Congressional Record, Volume 147 Issue 140 (Wednesday, October 17, 2001)

[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 140 (Wednesday, October 17, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H7120-H7125]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

{time} 1500
WHAT MADE AMERICA GREAT

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simmons). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett)
is recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, today America is the
undisputed superpower of the world. How did we do that? We do not have
the most oil or the most gold or silver or diamonds. We do not have the
best agricultural land. But yet we are the envy of every Nation in the
world. How did we get here?
What I want to spend the next few minutes doing is looking at what
made America great, and to do that I am going to plagiarize a sermon
given by Dr. Richard Fredericks of the Damascus Road Community Church.
In the quotes that I will give, there will be lots of mention of
Christianity. I would like to note that in the time in which these
quotes were made, Christianity and religion were essentially equivalent
terms; so when you hear Christianity, please think God-fearing person,
rather than a specific religion or specific sect.
After the terrorist attacks, it is important that we celebrate our
Nation's independence and freedom; that we pause to reflect on our
national heritage as a defender of freedom and justice, to remember
that our Founding Fathers and hundreds of thousands since bought our
freedom at a price. Freedom is never free.
Our national freedom was very costly. Five of the 55 signers of the
Declaration of Independence were captured and executed by the British,
nine of them died on the battlefields of the Revolutionary War, and
another dozen lost their homes, possessions and fortunes to British
occupation. Our birth as a Nation was not cheap for these men.
What beliefs and convictions motivated them to do what they did?
Increasingly, Mr. Speaker, in the United States today we are told that
our Founding Fathers intended there to be this solid, necessary and
protective wall erected between Church and State, to separate them, to
keep each exclusively in its respective sphere of influence.
The key phrase we now use, which first appeared in the judicial
vocabulary in the United States in 1947, is the separation of church
and state. By and large, Americans have accepted or acquiesced to this
new phrase, though it nowhere appears in the United States Constitution
or in the first amendment, where the three words ``separation, church
and state'' are not even found at all.
Actually, those three words first appeared together in another
constitution. It is the constitution of the United Soviet Socialist
Republic. Let me read from article 124.
In order to ensure to citizens freedom of conscience, the church in
the USSR is separated from the state and the schools from the church.
The logic behind this phrase is that religion is a private matter
that should neither guide nor even be allowed to possibly influence
public education, the formation of minds, government

[[Page H7121]]

legislation, the formation of laws, and judicial rulings on what is
legal and just, the maintenance of justice. These are seen as
distinctly secular arenas. Religion as a living force must be kept out
of any public process that is in any way supported by any level of
local, State or federal funds, and this is especially true of
Christianity, or it could threaten the rights and liberty or coerce the
minds of nonbelievers.
A few historic and generic references to God are still allowed. Our
coins still say ``in God we trust,'' a statement put there by the
United States Congress to remind Americans of the true source of their
security. Our Supreme Court and the Houses of Congress still invoke the
name of God. Presidents are still inaugurated with their hand on the
Bible when taking the oath of office.

