[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 190 (Tuesday, December 15, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E3009-E3010]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TREATISE ENTITLED ``SHINING CITY ON A HILL''

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 15, 2009

  Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, one of my constituents, E.M. Massey, is a 
dedicated Christian who is very concerned about the moral decline of 
this Nation.
  As the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, we have been 
``defining deviancy down, accepting as a part of life what we once 
found repugnant.''
  I want to call the attention of my Colleagues and other readers of 
the Record portions of a Treatise entitled ``Shining City on a Hill,'' 
submitted by Mr. Massey.

                        A Shining City on a Hill

       Introduction: In 1630, John Winthrop, governor of the 
     Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote a sermon while on the 
     Arbella, on his way to the new world. ``For we must consider 
     that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all 
     people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our 
     God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to 
     withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story 
     and a byword throughout the world.'' (This was one of 
     President Reagan's favorite quotes.)
       Truly, the founding of America was in so many ways, the 
     work of God. Yet as we look at the America of today, we see a 
     vastly different picture.
       On April 6, 2009, President Obama, speaking in the country 
     of Turkey said: ``America is not a Christian nation, or a 
     Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation. We are a nation of 
     citizens who are bound by ideals and sets of values.''
       Over the past 40 years, the idea of a ``Christian America'' 
     has been disparaged by many. Christians have been criticized 
     and vilified for their involvement in the political arena. 
     The Revisionist's interpretation of the First Amendment has 
     been at the forefront in this debate. Michael Medved in his 
     book, The 10 Big Lies About America, points this out.
       Following the 2004 reelection of George W. Bush, a frenzied 
     flurry of books and articles warned unsuspecting Americans of 
     the imminent takeover of their cherished Republic by an all-
     powerful, implacable theocratic conspiracy.
       In American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on 
     America, former New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges 
     breathlessly reported:
       ``All it will take is one more national crisis on the order 
     of September 11 for the Christian Right to make a concerted 
     drive to destroy American democracy. . . . This movement will 
     not stop until we are ruled by Biblical Law, an authoritarian 
     church intrudes in every aspect of our life, women stay at 
     home and rear children, gays agree to be cured, abortion is 
     considered murder, the press and the schools promote 
     `positive' Christian values, the federal government is 
     gutted, war becomes our primary form of communication with 
     the rest of the world and recalcitrant non-believers see 
     their flesh eviscerated at the sound of the Messiah's 
     voice.''
       According to Hedges (a recent--and surprisingly genial--
     guest on my radio show), it makes no sense to try to reason 
     with the ``Christian Fascists'' he fears. ``All debates with 
     the Christian Right are useless,'' he writes, because they 
     ``hate the liberal, enlightened world formed by the 
     Constitution.''
       Scores of other releases from major publishers sought to 
     arouse the nation's slumbering conscience to confront the 
     perils of ``the American Taliban.'' These titles include the 
     blockbuster best seller American Theocracy plus additional 
     cheery volumes such as Jesus Is Not a Republican: The 
     Religious Right's War on America; The Baptizing of America: 
     The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us; Why the 
     Christian Right is Wrong; Liars for Jesus; The Theocons: 
     Secular America Under Siege; The Hijacking of Jesus; and 
     many, many more.
       Some worried observers expected Christian conservatives to 
     remake America along the lines of Iran or Nazi Germany, while 
     others suggested that they would follow the genocidal path of 
     Communist China. In reviewing the Oscar-nominated documentary 
     Jesus Camp, Stephen Holden of the New York Times solemnly 
     declared: ``It wasn't so long ago that another puritanical 
     youth army, Mao Zedong's Red Guards, turned the world's most 
     populous country inside out. Nowadays, the possibility of a 
     right-wing Christian American version of what happened in 
     China no longer seems entirely far fetched.''
       So, we are faced with a question: Was America founded on 
     Christian principles and were we ever a Christian nation?
       March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry spoke in the Virginia House 
     of Burgesses ``There is no longer room for hope. If we wish 
     to be free, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God 
     of Hosts is all that is left us! They tell me that we are 
     weak, but shall we gather strength by irresolution? We are 
     not weak. Three million people, armed in the holy cause of 
     liberty and in such a country, are invincible by any force 
     which our enemy can send against us. We shall not fight 
     alone. God presides over the destinies of nations, and will 
     raise up friends for us. The battle is not to the strong 
     alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave, * * * 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.''
       On July 4, 1776, The Declaration of Independence was 
     unanimously adopted * * * Samuel Adams rose * * * ``We have 
     this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to 
     be obedient. He reigns in Heaven and * * * from the rising to 
     the setting sun, may His Kingdom come * * *''
       ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
     created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain 
     unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty and the 
     pursuit of happiness * * * The Declaration contained a solemn 
     appeal ``to the supreme judge of the world'' and concludes 
     with * * * ``A firm reliance on the protection of Divine 
     Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our 
     fortunes and our sacred honor.''
       Of the 56 signers, 54 were identified as Christians * * *.
       Benjamin Franklin once said: ``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 man. And if 
     a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it 
     probable that an empire can 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 
     build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without 
     His concerning aid, we shall succeed in this political 
     building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be 
     divided by our little, partial local interests; our projects 
     will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach 
     and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind 
     may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of 
     establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to 
     chance, war or conquest.''
       Joseph Story, a Supreme Court Justice from 1811 to 1845 
     (appointed by James Madison, the father of the Constitution) 
     and, as a long-time Harvard professor, was the leading early 
     commentator to the Constitution. He observed: ``The general 
     if not universal sentiment in America was that Christianity 
     ought to receive encouragement from the State so far was not 
     incompatible with the private rights of conscience and 
     freedom of religious worship. An attempt to level all 
     religion and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all 
     in utter indifference would have created universal 
     disapprobation, if not universal indignation. The real object 
     of the First Amendment * * * was to exclude all rivalry among 
     Christian sects, and to prevent any national ecclesiastical 
     establishment which should give a hierarchy the exclusive 
     patronage of the national government.''

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