[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 194 (Friday, December 16, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H9916-H9918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
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WORDS OF WISDOM AT CHRISTMASTIME
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized
for 30 minutes.
Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the comments of my colleague from Texas, my sister in
faith. I know we get carried away sometimes in worrying about different
bills. There's a lot to be concerned about. But looking at our Nation's
history, from whence we've come gives us a better glimpse of where we
should be going.
At this time, as Congress has for decades, many, many generations, we
are about to have a Christmas recess. And so, though we're used to in
here debating back and forth, fussing back and forth, because of the
season and also with due deference to the things my friend from Texas
said, it is important to take note of who we are and our history, just
as our Founders did.
I've got a book here, William Federer, just a wonderful gentleman.
He's put together so many great books. This one is called ``Prayers and
Presidents: Inspiring Faith From Leaders of the Past.'' It's
noteworthy.
I was 4 years in the Army, and I never saw an order like this, but
right now we're debating whether or not chaplains should be forced to
marry people when they know in their hearts it violates their Christian
teaching, their Christian beliefs, and our Constitution was not
supposed to do that. It's interesting to note that the order from the
Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary military, May 2, 1778, to the
troops at Valley Forge was as follows:
The Commander in Chief directs that divine service be
performed every Sunday at 11 o'clock in each brigade which
has a chaplain. Those brigades which have none will attend
the places of worship nearest to them. It is expected that
officers of all ranks will, by their attendance, set an
example for their men. While we are zealously performing the
duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not
to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the
distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest
glory to laud the more distinguished character of Christian.
That was the order of George Washington in 1778 to our troops.
It's also worth noting that when he did what no man has ever done in
the history of the world before or since, that was lead a military in
revolution, win the revolution, and then tender his resignation and go
home, in essence saying, I've done what you ask, you gave me all power.
I'm giving it all back.
At the end of that resignation was a prayer, and I'll read part of
the prayer from George Washington. This was 1783, June 14. At the end
of his resignation were these words:
[[Page H9917]]
Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt
keep the United States in Thy holy protection.
And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to
dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean
ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of
mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of
our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose
example in these things we can never hope to be a happy
Nation.
That was George Washington in resigning as no one had done before. In
fact, King George, when he was told Washington was resigning, didn't
believe him. He didn't believe that that would happen. He said nobody
would do that. In fact he said, If Washington were to do that, he would
be the greatest man alive. He was. He was indeed.
It is also noteworthy, because in figuring out where we're going from
here, and especially in this Christmas season, we need to know where we
came from. 1789, George Washington said this in writing:
May the same wonder-working Deity who, long since
delivering the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors,
planted them in the Promised Land--whose providential agency
has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United
States as an independent Nation--still continue to water them
with the dews of heaven and to make the inhabitants of every
denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual
blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.
George Washington.
There may be the gentleman from Maryland that follows me. If not,
these may be the last Special Orders before the Christmas break. And I
think with all of the debate that goes back and forth, this is
critically important to note who said what while we were being founded.
Thomas Jefferson said these words in 1781, and it's inscribed on the
Jefferson Memorial:
God who gave us life, gave us liberty. And can the
liberties of a Nation be thought secure when we have removed
their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the
people that these liberties are the gift of God, that they
are not to be violated but with His wrath. Indeed, I tremble
for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His
justice cannot sleep forever.
Think of those words, as I know that in the county right next to my
home county there are people, a group, Freedom From Religion, that is
doing all they can to have a nativity scene removed that is a part of
the history of Athens, Texas.
Thomas Jefferson also said these words: ``I am a Christian in the
only sense in which He wished anyone to be, sincerely attached to his
doctrines in preference to all others.''
Jefferson said: ``I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose
hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their
native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the
necessities and comforts of life.''
I was on Fox News last week with my friend, Eric Bolling, had a
gentleman from Wisconsin who was saying Christians are a hateful group,
that it is a hate religion, not understanding our history, not
understanding this observation at this time of year. Not so much that
we designate surely December 25 was the day when Jesus was born, but
that it has been traditionally a date where we remembered his birth.
