[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 17 (Thursday, February 2, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H436-H438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ASSAULT ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

  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. Mr. Speaker, it's wonderful to hear so many of not just 
colleagues but friends here on the floor discussing what is so 
important to this Nation--responsibility. And if you want to talk 
fiscal responsibility, it would certainly seem that the first place to 
start is with the repeal of ObamaCare. If you want to talk about 
freedom individually, once again, the best place to start is with 
repeal of ObamaCare.
  There are so many ways the Federal Government has been encroaching 
into individual liberties and individual freedoms. It begins to get 
quite scary that we are encroaching on the very things that our 
original Founders were willing to fight and die for to ensure that we 
had the freedoms to do, that we would have the freedoms to avoid doing 
damage to our conscience.
  It's so ironic that so many came to this Nation in its earliest days, 
and then through its history, seeking relief from persecution as 
Christians. So many groups came here believing that this could be a 
place, a promised land of sorts, where freedom could be experienced 
greater than anywhere else in the world. And that dream has been 
realized.
  For far too long in our Nation's history, it was not extended to all 
men and women. Race and gender were problems. There were problems for 
some because there was racial and gender bias. But no one in those days 
ever anticipated we would get to the point in America where we are 
today, where people of faith who believe with all their heart that 
certain practices are just wrong in God's eyes would be forced by their 
government to commit those acts of wrong.
  We know that the President of Notre Dame University, back in 2009, 
endured a great deal of heat when he brought a man who had fought so 
hard in Illinois to allow late-term abortions, a man who had fought to 
prevent people of conscience from being allowed to be counseled on 
exactly what they would be doing. There were all kinds of efforts in 
Illinois to deal with the issue of abortion. And he's now President. So 
there were some that believed that bringing that individual to a 
Catholic university like Notre Dame and giving an honorary degree and 
bestowing this honor upon him was not a good idea. Yet the President 
took a great deal of chance.
  Sarah Palin points this out in an op-ed, little piece that she wrote 
Tuesday, when she said:

       Consider Catholicism's most prominent academic leader, the 
     Reverend John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame. Jenkins took 
     a serious risk in sponsoring Obama's 2009 honorary degree and 
     commencement address--which promised a ``sensible'' approach 
     to the conscience clause. Jenkins now complains, ``This is 
     not the kind of `sensible' approach the President had in mind 
     when he spoke here.''

  As Sarah Palin notes, ``Obama has made Jenkins--and other progressive 
Catholic allies--look easily duped,'' because this administration 
appears to want to wage war on Catholic Christian belief.
  It's amazing that someone would take those kinds of positions that 
the administration currently is, basically a war on religious freedom 
for Christians.
  There is an editorial posted by Mike Brownfield today, entitled, 
``Morning Bell: ObamaCare's Latest Victim is Religious Freedom.'' It 
says:

       It has not even been 2 years since ObamaCare was enacted, 
     and already the President's health care law has taken another 
     victim--the religious freedoms Americans hold dear, as 
     reflected by the First Amendment.
       The Obama administration recently reaffirmed a rule under 
     ObamaCare that requires many religious employers to provide 
     health care coverage for all FDA-approved contraceptive 
     methods, sterilization procedures, and related education and 
     counseling. On the grounds that certain FDA-approved 
     contraceptive methods can sometimes ``cause the demise of 
     embryos both after and before uterine implantation,'' many 
     groups also believe that the rule forces them to cover 
     abortion.

  As the article points out, it's not just Catholics affected by the 
rule. Leaders from other faith traditions have expressed their concern. 
This is deeply troubling.
  Another article here from The Washington Post, entitled, ``Obama 
Plays His Catholic Allies for Fools,'' by Michael Gerson, published 
January 30. He says:

       In politics, the timing is often the message. On January 
     20--3 days before the annual March for Life--the Obama 
     administration announced its final decision that Catholic 
     universities, hospitals, and charities will

[[Page H437]]

     be compelled to pay for health insurance that covers 
     sterilization, contraceptives, and abortifacients.

  It was bad enough that ObamaCare was going to take away individual 
freedoms regarding health care. We can take care of those who cannot 
take care of themselves. But we should not do, as a government, what 
has been done for far too long--provide incentives for people not to 
reach their potential, provide incentives for people, in effect, to 
take the life of an unborn, to make it easier to do that.
  As so many have pointed out, if a government can order any 
individual, all individuals in the country, to purchase a particular 
product, including health care insurance, there really isn't anything 
the Federal Government cannot order them to do or to purchase.

