[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 56 (Thursday, May 7, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2982-H2983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, today is the National Day of Prayer. This 
Nation and each of us individually would be far better off if we all 
spent more time in prayer. There are very few people in this country 
who would disagree with that.
  Certainly our Founding Fathers believed in prayer. Most of them came 
here in large part to get freedom of religion, not freedom from 
religion. Yet, beyond a belief in prayer, many other issues of faith 
are very contentious. But there is more common ground than the vocal 
minority sometimes would have us believe.
  Three or four years ago, William Raspberry, the great Washington Post 
columnist, wrote a really outstanding column on some of these issues. 
He asked a very important question, Mr. Speaker, when he wrote, ``Is it 
not just possible that antireligious bias, masquerading as religious 
neutrality, is costing this Nation far more than we have been willing 
to acknowledge?'' Let me repeat that quote from William Raspberry, ``Is 
it not just possible that antireligious bias, masquerading as religious 
neutrality, is costing this Nation far more than we have been willing 
to acknowledge?''
  In this same column, Mr. Raspberry then told of a Jewish talk show 
host who had said that for those who thought there was no place for God 
in the public life of this Nation, he wished they would ask themselves 
this question: If they were walking late one night in the roughest 
section of one of our Nation's largest cities and they heard footsteps 
approaching rapidly from behind and they turned and saw four strapping, 
well-built young men, would they not be relieved to know that these 
young men were just returning from a Bible study?
  We open up every session of the House and Senate with prayer; and we 
have rabbis, priests, ministers from all faiths and there has never 
been a problem about it. Yet, for some reason, we do not allow our 
schoolchildren the same privilege. And the problems of the schools have 
grown much worse over the last 25 or 30 years.
  A really fine column on religious tolerance, Mr. Speaker, was written 
a few weeks ago by nationally syndicated columnist Charley Reese. I 
would like to read this column into the Record at this point.
  This is what Mr. Reese wrote:

       Want to know the definition of a stone-cold bigot? It is 
     anybody who is offended by the sight and sound of someone 
     practicing, expressing, or proclaiming his religious faith. 
     Such people are not only bigots, they are the south end of a 
     horse traveling north. Their intolerance is exceeded only by 
     their ignorance of the Constitution.
       The first amendment forbids the establishment of an 
     official church or religion. Period. Nothing else. To 
     establish an official church or religion would require 
     legislation so designating it, and taxes and appropriations 
     to subsidize it. That's all Thomas Jefferson meant when he 
     said there was a wall of separation between church and state.

  Mr. Reese continued:

       But when a private individual or a public official prays in 
     a school or any other public place, he is not establishing an 
     official church. For someone to say that the mere sight of a 
     Christian proclaiming his faith in a public place is 
     offensive is to indict himself as a vicious bigot and an 
     inconsiderate, self-centered boor. These boors apparently 
     have no conception of civility and respect for others. They 
     act as if religious faith were an infectious disease.

[[Page H2983]]

       One of the most touching sights I saw

  Mr. Reese continued,
       . . . in the Middle East was a poor man, a Muslim, in 
     shabby clothes, kneeling on a newspaper, the only prayer rug 
     he could afford, on the tarmac of the airport in Amman, 
     Jordan, and saying his evening prayers. His example of simple 
     faith in his God touched my heart.
       Truthfully, I cannot conceive how any decent human being 
     could say that such a sight is offensive. People who find 
     other people's religion offensive are demonstrating their 
     hatred, not their interest in liberty.
       The only way a free society can work is for everyone to 
     respect everyone else. There is no respect when someone says, 
     `Your religion is offensive to me, so keep it out of my 
     sight.' That is hate speech. Nor is it being disrespectful to 
     practice your own religion or to pray as your particular 
     religion teaches you to pray.

