[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 160 (Thursday, November 6, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2265]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E2265]]
                    IN HONOR OF NATIONAL BIBLE WEEK

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ROSCOE G. BARTLETT

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 6, 2003

  Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise today as 
the House cochairman of National Bible Week that will take place in 
2003 during the week of November 23-30. The National Bible Association 
is organizing nationwide recognition of the importance of the Bible in 
our daily lives during this week. I would like to speak briefly about 
the importance of the Bible in the history of our nation, and the 
foundation of the government of the United States of America.
  George Washington, our first President wrote:

       It is impossible to govern the world without God and the 
     Bible. Of all of 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 notion or 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.

  John Adams, our second President, was also President of the American 
Bible Society and this is what he said:

       We have no government armed with the power capable of 
     contending with human passions unbridled by morality and true 
     religion.

  And now listen to these words of John Adams:

       Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious 
     people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any 
     other.

  John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, also served as President of the 
American Bible Society. He told his friends that he valued his 
presidency of the American Bible Society above his presidency of the 
United States. These are his words:

       The highest glory of the American revolution was this. It 
     connected in one indissolvable bond the principles of civil 
     government with the principles of Christianity. From the day 
     of the declaration, they, that is, the founders were bound by 
     the laws of God which they all acknowledged as their rules of 
     conduct.

  In the 1920's, President Calvin Coolidge said:

       America seeks no empires built on blood and forces. She 
     cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.

  He later 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.

  The Bible has come up many times in cases before the Supreme Court. 
In 1811, there was a case the People v. Ruggles. This was a person who 
had publicly slandered the Bible. This case got to the Supreme Court 
and this is what they said:

       You have attacked the Bible. In attacking the Bible, you 
     have attacked Jesus Christ. 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.

  In 1845, there was a case Vida v. Gerrand. This was a lady teacher 
who was teaching morality without using the Bible. I have no idea how 
that case got to the Supreme Court, but it did, and this is what they 
said, ``Why not use the Bible?'' This is the Supreme Court:

       Why not use the Bible, especially the New Testament? It 
     should be read and taught as a divine revelation in the 
     schools. Where can the purest principles of morality be 
     learned so clearly and so perfectly as from the New 
     Testament?

  Consistent with this philosophy, the Continental Congress bought 
20,000 Bibles to distribute to their new citizens, and for 100 years, 
at the beginning of our country, this Congress appropriated money to 
send missionaries to the American Indians.
  The Bible has been an important foundation of learning in our 
schools. The Congress in 1854 made this statement about our schools. It 
said:

       The Congress of the United States recommends and approves 
     the Holy Bible for use in our schools.

  Consistent with that, it was used.
  The New England Primer was used for over 200 years. Notice how they 
taught the alphabet:

       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 ``McGuffey Reader,'' was used for 100 years. Not too many years 
ago it was brought back to some of our schools when for a number of 
years the achievement scores had considerably dropped and we graduated 
over 1 million people who literally could not read their high school 
diplomas, and, out of desperation, they brought the ``McGuffey Reader'' 
back to some of the schools, because when we had that in our schools, 
the graduates could read when they graduated from school.
  This is what the author says about The ``McGuffey Reader'':

       The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From 
     it derived our notions on the character of God and 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 of these extractions from the 
     Bible I make no apology.

  There has been a determined movement over the last 50 years to 
denounce the Bible as a document that is irrelevant in our modern 
society. Worse than irrelevant, there has been a concerted effort which 
has succeeded in removing the Bible and even prayer from schools on the 
grounds that it is dangerous and offensive.
  A couple of years ago a young woman in a high school in Oklahoma 
wrote this poem as a new school prayer:

     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.
     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 prayers spoken out loud are serious vice.
     For praying in a public hall
     Might offend someone who has 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 have 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 is inappropriate to teach right from wrong,
     We are 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.

  The Bible is as relevant today as it has been since it was written 
for very simple reasons. The Bible is the word of God for Jews and 
Christians around the world. Every American should be taught to 
understand that the foundations of our government are rooted in the 
moral teachings of the Bible. For people of all faiths, the Bible 
offers universal ethical guidelines of right and wrong, good and bad 
and simple rules to follow to lead a virtuous life and establish a just 
society.

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