[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]




                              {time}  1530
                    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.

                              {time}  1540

  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.

                              {time}  1550

  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.

                              {time}  1600

  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.

                          ____________________