Guest Editorial: Meeting Senator Elect Scott Brown

'Let's resolve to pray for Senator-elect Brown and his family, encourage him in what's good and lovingly admonish him in the areas that are not good. He may not be done making history.'

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - As a member of the Christian clergy charged with ministering to top elected and appointed officials in Washington, DC, I enjoy many opportunities for which I am deeply grateful to God.

In the course of my work, I've met thousands of public officials, some good--even very good--and some bad--even very bad. I've walked with them pastorally through joy and sorrow, success and failure, ecstasy and catastrophe. I've listened to their most intimate and at times shocking confessions, and I've prayed with them in their greatest desperation.

One opportunity I rarely have, though, is being the first to greet a newly elected US Senator--especially one who's at the center of a national phenomenon with enormous political ramifications.

Still, for some reason known only to God, I was in precisely the right place at the right time to be the first to welcome the senator-elect from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, when he arrived on Capitol Hill last week to pay a courtesy visit to his future colleagues. The encounter was interesting enough, but what it told me about Mr. Brown was far more important.

Of course, I had already done my due diligence on the political newcomer. My office had investigated his family background, record in the state legislature and even his family church, pastor and worship habits. I spoke with friends in the US Senate that had not only interacted with Senator-elect Brown, but in one case had raised significant money for his campaign.

Still, nothing tells you more than even a brief handshake, a look into the person's eyes and a whispered exchange of words on the most important of subjects.

I believe there's a reason Jesus touched people during his earthly ministry--and people touched him back. Skin can be a wondrously effective communicator of what's going on in a person's heart, and the eyes even more so.

With just "some skin," I could tell Scott Brown is a man comfortable in his own. He's confident, but not cocky. He's able, but not too sure of himself. His handshake wasn't cold and clammy. That's a small sign, but an important one. But the eyes . . .

In Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, our Lord said, "The eye is like a lamp for the body. Suppose your eyes are good. Then your whole body will be full of light. But suppose your eyes are bad. Then your whole body will be full of darkness." (St. Matthew 6:22-23)

When I met Scott Brown a day after his historic election to the seat once occupied by in the infamous Ted Kennedy, I looked straight into the man's eyes.

The eyes said a lot. Instead of the customary darting back and forth, or looking beyond me to see who of greater importance might be in the distance--even worse, to smile for the throng of reporters and cameras being held at bay down a distant corridor--Mr. Brown looked right back into my eyes. For a few moments he gave me undivided attention, but not the haughty, "I will dominate you with my condescending stare" treatment.

Instead, what Scott Brown exhibited was a humility; a sense that he didn't feel he was the most important person in the conversation. He glanced downward a few times in what appeared in context to be deference to a clergyman. That told me a lot.

The content of our conversation falls loosely under the "clergy-penitent" rule, so I'll leave that alone. Suffice it to say that it left me with the firm conclusion that Scott Brown has a conscience informed in part by Christian precepts, and I find that hopeful. While he's taken positions verbally and legislatively in contradiction to the sanctity of life, I'm not sure they're intractable.

My encounter with the political man-of-the-hour leaves me with a considered opinion that prayer for this man will be more than a benevolent exercise. I think Scott Brown is still very much in moral and spiritual formation and is, at least for the time being, open to help in that area.

Let's resolve to pray for Senator-elect Brown and his family, encourage him in what's best and good about his public service, and lovingly admonish him in the areas that are not good. He may not be done making history. An even bigger breakthrough than the one he's already accomplished may be in the offing.

Of course, as always when you're talking about human beings--especially those in public office--it could go entirely differently. Let's pray and see what God does--and what Scott Brown does in response.

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The Reverend Dr. Rob Schenck is president of Faith and Action in the Nation's Capital, an ecumenical Christian mission to elected and appointed officials in Washington, DC. Dr. Schenck holds degrees in Bible and Theology, Christian Ministry and Divinity. He is an ordained Evangelical minister and serves on the boards of the Evangelical Church Alliance and the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.

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