Whereas religious faith was not only important in official
American life during the periods of discovery, exploration, colonization, and
growth but has also been acknowledged and incorporated into all 3 branches of
the Federal Government from their very beginning;
Whereas the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed
this self-evident fact in a unanimous ruling declaring “This is a religious
people … From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a
single voice making this affirmation”;
Whereas political scientists have documented that the most
frequently cited source in the political period known as The Founding Era was
the Bible;
Whereas the first act of America’s first Congress in 1774
was to ask a minister to open with prayer and to lead Congress in the reading
of 4 chapters of the Bible;
Whereas Congress regularly attended church and Divine
service together en masse;
Whereas throughout the American Founding, Congress
frequently appropriated money for missionaries and for religious instruction, a
practice that Congress repeated for decades after the passage of the
Constitution and the First Amendment;
Whereas in 1776, Congress approved the Declaration of
Independence with its 4 direct religious acknowledgments referring to God as
the Creator (“All people are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”), the
Lawgiver (“the laws of nature and nature’s God”), the Judge (“appealing to the
Supreme Judge of the world”), and the Protector (“with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence”);
Whereas upon approving the Declaration of Independence,
John Adams declared that the Fourth of July “ought to be commemorated as the
day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty”;
Whereas the Liberty Bell was named for the Biblical
inscription from Leviticus 25:10 emblazoned around it: “Proclaim liberty
throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof”;
Whereas in 1782, Congress approved the production of the
first English language Bible printed in America, and provided the congressional
endorsement that “the United States in Congress assembled … recommend this
edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States”;
Whereas in 1782, Congress adopted (and has reaffirmed on
numerous subsequent occasions) the National Seal with its Latin motto “Annuit
Coeptis,” meaning “God has favored our undertakings,” along with the eye of
Providence in a triangle over a pyramid, the eye and the motto “allude to the
many signal interpositions of Providence in favor of the American
cause”;
Whereas the 1783 Treaty of Paris that officially ended the
Revolution and established America as an independent nation begins with the
appellation “In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity”;
Whereas in 1787, at the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin declared, “God governs in the affairs of men.
And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable
that an empire can rise without His aid? … Without His concurring aid, we shall
succeed in this political building no better than the builders of
Babel”;
Whereas the delegates to the Constitutional Convention
concluded their work by in effect placing a religious punctuation mark at the
end of the Constitution in the Attestation Clause, noting not only that they
had completed the work with “the unanimous consent of the States present” but
they had done so “in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty
seven”;
Whereas James Madison declared that he saw the finished
Constitution as a product of “a finger of that Almighty Hand which has been so
frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the
Revolution,” and George Washington viewed it as “little short of a miracle,”
and Benjamin Franklin believed that its writing had been “influenced, guided,
and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler, in Whom all
inferior spirits live, and move, and have their being”;
Whereas, from 1787 to 1788, State conventions to ratify
the United States Constitution not only began with prayer but even met in
church buildings;
Whereas in 1795, during construction of the Capitol, a
practice was instituted whereby “public worship is now regularly administered
at the Capitol, every Sunday morning, at 11 o’clock”;
Whereas in 1789, the first Federal Congress, the Congress
that framed the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, appropriated
Federal funds to pay chaplains to pray at the opening of all sessions, a
practice that has continued to this day, with Congress not only funding its
congressional chaplains but also the salaries and operations of more than 4,500
military chaplains;
Whereas in 1789, Congress, in the midst of framing the
Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, passed the first Federal law touching
education, declaring that “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary
to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of
education shall forever be encouraged”;
Whereas in 1789, on the same day that Congress finished
drafting the First Amendment, it requested President Washington to declare a
National day of prayer and thanksgiving, resulting in the first Federal
official Thanksgiving proclamation that declared “it is the duty of all nations
to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful
for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor”;
Whereas in 1800, Congress enacted naval regulations
requiring that Divine service be performed twice every day aboard “all ships
and vessels in the navy,” with a sermon preached each Sunday;
Whereas in 1800, Congress approved the use of the
just-completed Capitol structure as a church building, with Divine services to
be held each Sunday in the Hall of the House, alternately administered by the
House and Senate chaplains;
Whereas in 1853, Congress declared that congressional
chaplains have a “duty … to conduct religious services weekly in the Hall of
the House of Representatives”;
Whereas by 1867, the church at the Capitol was the largest
church in Washington, DC, with up to 2,000 people a week attending Sunday
service in the Hall of the House;
Whereas by 1815, over 2,000 official governmental calls to
prayer had been issued at both the State and the Federal levels, with thousands
more issued since 1815;
Whereas in 1853, the United States Senate declared that
the Founding Fathers “had no fear or jealousy of religion itself, nor did they
wish to see us an irreligious people . . . they did not intend to spread over
all the public authorities and the whole public action of the nation the dead
and revolting spectacle of atheistical apathy”;
Whereas in 1854, the United States House of
Representatives declared “It [religion] must be considered as the foundation on