James Madison had plenty to say. In part, in one of his national day
of public humiliation and prayer proclamations, he said:
If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy of the
favorable regard of the holy and omniscient Being to whom it
is addressed, it must be guided only by their free choice, by
the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their
consciences, and such a spectacle must be interesting to all
Christian nations as proving that religion, that gift of
heaven, for the good of man.
Abraham Lincoln, September 5, 1864, said in regard to this great
book, talking about the Bible:
I have but to say, I believe the Bible is the best gift God
has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was
communicated through this book. But for it we could not know
right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's
welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.
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So it's interesting that now, in a place where so many Christian
groups came to avoid persecution, we're about to come full circle. Now
we have people, groups like just in the recent days, who are on
television, telling me, as a Christian, that I'm a member of a hate
group?
He understands not what Washington understood, what Jefferson
understood, what Madison understood. And how about the only President
to have ever been elected to Congress and been elected President and to
have been appointed to the Supreme Court? In fact, he was Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court. He was William Howard Taft.
William Howard Taft, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said these
words in 1908:
No man can study the movement of modern civilization from
an impartial standpoint and not realize that Christianity,
and the spread of Christianity, are the only basis of hope of
modern civilization in the growth of popular self-government.
Our only Member of Congress, who was also President, who was also
Chief Justice, said this:
The spirit of Christianity is pure democracy; it is the
equality of man before God--the equality of man before the
law, which is, as I understand it, the most Godlike
manifestation that man has been able to make. William Howard
Taft.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said these words on December 24, 1933, because
he believed the Christian religion not to be a hate religion, as so
many are now saying, as so many are trying to persecute. It is also
important to understand this was in a terrible time of a depression.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said this:
. . . this year marks a greater national understanding of the
significance in our modern lives of the teachings of Him
whose birth we celebrate. To more and more of us, the words
`Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself' have taken on a
meaning that is showing itself and proving itself in our
purposes and daily lives.
May the practice of that high ideal grow in us all in the
year to come.
I give you and send you one and all, old and young, a Merry
Christmas and a truly Happy New Year. And so, for now and for
always, `God bless us every one.'
The words of Franklin Roosevelt.
In 1941, just 2 weeks exactly after the horror of Pearl Harbor's
sneak attack, Franklin Roosevelt said this:
Sincere and faithful men and women . . . are asking
themselves this Christmas: How can we light our trees? How
can we give our gifts? How can we meet and worship with love
and with uplifted spirit and heart in a world at war, a world
of fighting and suffering and death?
Franklin Roosevelt went on:
How can we pause, even for a day, even for Christmas Day,
in our urgent labor of arming a decent humanity against the
enemies which beset it? How can we put the world aside, as
men and women put the world aside in peaceful years, to
rejoice in the birth of Christ?
Franklin Roosevelt went on:
Looking into the days to come, I have set aside a day of
prayer, and in that Proclamation, I have said: `The year 1941
has brought upon our Nation a war of aggression by powers
dominated by arrogant rulers whose selfish purpose is to
destroy free institutions. They would thereby take from the
freedom-loving peoples of the Earth the hard-won liberties
gained over many centuries. The new year of 1942 calls for
the courage . . . Our strength, as the strength of all men
everywhere, is of greater avail as God upholds us.
Therefore, I . . . do hereby appoint the first day of the
year 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking forgiveness for our
shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the
present, of asking God's help in the days to come. We need
His guidance that this people may be humble in spirit but
strong in the conviction of the right; steadfast to endure
sacrifice and brave to achieve a victory of liberty and
peace.
Our strongest weapon in this war is that conviction of the
dignity and brotherhood of man which Christmas Day signifies
. . . Against enemies who preach the principles of hate and
practice them, we set our faith in human love and in God's
care for us and all men everywhere.'
A year later exactly, Franklin Roosevelt said:
To you who serve in uniform, I also send a message of cheer
that you are in the thoughts of your families and friends at
home and that Christmas prayers follow you wherever you may
be. To all Americans, I say that loving our neighbor as we
love ourselves is not enough--that we as a Nation and as
individuals will please God best by showing regard for the
laws of God. There is no better way of fostering good will
toward man than by first fostering good will toward God.
