastor PHIPPS: At the age of 16, God walked into my life and said “I’ve seen your dreams. Give me your dreams, and I’ll let you see what I’ve been dreaming for you.”

LAWTON:  He attended an historically black Seventh-day Adventist college in Alabama, where he met Linda, now his wife of 32 years. Then, Phipps says, God began providing opportunities for him to sing in national venues such as a 1984 appearance on “Saturday Night Live” with Jesse Jackson. He came to the attention of Billy Graham’s team and became a frequent performer at the evangelist’s crusades.

Pastor PHIPPS (singing in Washington):  Talk about a child that do love Jesus.

One of the most exciting things that can ever happen in a child’s life is to know that “you mean God thinks about me, or God dreams about me?”

LAWTON: Phipps also became a favorite in Washington. He’s sung for every president since Ronald Reagan.

Pastor PHIPPS: I’ve never had a manager or never had an agent, and yet some of the most wonderful moments that a singer could ever dream of have happened to me, and I believe it’s providential.

LAWTON:  The idea for the Dream Academy came after he got involved with a prison ministry.

Pastor PHIPPS:  I did not know that so many young men in prison looked like my sons, and when I saw it I was shaken. One of every three young black men in America between the ages of 18 and 30 are in prison today or supervised by the court system either on probation or parole.

LAWTON:  Phipps then learned that 60 percent of the young people who end up in prison are the children of prisoners. He wanted to break the cycle of intergenerational incarceration.  The Dream Academy offers after-school mentoring and interactive academic tutoring to children of prisoners and kids falling behind at school.

Pastor PHIPPS: One of the most exciting things that can ever happen in a child’s life is to know that “you mean God thinks about me, or God dreams about me and he’s got a dream for my life?” And when you catch a little glimpse of what that dream is, wow, it changes everything.

LAWTON:  Phipps has enlisted the support of some of his famous connections for the project.  One of his biggest benefactors is his longtime friend Oprah Winfrey. The lesson of faith, he says, is that things aren’t always as they seem and that hardship can be overcome.  In these uncertain economic times, he’s released a new music DVD called “No Need to Fear.”  For Phipps, it ties back to the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus.

Pastor PHIPPS:  To know that I can put my faith in someone who walked out of a grave. The Easter message to me is a message of tremendous hope, and if we don’t have to fear death, what else is there that should cause us to fear? Nothing.

(singing at Easter event):  Arise my love.  Arise my love.  The grave no longer has a hold on you.

LAWTON:  It’s a theme he finds throughout the old spirituals that he often performs.

“A lot of people don’t realize that just about all Negro spirituals are written on the black notes of the piano.”

Pastor PHIPPS (singing):  Swing low sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home . . .

The Negro spiritual teaches us that you’re going come up rough sides of mountains, and you’re going to have difficulties.  But faith gives you that ability to weather any storm.

(singing):  I looked over Jordan and what did I see?

LAWTON:  It’s the core theme as well for the song that has become his signature, “Amazing Grace.”  He finds great spiritual lessons in the history of the song.

Pastor PHIPPS:  A lot of people don’t realize that just about all Negro spirituals are written on the black notes of the piano, and they just keep recurring. Probably the most famous white spiritual that’s built on this slave scale was written by a man by the name of John Newton who, before he became a Christian, used to be the captain of a slave ship and many believe heard this melody that sounds very much like a West African sorrow chant (hums “Amazing Grace”). And it has a haunting, haunting plaintive quality to it that reaches past your arrogance, past your pride, and it speaks to that part of you that’s in bondage, and we feel it.  We feel it.  It’s just one of the most amazing melodies in all of human history.

(performing “Amazing Grace” on stage): To sing God’s praise than when we’ve  first begun. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Amen.

LAWTON: Another lesson, he says, on how hope always triumphs. I’m Kim Lawton in Vero Beach, Florida.

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: We have a report today about one of the most prominent pediatric neurosurgeons in the world: Dr. Ben Carson. He’s probably best known for his surgeries to separate conjoined twins. Carson talks about his work and his Seventh-day Adventist faith in a new book out this month called TAKE THE RISK. Kim Lawton reports.

KIM LAWTON: Ben Carson knows a lot about risk. As one of the leading pediatric neurosurgeons in the world, Carson makes life and death decisions nearly every day, and he has gained international fame for his work separating twins joined at their heads. Carson believes risk can be a good thing. But he says most Americans are obsessed with security.