which the whole structure rests … Christianity; in its general principles, is
the great conservative element on which we must rely for the purity and
permanence of free institutions”;
Whereas in 1864, Congress passed an act authorizing each
State to display statues of 2 of its heroes in the United States Capitol,
resulting in numerous statues of noted Christian clergymen and leaders at the
Capitol, including Gospel ministers such as the Revs. James A. Garfield, John
Peter Muhlenberg, Jonathan Trumbull, Roger Williams, Jason Lee, Marcus Whitman,
and Martin Luther King, Jr., Gospel theologians such as Roger Sherman, Catholic
priests such as Father Damien, Jacques Marquette, Eusebio Kino, and Junipero
Serra, Catholic nuns such as Mother Joseph, and numerous other religious
leaders;
Whereas in 1865, by law Congress authorized the
inscription of “In God We Trust” on American coinage;
Whereas in 1870, the Federal Government made Christmas and
Thanksgiving as official holidays;
Whereas in 1904, the Federal Government printed the Life
and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, which was distributed to new Members of
Congress for the next half-century;
Whereas in 1931, Congress by law adopted the Star-Spangled
Banner as the official National Anthem, with its phrases such as “may the
Heav’n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation,”
and “this be our motto, ‘In God is our trust!’”;
Whereas in 1954, Congress by law added the phrase “one
nation under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance;
Whereas in 1954, a special Congressional Prayer Room was
added to the Capitol with a kneeling bench, an altar, an open Bible, an
inspiring stained-glass window with George Washington kneeling in prayer, the
declaration of Psalm 16:1: “Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust,”
and the phrase “This Nation Under God” displayed above the kneeling, prayerful
Washington;
Whereas in 1956, Congress by law made “In God We Trust”
the National Motto, and added the phrase to American currency;
Whereas the constitutions of each of the 50 States, either
in the preamble or body, explicitly have recognized or expressed gratitude to
God;
Whereas America’s first Presidential Inauguration
incorporated 7 specific religious activities, including—
(1)the use of the
Bible to administer the oath;
(2)affirming the
religious nature of the oath by the adding the prayer “So help me God!” to the
oath;
(3)inaugural prayers
offered by the President;
(4)religious content
in the inaugural address;
(5)civil leaders
calling the people to prayer or acknowledgment of God;
(6)inaugural worship
services attended en masse by Congress as an official part of congressional
activities;
(7)clergy-led
inaugural prayers; and
(8)activities which
have been replicated in whole or part by every subsequent President;
Whereas President George Washington declared “Of all the
dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and
morality are indispensable supports”;
Whereas President John Adams, one of only 2 signers of the
Bill of Rights and First Amendment, declared “As the safety and prosperity of
nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of
Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an
indispensable duty which the people owe to Him”;
Whereas President Jefferson not only attended Divine
services at the Capitol throughout his presidency and had the Marine Band play
at the services, but during his administration church services were also begun
in the War Department and the Treasury Department, thus allowing worshippers on
any given Sunday the choice to attend church at either the United States
Capitol, the War Department, or the Treasury Department if they so
desired;
Whereas Thomas Jefferson urged local governments to make
land available specifically for Christian purposes, provided Federal funding
for missionary work among Indian tribes, and declared that religious schools
would receive “the patronage of the government”;
Whereas President Andrew Jackson declared that the Bible
“is the rock on which our Republic rests”;
Whereas President Abraham Lincoln declared that the Bible
“is the best gift God has given to men . . . But for it, we could not know
right from wrong”;
Whereas President William McKinley declared that “Our
faith teaches us that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our
fathers, Who has so singularly favored the American people in every national
trial and Who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk
humbly in His footsteps”;
Whereas Teddy Roosevelt declared “The Decalogue and the
Golden Rule must stand as the foundation of every successful effort to better
either our social or our political life”;
Whereas President Woodrow Wilson declared that “America
was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are
derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture”;
Whereas President Herbert Hoover declared that “American
life is builded, and can alone survive, upon . . . [the] fundamental philosophy
announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago”;
Whereas President Franklin D. Roosevelt not only led the
Nation in a 6 minute prayer during D–Day on June 6, 1944, but he also declared
that “If we will not prepare to give all that we have and all that we are to
preserve Christian civilization in our land, we shall go to
destruction”;
Whereas President Harry S. Truman declared that “The
fundamental basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses on the Mount. The
fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get
from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul”;
Whereas President Harry S. Truman told a group touring
Washington, DC, that “You will see, as you make your rounds, that this Nation
was established by men who believed in God. … You will see the evidence of this
deep religious faith on every hand”;
Whereas President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared that
“Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way
of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first, the most basic,
expression of Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw it, and
thus with God’s help, it will continue to be” in a declaration later repeated
with approval by President Gerald Ford;
Whereas President John F. Kennedy declared that “The
rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of
God”;
Whereas President Ronald Reagan, after noting “The
Congress of the United States, in recognition of the unique contribution of the
Bible in shaping the history and character of this Nation and so many of its
citizens, has … requested the President to designate the year 1983 as the ‘Year
of the Bible’”, officially declared 1983 as “The Year of the Bible”;