But each of these traditions is already under attack, and in America
today to teach that the great laws and principles of the Judeo-
Christian heritage and the morality of the Bible were the unique bases
of our national government and offer the guiding norm for our Nation is
now an illegal act. Violators of this no-faith-in-the-public-arena
dictum are attacked by the American Civil Liberties Union and other
watchdog organizations of our now secularized government, legal and
public educational systems. Every year teachers are fired for the
single offense of answering questions on the meaning of life with a
reference to their faith in God, while teachers advocating
homosexuality or adultery are protected due to personal rights and
freedom of speech.
In the grand American experiment, freedom or liberty has always been
the key word and the founding principle. Our Liberty Bell quotes from
Leviticus 25:10, ``proclaim liberty throughout all the land.'' The
Pilgrims came to America not primarily in search of riches. In fact,
many of them left riches to come here, but to obtain freedom to
worship, as did most who followed them for the next two centuries.
The American revolution from Britain was about the establishment of a
just and free citizenry. Even our bloodiest war, the one that claimed
more American lives than all other U.S. wars combined, the American
Civil War, was at its heart a battle over two definitions of freedom.
In our day, this American concept of freedom is now defined as the
freedom to say anything, show anything, believe or promote anything,
and act in any way, with no submission to regard or even respect toward
any concept of a guiding prescriptive truth or morality.
There is only one kind of freedom of speech the first amendment no
longer protects in this new era; that is prayer. Academic freedom has
become the freedom of student or teacher to hold or express views
against any national organization or patriotic, moral or religious
principle without fear of arbitrary interference, except if the student
is deemed bigoted, homophobic, chauvinistic, anti-feministic,
imperialistic, police-raid patriotic, religious, politically
conservative or otherwise politically incorrect. Then he must be
shamed.
The only sacred virtue that is still taught in our secular
universities, one that must be protected, is absolute tolerance towards
all views and lifestyles as equally valid, valuable and honorable,
except any faith-based moral view that challenges that assumption. Then
absolute intolerance toward that person is a virtue.
Officially, this all began only about 50 years ago when the Supreme
Court made a sharp 180 degree turn. With no historical precedent, they
began to uphold the idea that untold damage could be done to American
liberty unless the States and courts rejected all recourse or reference
to the law of God, the principles of the Bible, and especially the
morality and world view that flows from the Christian faith.
To allow the Christian faith to shape the public arena is now
condemned as unconstitutional, a reference to its United States
Constitution and its subsequent amendments. Since then, our children
are taught from grade school through college a view of United States
history that claims America never really was a Christian nation. The
textbooks are bled dry of all Christian references. They are taught
that the Founding Fathers were primarily atheists or deists.
Deism is a belief that God created the world and then left it alone.
He removed himself from its affairs so that there is no divine
intervention or interaction. God does not answer prayers or get
involved in any way. Students are taught that primarily the atheistic,
humanistic philosophers of the enlightenment shaped the thinking and
writings of America's earliest leaders. Little or no mention is allowed
in the classroom concerning the central role the Bible played in
shaping the principles of government which guide our Nation.
Increasingly, Christians that seek to express their faith as the
guiding factor in their decisions and actions in the workplace, the
arena of politics, or in tax-funded education of their children are
punished or censored legally and ridiculed personally as dangerous
right wing religionists.
My goal is twofold: first, I want to set the record straight by
exposing the lie that the last 40 years of revisionist history and
arbitrary judicial legislation concerning American history, the faith
of the Founding Fathers and the intent of the United States
Constitution, especially the first amendment, which protects religious
freedom; and, second, I hope to instill in our hearts a renewed
boldness for believing that only a true Biblical Judeo-Christian world
view could and did produce a Nation like ours, and only a distinctive
Judeo-Christian world view can sustain it.

Now, let me take you back on a journey. Were the Founding Fathers
deists or atheists? Actually, 52 of the 55 signers of the Declaration
of Independence were orthodox, deeply-committed Christians. The other
three all believed in the Bible as divine truth, the God of scripture,
and his personal intervention. This deep personal faith was also true
of all of our Presidents until recently.
This explains why when you go to Washington, D.C., everywhere you
turn there are scriptures written on every monument and building. This
explains why the same Congress that signed the Declaration of
Independence also formed the American Bible Society, which the second
and sixth U.S. Presidents served as chairman of. This explains why
after creating the Declaration of Independence, immediately the
Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of
scripture for the people of this new Nation.
They were not deists or atheists, but believed that the foundation of
this new Nation must rest on the revealed truth of scripture and
morality and the constant sovereignty of God revealed in scripture.
Let us let them speak directly. Patrick Henry is called the firebrand
of the American Revolution. His words spoken in St. John's Church
Richmond on March 23, 1775, ``Give me liberty, or give me death,'' are
still memorized by students. But in current textbooks the contents of
these words is deleted. Here is what he said.
``An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But
we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides
over the destinies of nations. The battle, sir, is not to the strong
alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the
price of chains and slavery? Forbid it almighty God. I know not what
course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me
death.''
These sentences have been erased from our textbooks. Was Patrick
Henry a Christian? The following year, 1776, he wrote this: ``It cannot
be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was
founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religious, but
on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other
faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here.''
Now to the man that historical revisionists most often claim was a
deist, thus who believe God was not concerned in the affairs of men,
Benjamin Franklin. Was Benjamin Franklin a deist? Let us allow him to
speak for himself.
The time was June 28, 1787. Benjamin Franklin was 81 years old,
Governor of Pennsylvania and the most honored member of the
Constitutional Convention. The convention was deadlocked over several
key issues of State and Federal rights when Franklin rose and reminded
them of the Continental Congress in 1776 that shaped the Declaration of
Independence.