Dr. BEN CARSON (Pediatric Neurosurgeon, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions): A lot of people simply don’t realize their potential because they’re just so risk adverse. They just don’t want to take the risk.

LAWTON: Carson is a committed Seventh-day Adventist. He says when he makes his own risk assessments, he seeks guidance from God.

Dr. CARSON: I pray before I go into the operating room for every case, and I ask him to give me wisdom, to help me to know what to do — and not only for operating, but for everything.

Dr. Ben Carson

LAWTON: Faith and risk have defined Carson’s life, both personally and professionally. He directs pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to his work with conjoined twins, Carson has pioneered surgical techniques to stop seizures. Not bad for a kid from inner-city Detroit whom many people would have written off.

Dr. CARSON: I was definitely an at-risk kid growing up. You know, my parents got divorced early on. My mother only had a third-grade education, was illiterate, worked as a domestic two to three jobs at a time because she didn’t want to be on welfare. I was considered the dummy in the classroom when I was in 5th grade, and I just didn’t believe that I could do the work, so I engaged myself, you know, by creating disturbances.

LAWTON: His mother, Sonya Carson, prayed for wisdom on how to help her two sons. She mandated that they write two book reports a week for her.

Dr. CARSON: Not knowing she couldn’t read, I mean, she would highlight and checkmark and stuff, and we’d think she was reading them. But she could always discuss them with you. She said, “Let’s talk about your book report.” It only really took a month maybe before I started to enjoy the reading. Something happened. I got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get home and read my books.

LAWTON: He began seeing a future for himself. But Carson says he faced another challenge — his explosive temper. He was often getting in fights. Then, when he was 14, he tried to stab a friend but the knife blade hit the boy’s belt buckle.

Dr. CARSON: It dawned upon me at that moment I was trying to kill somebody over nothing, and, you know, I locked myself in the bathroom and I just started thinking about it and I said, you’re not going to accomplish your dream of becoming a doctor; you’re going to end up in jail or reform school or dead.

Carson says he reads from the Book of Proverbs every day

LAWTON: He says he prayed for God’s help and then picked up a Bible, which opened to the Book of Proverbs and verses about anger. He believes God took away his temper and enabled him to become a surgeon. Carson still reads from the Book of Proverbs every day. He says it is part of his spiritual preparation for surgery.

Dr. CARSON: My strong belief is that God created human beings and therefore he knows about every aspect of the human body. So if I want to fix it, I just need to stay in harmony with him.

LAWTON: For Carson, surgery is often a spiritual experience.

Dr. CARSON: When I look at the human brain I’m still in awe of it. Every single time you lift off the bone and open the durra, and there it is, the human brain, the thing that gives a person a personality, that distinguishes each one of us. I don’t particularly like, you know, cutting the brain. It’s such a beautiful thing, why cut it? And I’m not even sure I like surgery. But I like what it does.

LAWTON: Seeing the mechanics of the body, he says, has taught him about the non-tangible aspects of life.

Dr. CARSON: We are more than just flesh and bones. There’s a certain spiritual nature and something of the mind that we can’t measure. We can’t find it. With all our sophisticated equipment, we cannot monitor or define it, and yet it’s there.

Conjoined twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani

LAWTON: Carson has had many high-profile cases. In his new book, TAKE THE RISK, he describes one of the toughest decisions of his career. In 2003, he was asked to be part of a surgical team trying to separate 29-year-old Iranian twins whose skulls were fused together. The surgery had a less than 50 percent chance of success. Carson was reluctant, but then he met Ladan and Laleh Bijani.

Dr. CARSON: They said, “Doctor, we would rather die than spend another day together.” And, you know, that kind of takes you aback. But then I put myself in their place and I said what if you were stuck to the person you liked the most in the world 24/7 and you could never get away from them for even one second? And I realized what they were going through.

“We are more than just flesh and bones.”

LAWTON: He ultimately decided to be part of the controversial surgery, which took place in Singapore.

Dr. CARSON: It became very clear as time went on that they were going to go through with the operation whether I helped or not. So at that point, you know, I started thinking there’s not a very good chance of success here, so I’d better go and help, because if they die I’m going to wonder for the rest of my life if it could have turned out differently if I would have helped.

LAWTON: Despite his help, after more than 50 hours of surgery Ladan died, and then Laleh died 90 minutes after that.

Dr. CARSON: I always say if God didn’t allow any bad things to happen, we would already be in heaven, and we are not there. That’s where trust and faith comes in. You just say, “Lord, I don’t understand it. But one thing I do know is that you understand it and that you are in control and I trust you.” And that’s the end of the story.