  Mr. Reese said,

       I don't know about you, but I've had a bellyful of rude, 
     self-centered people. It's time to teach some people in this 
     country some simple manners.
       Good manners are based on reciprocity. Respect for respect. 
     Tolerance for tolerance. There are some people who use 
     Orwellian doublespeak and practice bigotry while proclaiming 
     their support for tolerance. We should expose such people for 
     what they are, bigots.
       If you are a nonbeliever and are present when believers are 
     praying, don't pray. But out of respect and courtesy for them 
     as human beings, do not be rude or make ugly remarks about 
     them. Respect people as people, even if they practice a 
     different religion. And respect their religion.

  Mr. Reese concluded this column by saying,

       I am fed up with seeing religious people browbeaten and 
     insulted by bullies packing lawyers. We have too many mean-
     spirited tails trying to wag our dog in this country. It may 
     be time to bob some tails.

  Mr. Speaker, I think this is a great column by Charley Reese, and I 
include the column for the Record:

                 Respect People Regardless of Religion

                           (By Charlie Reese)

       March 30.--Want to know the definition of a stone-cold 
     bigot?
       It's anybody who is ``offended'' by the sight and sound of 
     someone practicing, expressing or proclaiming his religious 
     faith.
       Such people are not only bigots, they are the south end of 
     a horse traveling north. Their intolerance is exceeded only 
     by their ignorance of the Constitution.
       The first amendment forbids the establishment of an 
     official church or religion. Period. Nothing else. To 
     establish an official church or religion would require 
     legislation so designating it, and taxes and appropriations 
     to subsidize it. That's all Thomas Jefferson meant when he 
     said there was a wall of separation between church and state.
       You would have to be an idiot to conclude otherwise because 
     the same people who wrote and passed the First Amendment also 
     provided for tax-paid chaplains to pray in Congress. The 
     problem the founders of the country dealt with is nonexistent 
     today in America. It was the common practice of governments 
     in their day to adopt a church and tax everyone to subsidize 
     it. The practice had been brought from Europe to the 
     colonies.
       But when a private individual or a public official prays in 
     a school or any other public place, he is not establishing an 
     official church. For someone to say that the mere sight of a 
     Christian proclaiming his faith in a public place is 
     ``offensive'' is to indict himself as a vicious bigot and an 
     inconsiderate, self-centered boor. These boors apparently 
     have no conception of civility and respect for others. They 
     act as if religious faith were an infectious disease.
       One of the most touching sights I saw in the Middle East 
     was a poor man, a Muslim, in shabby clothes, kneeling on a 
     newspaper (the only prayer rug he could afford) of the tarmac 
     of the airport in Amman, Jordan, and saying his evening 
     prayers. His example of simple faith in his God touched my 
     heart.
       He was as oblivious to the crowd of people and soldiers as 
     he was to the cold wind and hard tarmac. He had a beautiful 
     expression on his grizzled face. Clearly, there was man 
     communing with a God he loved, and God must surely love such 
     a man.
       Truthfully, I cannot conceive how any decent human being 
     could say that such a sight is ``offensive.'' People who find 
     other people's religion offensive are demonstrating their 
     hatred, not their interest in liberty.
       The only way a free society can work is for everyone to 
     respect everyone else. There is no respect when someone says, 
     ``Your religion is offensive to me, so keep it out of my 
     sight.'' That is hate speech. Nor is it being disrespectful 
     to practice your own religion or to pray as your particular 
     religion teaches you to pray.
       I don't know about you, but I've had a bellyful of rude, 
     self-centered people. It's time to teach some people in this 
     country some simple manners.
       Good manners are based on reciprocity. Respect for respect. 
     Tolerance for tolerance. There are some people who use 
     Orwellian doublespeak and practice bigotry while proclaiming 
     their support for tolerance. We should expose such people for 
     what they are--bigots.
       If you are a nonbeliever and are present when believers are 
     praying, don't pray. But out of respect and courtesy for them 
     as human beings, don't be rude or make ugly remarks about 
     them. Respect people, as people, even if they practice a 
     different religion. And respect their religion.
       I'm fed up with seeing religious people browbeaten and 
     insulted by bullies packing lawyers. We have too many mean-
     spirited tails trying to wag our dog in this country. It may 
     be time to bob some tails.

                          ____________________