Whereas every other President has similarly recognized the
role of God and religious faith in the public life of America;
Whereas all sessions of the United States Supreme Court
begin with the Court’s Marshal announcing, “God save the United States and this
honorable court”;
Whereas a regular and integral part of official activities
in the Federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, was the
inclusion of prayer by a minister of the Gospel;
Whereas the United States Supreme Court has declared
throughout the course of our Nation’s history that the United States is “a
Christian country”, “a Christian nation”, “a Christian people”, “a religious
people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being”, and that “we cannot read
into the Bill of Rights a philosophy of hostility to religion”;
Whereas Justice John Jay, an author of the Federalist
Papers and original Justice of the United States Supreme Court, urged “The most
effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious
liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the Source from
which they flow”;
Whereas Justice James Wilson, a signer of the
Constitution, declared that “Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon
the authority of that law which is Divine … Far from being rivals or enemies,
religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants”;
Whereas Justice William Paterson, a signer of the
Constitution, declared that “Religion and morality … [are] necessary to good
government, good order, and good laws”;
Whereas President George Washington, who passed into law
the first legal acts organizing the Federal judiciary, asked, “where is the
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious
obligation desert the oaths in the courts of justice?”;
Whereas some of the most important monuments, buildings,
and landmarks in Washington, DC, include religious words, symbols, and
imagery;
Whereas in the United States Capitol the declaration “In
God We Trust” is prominently displayed in both the United States House and
Senate Chambers;
Whereas around the top of the walls in the House Chamber
appear images of 23 great lawgivers from across the centuries, but Moses (the
lawgiver, who—according to the Bible—originally received the law from God,) is
the only lawgiver honored with a full face view, looking down on the
proceedings of the House;
Whereas religious artwork is found throughout the United
States Capitol, including in the Rotunda where the prayer service of
Christopher Columbus, the Baptism of Pocahontas, and the prayer and Bible study
of the Pilgrims are all prominently displayed; in the Cox Corridor of the
Capitol where the words “America! God shed His grace on thee” are inscribed; at
the east Senate entrance with the words “Annuit Coeptis” which is Latin for
“God has favored our undertakings”, and in numerous other locations;
Whereas images of the Ten Commandments are found in many
Federal buildings across Washington, DC, including in bronze in the floor of
the National Archives; in a bronze statue of Moses in the Main Reading Room of
the Library of Congress; in numerous locations at the U.S. Supreme Court,
including in the frieze above the Justices, the oak door at the rear of the
Chamber, the gable apex, and in dozens of locations on the bronze latticework
surrounding the Supreme Court Bar seating;
Whereas in the Washington Monument not only are numerous
Bible verses and religious acknowledgments carved on memorial blocks in the
walls, including the phrases: “Holiness to the Lord” (Exodus 28:26, 30:30,
Isaiah 23:18, Zechariah 14:20), “Search the Scriptures” (John 5:39), “The
memory of the just is blessed” (Proverbs 10:7), “May Heaven to this Union
continue its beneficence”, and “In God We Trust”, but the Latin inscription
Laus Deo meaning “Praise be to God” is engraved on the monument’s
capstone;
Whereas of the 5 areas inside the Jefferson Memorial into
which Jefferson’s words have been carved, 4 are God-centered, including
Jefferson’s declaration that “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the
liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these
liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect
that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever”;
Whereas the Lincoln Memorial contains numerous
acknowledgments of God and citations of Bible verses, including the
declarations that “we here highly resolve that … this nation under God … shall
not perish from the earth”; “The Almighty has His own purposes. ‘Woe unto the
world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to
that man by whom the offense cometh’” (Matthew 18:7), “as was said three
thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether’” (Psalms 19:9), “one day every valley shall be
exalted and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be
made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed and all flesh see it together” (Dr. Martin Luther King’s
speech, based on Isaiah 40:4–5);
Whereas in the Library of Congress, The Giant Bible of
Mainz, and The Gutenberg Bible are on prominent permanent display and etched on
the walls are Bible verses, including “The light shineth in darkness, and the
darkness comprehendeth it not” (John 1:5), “Wisdom is the principal thing;
therefore, get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding” (Proverbs
4:7), “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8), and “The heavens declare the
Glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1);
Whereas numerous other of the most important American
government leaders, institutions, monuments, buildings, and landmarks both
openly acknowledge and incorporate religious words, symbols, and imagery into
official venues;
Whereas such acknowledgments are even more frequent at the
State and local level than at the Federal level, where thousands of such
acknowledgments exist; and
Whereas the first week in May would be an appropriate week
to designate as “America’s Spiritual Heritage Week”: Now, therefore, be
it
That the House of
Representatives—
(1)affirms the rich spiritual and diverse
religious history of our Nation’s founding and subsequent history, including up
to the current day;
(2)recognizes that
the religious foundations of faith on which America was built are critical
underpinnings of our Nation’s most valuable institutions and form the
inseparable foundation for America’s representative processes, legal systems,
and societal structures;
(3)rejects, in the
strongest possible terms, any effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such
history from our Nation’s public buildings and educational resources; and
(4)expresses support
for designation of a “America’s Spiritual Heritage Week” for the appreciation
of and education on America’s history of religious faith.