LAWTON: At 56, he says he has seen many miracles, too. It’s tough to keep up with him as he visits his many patients in the pediatric intensive care unit. His staff calls this the “lightning rounds.” And despite the pace, there’s always time for a personal word with the patients and a hug from grateful families. And he has been forced to face his own mortality. In 2002, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. After treatment, Carson says he’s now cancer-free.

Carson has served on the President’s Council on Bioethics.

Carson tries to have an impact outside the operating room. In 2004, he was appointed to the President’s Council on Bioethics, and Carson has become a vocal advocate for health insurance reform.

Dr. CARSON: I see the insurance issue, the coverage of people for health care in our country, as a huge moral issue. And, you know, for the richest country in the world to have 47 million people without health insurance is ridiculous.

LAWTON: One of Carson’s greatest passions is encouraging education, especially for at-risk kids. He and his wife have started a national scholarship program called the Carson Scholars Fund.

Dr. CARSON: If we can take young people who excel at the highest levels, put them on the same kind of pedestal as the all-state basketball player and the all-state football player, and begin to get the same kind of recognition, it will have a profound effect, and we are finding that it does.

LAWTON: He admits one big danger for neurosurgeons can be developing a God complex.

Dr. CARSON: You’re going into these incredibly delicate places that control who people are, and you’ve got to have a fair ego to think you can do that. But for me personally, I realize where it all comes from. All the good things come from God. I can’t really claim any of them, and I just feel privileged that I was dealt a measure of the healing arts.

LAWTON: Faith may be a risk, he says, but it’s the best risk of all. I’m Kim Lawton in Baltimore.

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: For more than 200 years there has been a chaplain in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. The tradition has been challenged by advocates of a strict separation between church and state, but the Supreme Court has upheld it, as long as the chaplains remain nonsectarian and nonpartisan. The current Senate chaplain is the Reverend Barry Black, the first African American and the first Seventh-day Adventist in the position. Kim Lawton reports.

Pastor BARRY BLACK (Chaplain, U.S. Senate): Let us pray. Let us pray

KIM LAWTON: He has prayed with some of the most powerful people in the world. Chaplain Barry Black opens every session of the U.S. Senate with prayer and is often called upon to pray at important national events. It’s not mere ceremony, he says, but helping to set the spiritual tone of the country.

Chaplain BLACK (speaking at National Day of Prayer): More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.

Chaplain BLACK: I see myself as an intercessor. I see myself as articulating the longings and the concerns of the people whom I seek to minister to.

LAWTON: It’s a job that’s strictly nonpartisan and nonsectarian. As the 62nd chaplain of the U.S. Senate, Black not only ministers to senators and their families, but also to Capitol Hill staffers, service personnel, and police. He organizes many weekly Bible studies and offers private counseling.

Chaplain BLACK: As their pastor, I am interested in their spiritual well-being.

LAWTON: Fifty-eight-year-old Black is the first African American and the first Seventh-day Adventist in the position. He’s been there since 2003, but says he still marvels that this is where he’s landed, especially considering his background growing up in the housing projects of inner city Baltimore.

Chaplain BLACK (speaking to students at Andrews University): Night after night, the “hood” is a subculture of poverty and pathology. Domestic violence is a spectator sport. You can sit on your stoop and watch it.

LAWTON: In his book FROM THE HOOD TO THE HILL, Black vividly describes his youth: a rat- and roach-infested apartment; an alcoholic absentee father; and a struggling welfare mother often taking her eight children to church hungry.

Chaplain BLACK (speaking at book signing event): We were like hostages. When people would shake our hands and say “The Lord is good”—because my mother warned us you better not let anybody know you’re hungry—we were trying to let people signal, trying to let them know we’re captives. Somebody feed us, feed us, feed us.

LAWTON: Black says his mother’s strong Seventh-day Adventist faith was hugely influential.

Chaplain BLACK: My mother was baptized when she was pregnant with me, and as she entered the—we say “the watery grave of baptism” (Seventh-day Adventists immerse), she prayed for a special anointing on her unborn child.

LAWTON: The chaplain’s lifelong friend, Purnell Jones, says Pearline Black never let anyone forget that.

PASTOR PURNELL JONES : When Barry was in the womb she would always say, “I prayed for my son and that the Lord would anoint him.” When Barry came out, he was special. He was just special.