[[Page H7122]]

This is what he said: ``In the days of our contest with Great Britain
when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for
divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were
graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must
have observed frequent instances of superintending providence in our
favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity to
establish our Nation. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend?
Do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, sir,
a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of
this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow
cannot fall to the ground without his notice, it is probable that a new
Nation cannot rise without his aid. We have been assured, sir, in the
sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in
vain that built it. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth
prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our
deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed
to any business.''
The following year, in a letter to the French Minister of State,
Franklin, speaking of our Nation, said, ``Whoever shall introduce into
public office the principles of Christianity will change the face of
the world.''

{time} 1515

The other deist, it is claimed, probably with most evidence, was
Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was a great student of scripture who
honored Christ as his greatest teacher and mentor but doubted his
divinity. But was Jefferson a deist ? On the front of his well-worn
Bible Jefferson wrote, ``I am a real Christian, that is to say, a
disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole
country will soon be rallied to the unity of our creator and, I hope,
to the pure doctrine of Jesus also.''
On slavery, Jefferson wrote, ``Almighty God has created men's mind
free. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep
forever.''
For the revisionist, these two men are their best and only shot at
deist; and they clearly were not. Yet from them they generalize to all.
So let us turn to our other early leaders. George Washington is called
the Father of our Nation. Listen to his heart on the Christian faith.
In his farewell speech on September 19, 1796, he said, ``It is
impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all the
dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, our religion
and morality are the indispensable supporters. Let us with caution
indulge the supposition,'' that is, the idea ``that morality can be
maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to
expect that our national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious
principle.''
What did Washington mean by religion? Was he a true Christian? Let me
excerpt several lines from his personal prayer book: ``Oh, eternal and
everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins
in the emaculate blood of the lamb and purge my heart by thy Holy
Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of thy son, Jesus
Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy
appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal
life. Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind and let the world be
filled with the knowledge of thee and thy son, Jesus Christ.''
At Mount Vernon, Washington, you can still see the benediction he
selected. It is John 11:25: ``I am the resurrection and the life. He
who believes in me shall live even if he dies.''
John Adams, our second President, also served as chairman of the
American Bible Society. In an address to military leaders he said, ``We
have no government armed with the power capable of contending with
human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our
Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate to the government of any other.''
John Jay, our first Supreme Court Justice, stated that when we select
our national leaders, if we are to preserve our Nation, we must select
Christians. ``Providence has given to our people the choice of their
rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our
Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.''
In fact, 11 of the 13 new State constitutions were also ratified in
1776. All required leaders to take an oath similar to this oath of
Delaware: ``Everyone appointed to public office must say, 'I do profess
faith in God the father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, his only son, and
in the holy ghost; and in God who is blessed forevermore I do
acknowledge the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, which are
given by divine inspiration.''
At the time of our Nation's bicentennial 1976, political science
professors at the University of Houston began to ask some key
questions: Why is it that the American Constitution has been able to
stand the test of time? Why has it not gone through massive revisions?
Why is it looked on as a model by dozens of nations? What wisdom
possessed these men to produce such an incredible document? Who did
they turn to for inspiration?
They spent 10 years cataloging 15,000 documents of the Founding
Fathers. They found that the Founding Fathers most often quoted these
three men. The most quoted was Baron Charles Montesquieu, who wrote in
his Spirit of the Laws, 1748: ``The Christian religion, which orders
men to love one another, no doubt creates the best political laws and
the best civil laws for each people. The morality of the gospel is the
noblest gift ever bestowed by God on man. We shall see that we owe to
Christianity benefits which human nature alone can never sufficiently
acknowledge. The principles of Christianity, deeply engraved on the
heart, would be infinitely more powerful than the false monarchies, the
humane virtue of republics, or the servile fear of despotic states.''
The second most quoted was Sir William Blackstone, a devout British
law professor who believed all laws must be proved from Scripture, and
the third was John Locke, whose treatise on civil government quoted the
Bible 102 times. Yet, most importantly, they found that the Bible
itself was directly quoted four times more than Montesquieu, six times
more than Blackstone, and 12 times more than John Locke. In fact, 34
percent of all of the quotes and the writings of the Founding Fathers
were direct word-for-word quotes from the Bible. Further, another 60
percent of their quotes were quoting men who were quoting the Bible, so
that an incredible 94 percent of all of the quotes in these 15,000
documents were direct quotes from or references to the Bible.