Then Franklin Roosevelt quotes from John 14:15:
``If we love Him, we will keep His Commandments.'' In
sending Christmas greetings to the Armed Forces and merchant
sailors of the United Nations, we include therein our pride
in their bravery on the fighting fronts and on all the seas.
[[Page H9918]]
It is significant that tomorrow, Christmas Day, our plants
and factories will be stilled. That is not true of the other
holidays we have long been accustomed to celebrate. On all
other holidays, work goes on gladly--for the winning of the
war. So Christmas becomes the only holiday in all the year. I
like to think that this is so because Christmas is a holy
day. May all it stands for live and grow throughout the
years.
It might be worth hearing from John Kennedy, December 1962, which was
approximately a year before he was assassinated. John Kennedy said
these words at this season, at this time:
With the lighting of this tree, which is an old ceremony in
Washington and one which has been among the most important
responsibilities of a good many Presidents of the United
States, we initiate, in a formal way, the Christmas season.
We mark the festival of Christmas, which is the most sacred
and hopeful day in our civilization. For nearly 2,000 years,
the message of Christmas, the message of peace and good will
towards all men has been the guiding star of our endeavors .
. . I had a meeting . . . which included some of our
representatives from far off countries in Africa and Asia.
They were returning to their posts for the Christmas
holidays. Talking with them . . . I was struck by the fact
that in the far-off continents, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists,
as well as Christians, pause from their labors on the 25th
day of December to celebrate the birthday of the Prince of
Peace.
Kennedy went on and said:
There could be no more striking proof that Christmas is
truly the universal holiday of all men. It is the day when
all of us dedicate our thoughts to others; when all are
reminded that mercy and compassion are the enduring virtues;
when all show, by small deeds and large and by acts, that it
is more blessed to give than to receive. It is the day when
we remind ourselves that man can and must live in peace with
his neighbors and that it is the peacemakers who are truly
blessed. In this year of 1962, we greet each other at
Christmas with some special sense of the blessings of peace.
This has been a year of peril, when the peace has been
sorely threatened. But it has been a year when peril was
faced and when reason ruled. As a result, we may talk at this
Christmas just a little bit more confidently of peace on
Earth, goodwill to men. As a result, the hopes of the
American people are perhaps a little higher. We have much yet
to do. We still need to ask God to bless everyone.
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And then finally, I was asked last year to write a story, a personal
story, about a previous Christmas season. I would like to share that.
It can be found at Human Events, entitled, ``Answered Prayer,'' from
December 25, 2010.
Mother had become so very impulsive. You never knew what
she might do next. This brilliant woman in her younger years
had put herself through Baylor University in less than three
years while working full-time, was a member of an Honor
Society, and had spent most of her professional life as an
eighth-grade English teacher.
She had prided herself on being able to solve almost any
puzzle, answer most any question, and now it was she who was
puzzled by lots of things. She got disoriented, and was going
crazy thinking she might be going crazy. In fact, a local
doctor in our small town in east Texas told Dad if she got
much worse, she might need to be put in a home or
institution. That drove her even crazier. Amidst the other
perplexing conditions, she thought she was not hearing out of
one ear, but that was a minor thing so she did not pursue
answers for a long time.
Eventually she decided to go the 60 miles to Longview,
Texas, to have a hearing checkup with an ear, nose, and
throat specialist named Dr. Norman, whose only other contact
with our family was about 14 years earlier when he diagnosed
a hearing problem for me when I was 8 years old. He ran tests
and did x rays of Mother, but was baffled. He said she had
lost most of her hearing in her right ear, and he expected to
find a small tumor in her inner ear, but the x rays showed
there was no tumor at the normal spot. She had a hearing
loss, but he had no idea why. She went home feeling that at
least there was something wrong with her that was not
psychosomatic.
Nonetheless, her depression, anxiety, loss of balance,
impetuosity all kept getting worse, and she knew it. As fall
was heading toward Christmas, Mother was heading for
disaster. That was what she feared most, as did my father, my
older sister, Susan, my two younger brothers, David and Bill,
along with me.
Several months after her office visit with Dr. Norman, my
brilliant mother was overwhelmed in a way none of us could
help. This smart woman who read all of us Bible stories from
our earliest days, who loved to recite poetry from memory,
jokes and stories, was now having trouble from time to time
remembering some of those--and it was not just age taking its
toll on this 50-year-old mother.