LAWTON: Berea Temple Seventh Day Adventist Church in Baltimore became an anchor for the family. Adventists are part of the evangelical tradition. They place a strong emphasis on Scripture, keeping Saturday as the Sabbath and often following Old Testament dietary laws. Black and his family came here virtually every Saturday.

Chaplain BLACK (to worship service): Because my father was not around a great deal, to have wonderful, positive male role models in the church was a tremendous blessing and made a critical difference in my development.

LAWTON: Berea encouraged Christian education and Bible memorization, something Black’s mother reinforced at home.

Chaplain BLACK: My mother gave my siblings and me our allowance based upon memorizing Scripture—a nickel a verse.

(speaking to students at Andrews University): One day I came in—you would stand before her to give your Scripture—and I said, “The Book of Genesis.” She said, “Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it!” She put me on a flat rate. “You’re not going to get more than a quarter even if you memorize the whole Bible, boy.”

LAWTON: Purnell Jones is now an elder at Berea. He says as a kid, Black also had a gift for memorizing sermons and imitating pastors.

Mr. JONES: Barry’s mom had them take notes. So some of us got in the habit that we would even try to keep up with note-taking and see how much we remembered. Then we’d get outside, and there’s Barry, “blah-blah-blah,” just spieling it off, the whole sermon, and we’d say, “How in the world did he remember all this stuff?”

LAWTON: Today, Black loves to tell the story of when he was eight-years-old and his mother brought home a record with sermons by Peter Marshall, who was Senate chaplain from 1947 to 1949. Black says he listened to that record over and over again and learned the sermons by heart, accent and all.

Chaplain BLACK (speaking to students at Andrews University, imitating Marshall): “There were the aged, stooped with years, muttering to themselves as they pushed through the throng…”

LAWTON: As Black puts it, only God could have orchestrated events so that he would one day follow in Marshall’s footsteps.

Chaplain BLACK (speaking at Crystal Cathedral): God set in motion a sequence of events that let that little eight-year-old go from the hood to the Hill. So what a mighty God we serve.

LAWTON: Black went to Seventh-day Adventist schools, including Andrews University in Michigan. He eventually earned three masters degrees and two doctorates. He’s married with three sons. Soon after seminary, Black learned that the Adventists needed military chaplains, so he joined the Navy. He rose to the rank of rear admiral and was the first African American to be named chief of Navy chaplains. Black says he experienced some discrimination along the way, but he never let himself dwell on race.

Chaplain BLACK: I was determined to create a resumé that would transcend race, and I wanted an individual on a promotion board who may have even been socialized to think of me as inferior to look at my paper and basically say, “We’ve got a problem if we’re going to stop this guy.”

LAWTON: There’s been a chaplain in the House and Senate since 1789. Some argue that violates the separation of church and state, but Black insists it is constitutional. Although Seventh-day Adventists actively spread their faith, Black says he’s well aware of boundaries in his job.

Chaplain BLACK: Having been a military chaplain in a pluralistic setting of religious diversity for 27 years, I am very, very comfortable with an environment where I am encouraged to support but not to proselytize.

LAWTON: He says he gets a front-row seat to history, and he’s been called on during times of national mourning, such as when Senator Edward Kennedy asked him to officiate during the at-sea burial of John F. Kennedy Jr. Senators come to him for counseling and advice, sometimes even on policy matters.

Chaplain BLACK: There are issues—biomedical ethical issues and issues of justice—that they are interested in: “Chaplain, what is your spin on this particular issue?” So I can tell them what I think, and of course they can use it however they desire.

LAWTON: It’s a lot of responsibility, and Black acknowledges that he must be on his guard to avoid becoming overly-impressed with the power. He says he works hard to maintain his moral authority.

Chaplain BLACK: Once people no longer perceive that you are the real deal, your power is gone. So keeping Chaplain Barry Black in the straight and narrow, ensuring that I don’t deviate from the path of unswerving integrity—that is my greatest challenge.

LAWTON: Black tries to keep his spiritual life on track by staying in regular conversation with God.

Chaplain BLACK (appearing on the Hope Channel): If you want to faithfully interpret the word of God, start praying the Scripture. It will energize your prayer life.

LAWTON: He prays with his well-used Bible open in front of him.

Chaplain BLACK: When you pray before an open Bible, you give God the courtesy of starting the conversation. And so I will open the Bible and I will read until something stops me, something impresses me, something warms my heart. And then I’ll talk to God about it.

LAWTON: Being Senate chaplain gives Black a lot to talk with God about. He often writes his prayers while looking out the window in his office—an everyday inspiration, he says, to pray for the nation.

