[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO DR. AND MRS. BILLY GRAHAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hutchinson). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Brownback] is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. Speaker, yesterday in this House we voted to give 
and grant to two people, well deserving, the Congressional gold medal, 
and that was to Dr. Billy and Ruth Graham, and that motion passed 
overwhelmingly in this House. It is going to the Senate and hopefully 
will be passed by a similar margin there and signed by the President of 
the United States.
  I just wanted to recognize these two extraordinary Americans and what 
they have done, for their extraordinary service they have committed to 
this country and the people of this planet. Dr. Graham has evangelized 
to more people on this globe, on this effort, than any human in history 
that he has witnessed to during the time period of his service, and it 
continues.
  Many writers, both political and religious, in this country are 
saying we as a Nation are entering a period of a fourth awakening, a 
time period of moral and spiritual renewal in America, where we look 
at ourselves and say, Are we doing the rights things? Are we doing the 
things that will last, not just for this lifetime, but for a further 
period of time on into eternity?

  They are saying we are entering into a period of moral and spiritual 
renewal, a reassessment of our values as a country. That is going to do 
a great deal to solve our true problems in America.
  Mr. Speaker, as I travel my district in eastern Kansas and talk to 
people back home, I ask them, do they think the biggest problems we 
face as a Nation, are they moral or are they economic? Are they the 
problems associated with the economy or problems associated with 
values? And I will get in almost every crowd 8 or 9 to 1 that will say 
the problems are moral rather than they are economic we are facing. 
They are problems with family and a disintegration of the family. They 
are problems with drugs. They are problems with crime. They are 
problems with people not willing to work. They are problems with people 
willing to do things that if they would think about it or if their own 
moral compass was a little better set, they would not do at all.
  The problems we are facing are moral, and the decline is taking place 
there. Yet I am optimistic in looking to the future, because I think we 
are finally starting to address the fundamental problems we have as a 
society, the value problems we have, and one does not address them in 
Congress. One addresses them in the individual community, in the 
individual family, in the individual person and what he does.
  That is how we change the culture, the society of this America. That 
is how we make ourselves better. That is how we solve our problems of 
family. that is how we solve our problems of crime. That is how we 
solve our problems dealing with drugs, problems dealing with welfare. 
We change ourselves and our own values and moral and spiritual outlook.
  Mr. Speaker, I think we need to get back to the basics and get back 
to the basic values, values of family, values of work, and recognition 
of a higher moral authority. When we as a society do that, we will 
solve many, many of our problems. That is what Dr. Graham and his wife 
Ruth have been about for a lifetime, is dealing with that, looking at 
the internal person and what they are doing and their personal 
relationship with a higher moral authority.
  So that is why I voted in favor of that. I was very strongly in 
support of it. And I hope that when Dr. and Mrs. Graham get this, if it 
passes the Senate and is signed into law by the President, I hope that 
he and Mrs. Graham will be invited to this Chamber to address a joint 
session of Congress and address the Nation, calling for moral and 
spiritual renewal in America.

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