So how did they produce a document that has withstood the test of an
evolving government and growing Nation for 225 years? The answer: these
men were steeped in the word of God. They understood their need of its
constant direction, and they established a Nation based on its undying
principles.
Let me illustrate this fact more. When the Founding Fathers were
trying to figure out the most effective form of government, they came
up with the idea of three distinct branches of the Federal and State
government. Do we know how they decided that? They looked to Isaiah
33:22: ``For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord
is our king. He will save us.''
Further, they decided there must be a clear separation of powers in
these three branches of government to protect from the rise of
despotism. They based that conviction on a true understanding of the
human heart they found in Jeremiah 17:9: ``For the heart is more
deceitful than all else and desperately wicked. Who can know it?''
When they sought to develop strong churches throughout the land, and
they were encouraged, but not supported, by government funds, they set
aside government lands to give to churches, and determined all churches
were tax-exempt. We still honor that early conviction. That law was
based on Ezra 7:24: ``You are also to know that you have no authority
to impose taxes, tribute, or duty on any of the priests, Levites,
singers, temple servants, or other workers in the House of the Lord.''
These leaders knew their Bible, and they absolutely trusted its
wisdom. So the first great lie in America today is that our Founding
Fathers were not Christians seeking to establish a Christian Nation.
They most decidedly were.
The second lie emerges from the first. It is that the Founding
Fathers

[[Page H7123]]

established a wall of separation between religion, especially
Christianity and government, to ensure that these two would not mix. Do
you know that 67 percent of Americans today believe that the phrase
``separation of church and state'' is part of the Constitution?
Remember, the words ``separation, church and state'' do not ever appear
in the first amendment and appear nowhere together anywhere in the
Constitution. Here is the truth: our Founding Fathers had every
intention of establishing a distinctly Christian Nation. They had every
intent of also giving freedom to Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, or Hinduism.
Their intent was to establish a distinctly Christian Nation, but one
where no one Christian denomination ruled over the other denominations,
as had been the case in so much of Europe. They wanted to honor the
fact that under God, all men are created equal in value and rights.
John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams. He was a U.S.
Congressman, the U.S. Minister to Russia, France and Great Britain;
Secretary of State under James Monroe; and the sixth U.S. President. He
was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he
considered his highest honor and most important role. Celebrating the
4th of July, 1821, President Adams said, ``The highest glory of the
American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the
principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.
Mr. Speaker, 104 years later, the 30th President of the United
States, Calvin Coolidge, reaffirmed this truth on March 4, 1925:
``America seeks no empires built on blood and forces. She cherishes
no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.'' He late wrote:
``The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the
teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if
faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our
country.''
Not only our Presidents, but the Supreme Court, for 160 years
consistently and categorically ruled in favor of church and state
united hand in hand. The first ruling came in 1796, Runkle v.
Winemiller. The Supreme Court ruled: ``By our form of government, the
Christian religion is the established religion of all sects.'' They did
not consider religions as equal, but only the different variations or
denominations of the Christian faith.
The Supreme Court consistently ruled for Christian principle as the
foundation of our American laws. In 1811, the Peoples v. Ruggles shows
this clearly. Mr. Ruggles' crime was that he publicly slandered the
Bible. What would happen today? In 1811, Ruggles was arrested and his
case went all the way from New York District Court to the Supreme
Court. This was their verdict: ``You have attacked the Bible. In
attacking the Bible, you have attacked Jesus Christ. And in attacking
Jesus Christ, you have attacked the roots of our Nation. Whatever
strikes at the root of Christianity manifests itself in the dissolving
of our civil government.''

