One of the people I had a chance to talk with Saturday at the JJ festivities was Delegate Donald McEachin (D-74th). In the course of that conversation, McEachin mentioned that he is in seminary at Virginia Union, my father’s alma mater. Today, the Richmond Times Dispatch has a profile on McEachin, focusing on his pursuit of a Masters of Divinity degree.
McEachin doesn’t intend to pastor; instead, he believes the study will make him a better public official.
His theological studies have reshaped his political outlook. For instance, he introduced a bill this year to increase the minimum wage, which stemmed from a sermon he delivered for a class based on Proverbs 21:13. That passage talks about hearing “the cry of the poor.” Before his seminary studies, McEachin said he wouldn’t have introduced such a bill.
“I feel like I have a standard by which to judge legislation that I didn’t have before,” McEachin said.
It also played a part in his decision to sponsor a bill that originally sought an apology from the General Assembly for the state’s role in slavery, one of the legislature’s flash point issues this year.
“I have learned the power of an apology. Especially with healing, it’s necessary,” McEachin said. “There’s a component of forgiveness that begins with an acknowledgment of the wrong.”
It looks like it already has.
(Del. McEachin – if you read this, please let me know the name of the book you recommended to me. I didn’t write it down and I have forgotten it.)
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Really, it takes *seminary* to hear or respond to the “cry of the poor”? There is really something very wrong about that.
It’s a miracle MB.
We agree!
Not sure who’s pimping who in this post.
McEachin mentioned this fact in a panel moderated by Joel Rubin on Saturday. He adds the “intelligence” to Democrats’ discussion of faith and politics.
McEachin Rocks.
reparations should be next! Go Donald!
Bill Cosby is right….
“All this child knows is ‘gimme, gimme, gimme.”