Q: Let’s start with your work as the Senate chaplain. What’s a typical day like for you? What are your main spiritual responsibilities?

A: I’m the pastor for about 7,000 people on the Senate side of Capitol Hill, so I don’t simply provide ministry for the senators and their family members, but also for staffers and the many other people who work on Capitol Hill — janitors, waitresses, Capitol police officers. As their pastor I am interested in their spiritual well-being, so I have five Bible studies a week. One is for senators only. One is for the spouses of senators. And then there are two plenary Bible studies where anyone who desires to come may do so. And I have a Bible study for the chiefs of staff. I also have a spiritual mentoring class, a ten-week program where I take ten people and help them to learn how to practice the spiritual disciplines more effectively. I officiate at weddings and funerals. I conduct seasonal observances. I do pastoral counseling. I have an advisory function to senators and their staffs regarding the ethical dimensions of the various issues that are debated in the chamber. So, in short, I am a pastor for about 7,000 people.

Q: And you do the daily prayers as well?

A: I do a prayer to open each session of the Senate.

Q: What goes into those prayers as you craft them? What are you trying to do with each of them?

A: I see myself as an intercessor. I see myself as articulating the longings and the concerns of the people whom I seek to minister to. And so I, in my pastoral contact, I get a feel for what the concerns and the challenges are, and I try to incorporate those concerns and challenges into my prayer. I have a marvelous opportunity to frame the day for the senators, and it’s a wonderful privilege to offer that invocation at the opening of each Senate session.

Q: When you do the counseling sessions and deal with some of the ethical and moral dilemmas that the senators face, I think a lot of people wonder, do they come to you for policy advice when they’re facing a tough vote? How do you handle that?

A: Although my position is nonpartisan and nonsectarian, I am not expected to be neutral. There are senators who are interested in what is your opinion on this particular issue. Many of them know about my academic background — a doctorate in theology and a doctorate in psychology. And so there are issues, biomedical ethical issues and issues of justice that they are interested [in]: “Chaplain, what is your spin on this particular issue?” So I can tell them what I think, and of course they can use it however they desire.

Q: Do you ever get lobbied or pressured from people who say that if you have the senator’s ear, maybe you can try to sway him or her in a direction?

A: I have learned that everyone who comes to my office does not have pristine motives. That’s the succinct response. There are those who will begin in a very affable and neutral way. But eventually the bottom line will emerge, and of course I know what to do with that. I simply remind them that I am nonpartisan and nonsectarian.

Q: You speak about being nonsectarian. I know this is also something military chaplains, which is your background, deal with. How do you handle that? You come from a very particular background. You have your own deeply held beliefs. How do you maintain those beliefs, stay true to what you believe, but also respect another person’s beliefs, especially if that person may believe something very different?

A: I think from a Christian perspective — most Christians have more in common than they have differences. From my religious tradition, for instance, I can say a fervent amen to the Apostle’s Creed, and most people here on Capitol Hill who are Christian can do the same. So it is very easy for me to minister to Protestants and Catholics, and Protestants and Catholics come to my Bible study. When I am providing a ministry to Jewish people, to people from the Islamic tradition, to Hindus and Buddhists, I obviously have limitations, and so we have Torah studies here on Capitol Hill where I bring in a rabbi who teaches the Torah. I bring in an imam when there are high holy days for people from the Muslim tradition. It is an opportunity to cooperate without compromising. It’s really a lot easier than most people would imagine. When you look at what Christians have in common across the spectrum of religious traditions, you know — believing God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ his son who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead and was buried, descended into hell — you know, any of the creeds — most of the Christians on Capitol Hill can say an amen, so it’s really not that difficult.

Q: Seventh Day Adventists in particular stress spreading the gospel, bringing people to faith. Is there a temptation to do that?

A: I believe it was Francis of Assisi who once said, “Preach the gospel. When necessary, use words.” I have to know the difference between providing support to people and proselytizing. Having been a military chaplain in a pluralistic setting, a religious diversity, for 27 years, I am very, very comfortable with an environment where I am encouraged to support but not to proselytize.

Q: Was it a challenge for you as a member of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) tradition in the military chaplain program? You write there weren’t a lot of SDA chaplains when you started in the program. Were there aspects that made that challenging? A lot of people are not familiar with your faith tradition.