The Justices sentenced him to 3 months in prison and a $500 fine, one
year's wage. This is a more severe punishment than convicted rapists
who end up serving on average 85 days in jail.
In 1844, Vida v. Gerrard, a public school teacher, decided she would
teach morality without use of the Bible. The Supreme Court ruled ``why
not use the Bible, especially the New Testament? It should be read and
taught as the divine revelation in the schools. Where can the purist
principles of morality be learned so clearly and so perfectly as from
the New Testament?''
In a landmark decision rendered February 29, 1892, against the claim
of the cult called the Church of the Holy Spirit that Christianity was
not the faith of the people, the Supreme Court did two powerful things
in its ruling. First, Justice Josiah Brewer stated, ``Our laws and our
institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of
the redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that they should be
otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent, our civilization and
our institutions are emphatically Christian. No purpose of action
against our religion can be imputed to any legislation, State or
national, because this is a religious people. This is historically
true. From the discovery of this continent to this present hour, there
is a single voice making this affirmation.''
But then the Justices went on, citing 87 different legal precedents
to affirm that America was formed as a Christian nation by believing
Christians. They even spent for the first 100 years tax dollars for
Christian missionaries to do the work of evangelism on the frontiers
and granted public lands for churches and church-based schools.
Friends, regardless of how we feel about it today, the historical
fact is that there was no separation of church and state, other than a
lack of government funding of one denomination for 160 years of
American history. They were one and the same. The first amendment did
not separate religion from government; it simply ensured that no one
denomination was favored over all others, as in England.
Let us move across the street from the Supreme Court to Congress.

{time} 1530

One example will suffice. As humanism and Darwinism began to rise in
the nineteenth century, some made challenges to the idea that America
was a Christian Nation. Both Houses of Congress spent 1 year, from 1853
to 1854, studying the connection of America and the Christian faith.
In March 27, 1854, Senate Committee on the Judiciary chair, Senator
Badger, issued its final report. Let me quote from this resolution:
``The first amendment religion clause speaks against an establishment
of religion. What is meant by that expression? The Founding Fathers
intended by this amendment to prohibit an establishment of religion,
such as the Church of England presented, or anything like it. But they
had no fear or jealousy of religion itself, nor did they wish to see us
an irreligious people. They did not intend to spread all over the
public authorities and the whole public action of the Nation the dead
and revolting spectacle of atheistic apathy.''
What would they say about us today?
I continue to quote:
``In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity. By its
general principles, the Christian faith is the great conserving element
on which we must rely for the purity and permanence of our free
institutions. That was the religion of the Founding Fathers of the
Republic, and they expected it to remain the religion of their
descendents.''
Based on this report, in May of 1854, in joint session of Congress,
this resolution was passed. This is a resolution passed by the
Congress, and I quote:
``The great vital and conserving element in our system of government
is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.''
That was this Congress in May of 1854.
Let us move from Congress to our public schools. For over 140 years,
after the first amendment was passed, we spent tax dollars to educate
students in public schools that were distinctly Christian.
In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution, in 1782
our Congress voted this resolution: ``The Congress of the United States
recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in our schools.''
In grammar schools from 1690 until after World War II, two books were
the dominant teaching schools. The first and oldest was the New England
Primer, used for 200 years from 1690 to almost 1900. The basics of
alphabet were taught on Biblical verses.
One lesson went this way:
``A, A wise son makes a glad father but a foolish son is heaviness to
his mother.
B, Better is little with the fear of the Lord than abundance apart
from him;
C, Come unto Christ, all you who are weary and heavily laden;
D, Do not do the abominable thing, which I hate, sayeth the Lord;
E, Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.''
The second great teaching tool for 100 years was the McGuffey Reader,
which went through three editions and sold over 125 million copies
until printing was stopped in 1963.
William Holmes McGuffey was the Professor of Moral Philosophy at
Jefferson's University of Virginia, and the first President of Ohio
University.

