[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 54 (Thursday, May 4, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H2554-H2555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ELIAN AND RELIGIOUS VALUES

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, for those persons who say that Elian must 
be returned to his biological father at all cost, I submit these other 
arguments.
  Let us point out that his real father, if he goes back to Cuba, will 
be Castro. In a Communist state, the government controls the state and 
controls the lives of the people. Those are the facts.

[[Page H2555]]

  Returning Elian to Cuba after so long in America will doom him to 
psychological abuse by the Communist regime.
  Ancient religious tradition from the Talmud, back 5,000 years, cites 
examples that, under Jewish law, a child must honor a person who 
teaches his moral and religious values above, above, a parent who does 
not.
  Since there are no religious values in Cuba, it follows that Elian 
could just as well honor his relatives in the United States, here, 
where they will teach him moral and religious values.

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