A: Seventh Day Adventists believe in the deity of Christ. Seventh Day Adventists believe in salvation by faith, salvation by grace through faith — Ephesians chapter 2. Seventh Day Adventists believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. Seventh Day Adventists believe in the second coming of Christ, the soon return of Christ. So if you go down the list of major doctrines, the Holy Spirit and on and on it goes, Seventh Day Adventists believe that. So it really was not that much of a challenge. I conducted thousands of Bible studies during my 27 years as a Navy chaplain, and I always had a wonderful attendance. I conduct Bible studies here. We can get as many as 200 at some of our plenary Bible studies, and people are very, very comfortable with the presentations I make, because it is critically important, I believe, to find the common ground, and there are tremendous opportunities to do that. I think there was some curiosity on the part of people, because as you probably know a significant number of Senate chaplains have been Episcopalian. In fact, the first eight or nine were Episcopalians. A significant number have been Presbyterian. Four of my last five predecessors were Presbyterian. But, again, I think we’re at a point where people are willing to say let’s hear this individual and see what he or she has to say. And most of them seem to be quite pleased with what they’re hearing because, quite frankly, many people are not that familiar with Seventh Day Adventists, and they will sometimes mistake the doctrines of the Seventh Day Adventist church for the doctrines of some other religious traditions. So it’s an excellent opportunity for me to, many times, demythologize their perceptions regarding the Seventh Day Adventist faith.

Q: What is distinctive and particularly meaningful? What has kept you in that tradition your whole life?

A: I am very appreciative for the emphasis of the Seventh Day Adventist church on Christian education. We have one of the strongest Christian education programs, I think, in the world. And so although I grew up in the inner city of Baltimore in a public housing project, my seven siblings and I matriculated at Christian schools from grade one through graduate school. I believe it provided a cocoon that enabled us to develop our wings. That is just one of the things that I celebrate about the Seventh Day Adventist church. There’s also, as you probably know, a tremendous emphasis on health. There have been studies that revealed Seventh Day Adventists, because of their emphasis on health, live longer. I have made the observation that one commentator said “if you can call that really living.” For instance, I’m a vegetarian. I grew up that way. Now although all Seventh Day Adventists are not vegetarian, there is an emphasis on a healthy lifestyle — fresh air, pure water, exercise, and not a lot of red meats and that kind of thing. In fact, we abide by the dietary law of the Old Testament — Leviticus chapter 11 and Deuteronomy chapter 14. So there are foods on the hit list. But, you know, I’ve been a vegetarian, so that’s not been a problem. But I appreciate the emphasis on health in the Seventh Day Adventist church.

Q: Talk a little more about the importance of the church in your background, especially given the tough circumstances of your neighborhood.

A: I grew up in a church that became for me an extended family of tremendous support. My mother was on public assistance. She could not afford the tuition for Christian schools. And yet the church that I grew up in, Berea Temple Seventh Day Adventist Church in Baltimore, Maryland, had a program where the church would supplement financially the tuition needs of students so that any child, regardless of socioeconomic level, would receive a Christian education. I just think that was tremendously critical. Also, because my father was not around a great deal, to have wonderful, positive male role models in the church was a tremendous blessing and made a critical difference in my development and in the development of my siblings and so many others who were able to take advantage of that opportunity.

Q: You’ve said your mother had a real impact on you. Talk about the role she played spiritually for you.

A: My mother was baptized when she was pregnant with me. I have three older siblings, and as she entered the — we say “the watery grave of baptism” (Seventh Day Adventists immerse), she prayed for a special anointing on her unborn child. I don’t remember ever not wanting to be a minister, a preacher. It was just as if there was a call on my life from birth, and my mother, of course, reminded me that I had been set apart by God. My mother gave my siblings and me our allowance based upon memorizing Scripture — a nickel a verse. She eventually put me on a flat rate because it was breaking the family budget. But that was a tremendous inspiration. And her wonderful modeling of spirituality, her commitment to her faith — I think that that made a tremendous difference, a positive difference in my life and in the lives of my siblings. Someone said, “What you do speaks so loudly people can’t hear what you say.” My mother backed her rhetoric with substantive action.

Q: How much of the Bible have you memorized?

A: Quite a bit. I’m memorized quite a bit. Those nickels — you know, with monetary motivation, obviously — and I love the Bible. I believe that it is a success manual. Growing up in the inner city I fell in love with the Book of Proverbs because the verses are short, so the nickels came more quickly. We call that picking the low-hanging fruit. And so this was an amazing success manual for me. I remember reading Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.” And that, to me, was like an epiphany. It was just this amazing blueprint for ensuring that there would be a loving providence behind the unfolding of your life. So simple verses like that made a tremendous impact upon my thinking, and they had a tremendous impact upon how I lived my life.