[[Page H7124]]

President Lincoln called him the ``Schoolmaster of the Nation.''
In his introduction to teachers at the beginning of his textbook,
McGuffey laid out his rationale. Let me quote just two brief
paragraphs:
``The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are
derived our notions on the character of God, on the great moral
Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the
peculiarities of our free institutions.
``From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from
the sacred Scriptures. For all these extracts from the Bible I make no
apology.''
He went on to say his only apology is for not using the Scriptures
more.
Mr. Speaker, why was America great? Because every student coming
through our school system was memorizing scripture and learning the
Biblical basis of right and wrong, good and evil, sin and salvation.
That was the express purpose of our Nation and our Founding Fathers.
They were not deists nor atheists, nor were they trying to exclude
religion from a guiding role in the Federal Government and all of its
institutions.
Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly
Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636
and named after beloved New England Pastor John Harvard.
In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number 1, now this is
in Harvard, think about it today, rule number 1 was that students
seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the
Scriptures:
``Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to
consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and
Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay
Jesus Christ as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and
learning.''
For over 100 years, more than 50 percent of all of Harvard's
graduates were pastors.
America's law schools for 160 years used Blackstone's Commentaries to
train attorneys. Every time that a model case or law was mentioned in
Blackstone's Commentaries, next to the law in the margin he would print
all of the texts in the Bible that supported and illuminated that law
to prove that it was just. Those commentaries trained our lawyers for
160 years, and led to the conversion of many law students.
Perhaps the most famous example was Charles Finney, great American
evangelist. Finney studied law, became a believer through reading
Blackstone, and was used by God to convert 500,000 people in the great
revivals of the 1830s and 1840s.
Mr. Speaker, this is why America was great. David Moore interviewed
Bob Vernon, Assistant Chief of Police in the LAPD, in 1991. Chief
Vernon had hosted a visiting delegation of leading police officers from
the Soviet Union in 1989 who came to Los Angeles to see the model
police force. They talked through interpreters.
After several days together, the chief Russian officer stood
indignant, pointed his finger, and began to speak vehemently, with
passion and conviction.
Vernon asked, ``What did I say? How did I offend him? What did I do
wrong?'' The interpreter said, ``You did not say anything wrong. He is
simply frustrated and asking you: `Why is it that America is going the
way of the Soviet Union? Why are you moving in that direction? Can you
not see that where we have been, it does not work? Why do you push God
aside and seek to build only on yourselves?' ''.
That is the question, why? How do we get from where we were for two
centuries to where we are in 2001? Let me tell the Members quickly.
First, the great lie. In 1947, the Supreme Court in Everson vs. Board
of Education deviated from every precedent for the first time and in a
limited way affirmed a wall of separation between church and State in
the public classroom.
This was a totally new approach, a radical change in direction for
the Supreme Court. It required ignoring every precedent of Supreme
Court rulings for the past 160 years.
Then in 1962, less than 40 years ago, in Engle vs. Vitale, the
Supreme Court removed prayer from public schools. Since the founding of
the Nation, public school classrooms had begun their day with prayer.
Now that was declared unconstitutional and an arbitrary use of the
word.
The prayer that was banished stated this:
``Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee. We beg Thy
blessings upon us and our parents and our teachers and our country.
Amen.''
But the Supreme Court, without any legal precedent, now declared such
prayer to be unconstitutional. Really? The Declaration of Independence
mentions God four times, twice in sentences that are clearly intended
as written prayers. Is our Declaration of Independence
unconstitutional?
Then things happened fast. On June 17, 1963, the Supreme Court ruled
in Abington vs. Schemp that Bible reading was outlawed as
unconstitutional in the public school system. The Court offered this
justification: ``If portions of the New Testament were read without
explanation, they could and have been psychologically harmful to
children.'' Again, no legal or historical precedent was cited to back
up this ruling, Bible reading was now unconstitutional, though the
Bible was quoted 94 percent of the time by those who wrote our
Constitution and shaped our Nation and its system of education and
justice and government.

