Georgia pastor serves as U.S. Senate guest chaplain

The Rev. Benny Tate, senior pastor of Rock Springs Church in Milner, Ga., delivered the opening prayer in the U.S. Senate Thursday morning, thanks to a personal request from an influential follower, Sen. David Perdue.

“Benny is my personal pastor, my dear friend, and inspiration for both my wife and myself,” Perdue told fellow members from the Senate floor.

Before Perdue was sworn into office in 2015, he traveled with Tate on a mission to Haiti to help with construction work at an orphanage that Tate’s church helps support. The facility, near Port-au-Prince, had been devastated by the massive 2010 earthquake.

“It was a life-changing trip,” Perdue told Senate colleagues. “We saw kids who were still sleeping and eating on the ground in tents. Yet we saw hope, and that is hope I will carry with me the rest of my life because of this man, Benny Tate.”

Tate, whose megachurch has roughly 7,000 members, said Perdue’s wife, Bonnie, helped with vacation Bible classes in Haiti, while the senator donned a hardhat and work gloves.

“He wasn’t the senator down there,” Tate recalled. “He was just the handyman with a hammer and shovel in his hand.”

As the Senate’s guest chaplain, Tate prayed for unity at a time of deep polarization in Washington.

“I ask you to unify the hearts of the men and women serving in this body, for unity is where you commanded the blessing,” Tate said during his prayer. “May every member remember the goal is more important than any role. And our lord teaches us that the greatest is the one who serves. And anyone can be great because anyone can serve."

Afterward, Tate encouraged members of Congress to remember that they’re in Washington to serve the people – and that “compromise” is not a dirty word.

“I’ve been married 32 years and I know about compromise,” Tate said. “Rather than looking out for individual groups, they’ve got to look out for the whole.”

Tate’s church operates a free health clinic for uninsured people and provides services for homeless people as well.

“People ask me if I’m right wing or left wing,” Tate said. “I’m for the whole bird; I’m for helping all people.”

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Georgia pastor serves as U.S. Senate guest chaplain."