Q: You are the first African-American Senate chaplain. What challenges do you face?

A: I believe that God equips people for the doors he opens. I guess I may be a bit different, but I didn’t think a whole lot about race, you know, except for the human race, and though I was a pioneer in a lot of areas — I would sometimes be in a room of 50 people and I would be the only African American — I never sat there thinking, you are the only African American in this room. Or when someone would say to me, you know, “Barry, what do African Americans think about this?” it always startled me that people expected me to speak for an entire race. Just didn’t seem logical. So I think one of the reasons why I was placed in positions where you could call me a pioneer was because people sensed that racial labels were not really a big part of my perception of the world or my perspective on the world, and that I believed in a meritocracy and that individuals who were qualified — they are the ones who should be given the opportunity to play on that level playing field. I think one of the reasons why I ended up with three master’s degrees and two doctorates was because I was determined to create a resume that would transcend race. I wanted an individual on a promotion board who may have even been socialized to think of me as inferior to look at my paper and basically say, “We’ve got a problem if we’re going to stop this guy.” So I was more interested in doing my best. Martin King once said, “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo carved marble, like Raphael painted pictures, like Beethoven composed music, and like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets,” he said, “so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his or her job well.’” My focus and my determination [were] to be the best that I could be. I competed against myself and to maximize the potential of the God-given talents that I was given, and that focus transcends race, and I think people pick up on it.

Q: I know that Martin Luther King Jr. was one of your role models for being a good preacher. What do you think makes a good sermon? What makes someone a good preacher?

A: I have a chapter in my autobiography, From the Hood to the Hill, where I talk about learning to preach. I think a passion for Scripture — it’s critically important because I think sermons that are not rooted in God’s word are nice speeches, but the power of the sermon comes from the scriptural content. I think that a minister must study himself or herself full — that there should be as much light as heat, okay? A lot of people are very passionate, and you’ve got the heat but not the light. Then he or she should think himself or herself clear. You need to know what you want to say, and that gives you an element of being free from notes. I think there should be a liberty in freedom. If standup comics, if defense attorneys can discipline themselves to go without a lot of paper, then I think those who are blessed with the opportunity to present treasures, divine treasures, should discipline themselves to think so clearly that you know what you’re going to say, and you’re not tied to notes. One old lady heard a young preacher, and he was reading, and at the end of it she said, “Son, you made some mistakes.” She said, “Number one, you read it.” She said, “Number two, it wasn’t worth reading. And number three, you read it poorly.” She said, “If you can’t remember it, how do you expect us to remember it?” So think yourself clear, and then pray yourself hot. I think that there should be a spiritual dimension — that a minister should never enter the pulpit without a sense of dependence upon a divine power. And then let yourself go. There should be a freedom. You shouldn’t be inhibited. Those are four of the Chaplain Barry Black commandments for presenting an effective sermon.

Q: What’s the toughest part of the job you do now, the biggest challenge?

A: The biggest challenge in this job is to make sure that I maintain my moral authority. Aristotle in his Rhetoric said that there are three aspects of persuasion. There’s a tripod for persuasion, and he used three Greek words: ethos, pathos, and logos. Logos has to do with the ability to present reasoned arguments. Pathos has to do with the ability to engender emotions. But ethos is when people perceive you to be ethically congruent, when they perceive that your rhetoric is backed by your actions. We see a great televangelist and spiritual leaders who have a moral lapse, and their power is gone. Once you lose ethos, once people no longer perceive that you are the real deal, your power is gone. So keeping Chaplain Barry Black in the straight and narrow, ensuring that I don’t deviate from the path of unswerving integrity — that is my greatest challenge.

Q: How tempting is it to be surrounded by the power that’s here in the U.S. Capitol? You’ve got one of the best views in this city in your office. Every day the most powerful people in the world come to you.

A: This can be a very seductive environment, and yet I think that if you keep your devotion in life strong and — the first thing each day involves greeting the sovereign God of the universe and having an interaction with him. There is something about being in the presence of God that enables you to keep the baubles of mere time in the proper perspective. I often think of Daniel, who’s one of my heroes. Daniel had an amazing governmental career that spanned the decades. He was an advisor to Nebuchadnezzar. He later became an advisor to Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and then to Darius when Babylon fell and the Persian empire arose. I often say that I doubt if Daniel had paintings of himself shaking hands with Nebuchadnezzar in his office. Once I was asked, “Admiral, you have two stars, but you advise four-star admirals. Is that intimidating?” And my answer was, “It is difficult to become intimidated by someone wearing four stars when before you encountered that person on a particular day you commune with the one who made the stars.”