In 1965, the Courts denied as unconstitutional the right of a student
in the public school cafeteria to bow his head and pray audibly for his
food. That is against the law in America. In 1980, Stone vs. Graham
outlined the Ten Commandments in our public school system. The Supreme
Court said this:
``If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments were to have any
effect at all, it would be to induce schoolchildren to read them. And
if they read them, meditated upon them, and perhaps venerated and
obeyed them, this is not a permissible objective.''
Incredible. It is not a permissible objective to allow our children
to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments? James Madison,
who was the primary author of the Constitution of the United States,
said this about the Ten Commandments: ``We have staked the whole future
of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We
have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the
capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the
moral principles of the Ten Commandments.''
But the Supreme Court, bound to uphold the Constitution of the United
States, ignored Madison's interpretation of his own work. How odd, when
above the seat of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to this very
day the Ten Commandments are listed with the American eagle standing
symbolically protecting them. Yet those justices said, ``Not for our
children.''
At the close of every Court session since its inception, the Supreme
Court crier said, ``God save the United States and the Honorable
Court.'' But we cannot say that in our schools.
What has happened in America in these past 40 years? When we were
true to our roots, we were the greatest Nation in the world, the dream
destination of millions in every country. But starting in 1963, the
Bible was banned as psychologically harmful to children. That year,
1963, was the first year an entry about the separation of church and
State ever appeared in the World Book Encyclopedia under the United
States.
What have we reaped? America 100 years ago had the highest literacy
rate of any Nation on Earth. Today we spend more on education than any
other Nation in the world, and yet, since 1987, we have graduated more
than 1 million high school students who cannot even read their diploma.
We spend more money than any other Nation in the industrialized world
to educate our children, and yet, SAT scores fell for 24 straight years
before finally levelling off at the bottom in the 1990s.
Has this new protection from religion produced better students?
Morally have they changed? Are things better in this new climate of
protection from the dangers of religion?
In a 1960 survey, 53 percent of America's teenagers had never kissed,
and 57 percent said they had never necked, and that is ``made out'' in
our current lingo, and 92 percent of teenagers in

[[Page H7125]]

America said they were virgins in 1960. By 1990, just 30 years later,
75 percent of American high school students are sexually active by 18.
In the next 5 years, we spent $4 billion to educate them on how to be
immoral through trumpeting the solution of safe sex, and it worked. One
in five teenagers in America today lose their virginity before their
13th birthday, and 19 percent of America's teenagers say they have had
more than four sexual partners before graduation.
The result? Every day, 2,700 students get pregnant, 1,100 get
abortions, and 1,200 give birth. Every day, another 900 contract a
sexually-transmitted disease, many incurable. AIDS infection among high
school students climbed 700 percent between 1990 and 1995. We have 3.3
million problem drinkers on our high school campuses, over half a
million alcoholics, and every given weekend in America, 30 percent of
the student population spends some time drunk.
Three thousand children today will watch their parents get divorced,
and over 60 percent of the children born this day will spend part or
all of their childhood in a single-parent family. There are a quarter
of a million reported cases of child abuse every single year, and one
in three girls being sexually abused before they are 18, and one in 5
boys. That is America today.
Last year, a young woman in a high school in Oklahoma wrote this poem
as a new school prayer. Let me read it for you:

``Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule!
For this great nation under God--
Finds mention of Him very odd.
If scripture now the class recites
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And any time my head I bow--
Becomes a Federal matter now.
Our hair can be purple, orange, or green.
That's no offense, it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise!
Only prayer spoken out loud are a serious vice.
For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the State.
We are allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
and the 'unwed daddy' our Senior King.
It's inappropriate to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such ``judgments'' do not belong.
We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires, and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed--
No word of God must reach this crowd.
It is scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot--my soul please take!''

Our Nation, which used to lead the world in every arena, now leads
the world in these areas. We are number one in violent crime, we are
number one in divorce, we are number one in teenage pregnancies, we are
number one in volunteer abortions, we are number one in illegal drug
abuse, we are number one in the industrialized world for illiteracy.
What happened?

{time} 1545

First of all, Christianity went to sleep. Forty years ago the church
gave up the public arena to an increasingly secular government and said
we would focus on the souls of men. Actually, the first leader to call
for that division was not one of our founding fathers. His name was
Adolph Hitler, who told the preachers of Germany, ``You take care of
their souls and I will take care of the rest of their lives.'' The
Bible teaches that peace within a Nation comes as God's people stay
active and pray for their leaders.
Scripture challenges us in 1 Timothy 2:1-2: ``I urge then, first of
all, that requests, prayer, intercession requests for everyone, for
kings and all in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives
in all goodliness and holiness.''
Here is the million dollar question: Are we better off today? Since
we banished God from all our public life and systems and allowed a
vocal group of humanist activists to tell us our faith is dangerous to
the liberties of this Nation, are we better off? Are we satisfied with
what is happening in America?
Alexis de Tocqueville was a famous French statesman and scholar.
Beginning in 1831 he toured America for years to find the secret of her
genius and strength which was marveled at throughout the world. He
published a two-part work titled, ``Democracy in America,'' which is
still hailed as the most penetrating analysis of the relationship of
character to democracy ever written.
Here is how de Tocqueville summed up his experience:
``In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to
the manners, but shapes the intelligence of the people. Christianity
therefore reigns without obstacle, by universal consequence. The
consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle in a
moral world is fixed and in force.
``I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her
great harbors; her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich
mines and vast world commerce; in her universal public school system
and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic
Congress and in her matchless Constitution.
``But not until I went into the churches of America and heard her
pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her
genius and power. America is great because America is good; and if
America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!''
That is why America was great. That is why America is now a mess.
Let me close by suggesting the answer offered us by President Abraham
Lincoln in the address he gave calling for April 30, 1860, seeking a
national day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, and I read from
Abraham Lincoln:
``We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We
have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have
grown in numbers, wealth and powers as no other Nation has ever grown.
``But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand
which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched us; and we
have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all
these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our
own.
``Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-
sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too
proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then to humble
ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and
to pray for clemency and forgiveness.''
This was Abraham Lincoln.
Now we have an entire population that has no clue of its true
American heritage. They have not forgotten; they have never known or
heard the truth of our founding as a Christian Nation.
O Lord, forgive us, heal us and lead us to stand for what our fathers
fought to give us, to promote the power of the gospel in shaping this
Nation and to have the courage of our convictions as Judeo-Christians.
May we not shrink back. Abraham Lincoln said this to our Nation. We
need to hear it again.
``It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain, that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom.''
I thank Dr. Fredericks for permitting me to plagiarize his address.

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