One night, my mother could not sleep, which was not
unusual, but she got on her knees to pray. This was a regular
habit for this staunch Christian, a Southern Baptist, in
fact. But that night it was in complete desperation and
hopelessness. She prayed in essence: `Lord, You know I would
not take my own life, but I cannot live another day like
this. I cannot go on. You have to do something. Please help
me!'
My youngest brother, Bill, was the only sibling still
living at home. He said he awoke, got up, saw a light on, and
went to the living room. He saw Mom and worriedly asked,
`Mother, are you all right?' She said, `Yes, son. I'm fine.
Go on back to bed.' He did. She prayed a while longer,
eventually drifting down the hall to fall in bed beside our
father.
The next morning, Mother, not having to teach that day,
slept late until the phone rang. Since Dad was already at
work, Mother answered. It was the ear doctor, Dr. Norman, who
had seen her once many months before but with whom there had
been no contact since. He said, `Mrs. Gohmert, this is Dr.
Norman over in Longview. I woke up in the middle of the night
thinking about you, and just wanted to call and see if your
problems had gotten any better.' Mother told him, no, she had
actually thought she was worse. He said that is what he had
awakened thinking, and he wanted to send her over to a
neurologist friend of his at Baylor Hospital in Dallas and
just let him run tests until he figured out what was wrong.
Mother and Dad did not have a lot of money then, but they
readily agreed to do just that. Dr. Norman was not a friend
of the family, had not seen Mother in many months, did not
have common friends with our family, but he was
providentially usable and awoke with Mother on his mind!
Almost a week of testing, and nothing showed until they
tried a new machine--new at that time--called a CT Scan. It
revealed a small, walnut-sized tumor just inside the skull
above her left ear. Mother was elated when she told us the
results. We were all heartsick, but not Mother. She was so
excited because she knew it was a physical problem; she
wasn't just going crazy. What was more, she knew, as we all
did--God had answered her prayer. From there, she could
handle whatever happened.
The doctor at Baylor, concerned about the sensitive area of
the brain in which the tumor was located, referred her to a
neurosurgeon friend at the Mayo Clinic. Again, she and Dad
did what they had to, with surgery scheduled shortly after
Christmas. When the neurosurgeon went in, he found the tumor
was more grapefruit size, involved a great deal of the brain,
and could not be removed entirely. We were told later it
would grow back in maybe a year, maybe 20, no one would know.
Mom felt that was OK, too.
And through it all, she found her amazing sense of humor
again as well. In fact, her surgeon was quite concerned that
he had traumatized nerves or parts of her brain that could
have materially affected her abilities. He told the nurses it
was imperative that he watch her come out from under the
anesthesia so he would have a better idea of the damage that
might have occurred. He was alerted and was standing at the
foot of Mother's bed when she opened her eyes, which then met
his eyes. He asked, `Do you know who I am?' Mother looked at
him for a moment and then said, `If you don't know who you
are, you're worse off than I am!' Mother still had her sense
of humor.
It took 15 years for the tumor to grow back big enough to
take her life, and the last few years were tough. Half of her
face did sag a bit, causing many to think Mother might have
had a stroke. But that too did not matter as much as the fact
that Mother's prayer had been answered. She, and we all, had
a God who listened to our prayers, and answered them.
Christmas was rather special that year. It was before her
surgery, so none of us knew what lay ahead for Mother or our
family from there. But everyone seemed a little closer, loved
a little deeper, hugged a little longer, had fewer squabbles,
and appreciated everything a little more.
Two thousand years after God gave us Jesus, He was and is still in
the business of answering prayer, just as George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, James Madison, and Presidents throughout our history--
Abraham Lincoln on up to the present day--have acknowledged.
Mr. Speaker, as so often occurred in the first 100 years of this
country's history in this building, I will close with a verse of
scripture, as so many in Congress used to do.
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Psalms 116:1-2:
I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my
supplications; because He has inclined His ear to me,
therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
Merry Christmas. Happy holidays to others who are offended by Merry
Christmas. As Franklin Roosevelt said: God Bless Us Every One. Merry
Christmas.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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