Q: Talk about that communion with God. You’re so busy giving to other people and trying to keep their spiritual life warm. How do you keep your own spiritual life on fire?

A: David said in the 119th Psalm — and I got a nickel for this when I grew up — “Your word I have hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you.” And so repeated exposure to sacred scriptures — I think that that’s a critical factor. I drive a 40-minute drive in order that I can listen to the scripture on CD. You can listen to the entire Bible in less than 80 hours. I’m listening to James Earl Jones read the Bible right now, which is a wonderful experience in itself. I sometimes think I’m listening to Star Wars, but, you know, that’s another matter. And so by that repeated exposure to sacred scripture — learning to worship when you’re not in church, praise music, learning how to pray and pray effectively, learning how to practice the spiritual disciplines, what I teach in my spiritual mentoring class, unleashing the power of fasting, journaling, learning how to meditate — those are some of the critical disciplines that you can use to maintain spiritual fitness. I call them spiritual calisthenics.

Q: In your book you called prayer the breath of your soul. What does that meant for you, and how does it work for you?

A: Prayer to me is conversation with God. 1 Thessalonians 5 says “pray without ceasing.” So the prayer should be like breathing. You inhale and you exhale. It’s an amazing privilege to talk to God whenever you desire. If I wanted to see the Majority Leader it would take me a couple of hours to get on his schedule. If I wanted to see the President of the United States, it’d probably take me a couple of months to be able to get into the White House. And yet I have the awesome opportunity to enter the throne room of the sovereign God of the universe, the one who created the Majority Leader and the President, and to have a conversation with him whenever I desire, and so learning that ebb and flow of prayer, of talking to God. Now one of the things that I like to do is to pray the scriptures, because I believe prayer is a dialogue, and so very often I will pray before an open Bible. I believe that when you pray before an open Bible you give God the courtesy of starting the conversation. And so I will open the Bible and I will read until something stops me, something impresses me, something warms my heart. And then I’ll talk to God about it. And then I’ll continue reading until, you know — and so it becomes an ebb and flow. It is one of the most beatific spiritual experiences you can have.

Q: You have had the opportunity to be part of some of big events in our national life — for example, when Rosa Parks lay in state in the Capitol. What were your thoughts then?

A: I feel extremely humbled because there are many, many others who are just as qualified who could have this opportunity. In this job and in my previous job as chief of chaplains for the United States Navy, you have an opportunity of having a front row seat to history. For the Rosa Parks ceremony, I was the first person that the coffin went by in the rotunda, and of course I offered a prayer for that. For the Ronald Reagan funeral, the same thing. For the Gerald Ford funeral, the same thing. With the eyes of the nation riveted on this state funeral, I had a front row seat to history. A couple of weeks ago we gave a Congressional Gold Medal to the Tuskegee Airmen. I had the wonderful privilege of offering the prayer for that event, of officiating at the re-internment of the bones of Matthew Henson, the African American who was a co-discoverer of the North Pole. Providing ministry to the Kennedy family by officiating at the burial at sea for John F. Kennedy Jr., of offering a prayer at the USS Cole memorial ceremony. At the 9/11 ceremonies of being able to read a scripture, offer a prayer. You literally have the wonderful privilege of having a front row seat to history and of being a participant in history and providing ministry many times to a hurting nation or hurting families. So I thank God for this great opportunity.

Q: John Kennedy’s burial at sea must have been a very emotional time for the family and for you.

A: I remember when John Kennedy was assassinated. I remember Camelot. I remember Jackie. I remember seeing John-John playing under the chair in the Oval Office, and Caroline. I remember the salute. I was watching television when Oswald was shot. I know what this family has gone through. And so it was with some sense of reverential awe that I provided a ministry for a great family during a very painful time in their lives and a painful time in the life of the nation and experienced the grief with them because this was, I think, a time of national mourning. What an awesome opportunity. Instead of having to sit back and have nothing to do with it except to be a spectator, what an awesome opportunity to be a participant.

Q: As a chaplain, you understand these people that we may look at as icons or political figures, but you really see them as human beings, don’t you?

A: They come to my Bible study on a weekly basis. We have a weekly prayer breakfast here at the Senate. We just had one this morning that they come to. I interact with them on the floor when they have the roll call votes. They drop by my office. I drop by their offices. So you get to know them as real people, and it is a marvelous opportunity to provide pastoral support.