[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
           REESTABLISHING FREEDOM OF RELIGION IN THIS COUNTRY

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, William Raspberry, the syndicated columnist, 
has written some very fine columns in the last few days about 
governmental policy toward religion.
  Mr. Raspberry said, ``It is a species of intolerance to require the 
religious to make a secret of their beliefs.''
  In a Christmas column, he wrote this:

       Unfortunately the ACLU also opposes the moment of silence 
     substitute for school prayer. Why? After all, the 
     constitutional requirement is that the government not 
     establish religion, not that it root out religion.

  Or to put it another way, our Founding Fathers came here in large 
part to get freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.
  In my home county this past spring, they would not even allow non-
denominational prayers at high school graduations.
  In a column printed around the country today, Mr. Raspberry quotes 
Kevin Hasson, founder of the Beckett Fund, as saying this about the men 
who wrote the first amendment:

       They wouldn't have dreamed they were banning Christmas 
     trees or the ability of people to pray in legislatures or to 
     offer simple invocations at high school graduations.

  Mr. Raspberry asked this pointed question.

       Is it not just possible that anti-religious bias 
     masquerading as religious neutrality is costing more than we 
     have been willing to acknowledge?

  We need government neutrality toward religion--not government 
hostility toward religion.
  We need to reestablish freedom of religion in this Nation.

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