                              {time}  2020

  And we're seeing that play out now, not merely in the area of just 
health insurance, but going deeper than that, more problematic, even 
theological, that the Federal Government can order you not to follow 
your religious beliefs.
  So it's really quite shocking how far we've come. Now, those of us 
that study the teachings of Jesus know that He told Christians you will 
suffer for My sake. I didn't deserve to be born in America. I go to 
places like Afghanistan and Iraq and places where there's so much 
heartache, places around the world where you see people--in Africa, the 
places that I've seen so much heartache, so much suffering. We didn't 
deserve to be born here, but by the grace of God we were. And though we 
were told by Jesus you will suffer for My sake, for whatever reason we 
were allowed to grow up free, free from suffering on account of 
Christian beliefs.
  This bubble in time and space that was allowed for generation after 
generation to be able to follow religious beliefs as Christians without 
persecution, that time has changed. Now it would seem that as people 
yell ``haters'' at Christians, throw things at Christians, fuss on the 
nightly news how Christians are haters and want everybody to go to hell 
if they don't believe just like them--what a terrible misinterpretation 
of Christian faith and beliefs.
  An article from The Wall Street Journal talking about the 
contraception rule, talking about the discussions about it among the 
political candidates.
  People need to understand the Christian faith is under assault, and 
this administration has stepped up the ante in that assault. And if 
people, whether they're Christians, Jews, Muslims, whatever faith--
Hindu, Buddhists, Atheists--once you see a Federal Government telling 
Christians you cannot practice what you believe with your whole heart 
spiritually, you could be next. This ought to stir up not merely 
Christians. It ought to stir up people of all kinds of faith. Because, 
again, a Federal Government that can tell you to buy one product can 
tell you to buy any others if it has that much power. A Federal 
Government that tells Christians they cannot actually practice their 
religious beliefs can tell other religions the same thing.
  We've just about come 360. This gift we've been given, we've been 
blessed with more freedoms in this country than any country in the 
history of the world. It doesn't take all that much study of world 
history to see that. It doesn't take all that much traveling around the 
world to see that. As I've traveled the world, going back to my days as 
an exchange student in 1973 to the Soviet Union, you develop a love for 
people all over the world. It's ironic when people call you a xenophobe 
and have no idea how many people you love with all your heart--Africa, 
Asia, Europe, around the world, different places.
  And as one West African told me when I was visiting there, You have 
to understand, we were so excited when you elected a black President, 
but now we've seen America growing weak. And you must let the people in 
Washington know that unless America stays strong, we will suffer. 
You're our protectors. Without you staying strong, we don't have hope 
of having the freedoms we have right now. America's strength and 
America's standing for freedom and liberty don't just affect the people 
in America.
  I jotted some notes inspired by a pastor's comments decades ago. It 
says: Start thinking about what we have seen in this country. First 
they said you can't have prayer in school, but most people didn't speak 
out because they would just pray somewhere else. Then they said you 
couldn't publicly post the Ten Commandments because people might be 
tempted to read them; and if they read them, they might be tempted to 
follow them and live moral lives. But most people didn't speak out 
because they knew where to find the Ten Commandments if they decided 
they wanted to have that kind of moral code.
  They said you couldn't use a cross for a headstone, even for soldiers 
who died in the Christian faith in Jesus Christ, believing what Jesus 
said that ``greater love hath no one than this, that a man lay down his 
life for his friends.'' But not enough people have spoken out, because 
the soldiers are gone and they can't respond, so maybe it doesn't 
really matter.
  I had a judge tell students, recent history, they could not have the 
freedom of speech to say what was in their hearts if it included 
horrible verboten words like prayer, invocation, benediction, but worst 
of all, God, prayer, amen, bow our heads, join in prayer. And most 
people didn't speak out because that was somewhere else, a judge 
somewhere else, not ours. Some judges said you couldn't say God in the 
pledge in a public place. It seems more judges have said that in more 
recent history. Fortunately, it was struck down, but they're still 
saying it. And not enough people are speaking out because it's some 
other judge. Maybe an appellate court will strike it down. I hope so.
  Now we're being told by some if you want to hire someone, unless 
you're hiring a minister, you can't hire someone with the same 
religious spiritual faith that you have. Not enough people speaking out 
because they think surely that won't apply to me, at least not for a 
while. We're being told if you know in your heart that killing the most 
innocent among us, the infant unborn, if you believe that's killing, 
it's murder, it's wrong, well, we're the Federal Government and you 
have to forget your religious beliefs. We're going to tell you what you 
can or can't believe and tell you what you can or can't do. You have to 
go ahead and pay, in tax money or in health insurance money, for 
someone else to kill an unborn child.

                              {time}  2030

  And we have hospitals, doctors, nurses, health care providers being 
told, you may know in your Christian heart that it's wrong personally 
to participate in the taking of an innocent life, like an infant 
unborn, but if you want to stay in the health care business you're 
probably going to have do it anyway. We're the Federal Government, and 
we'll dictate not only what you may believe or not believe, but what 
you may put into practice and not put into practice.
  And there are some in our government telling military chaplains, even 
priests, preachers, you may believe in your spirit, in your heart, in 
your soul that marriage is between a man and a woman, that Nature's God 
intended the perfect biological fit to produce a combination of a sperm 
and an egg. And some want to tell them you've got to set aside your 
religious beliefs and do what we, the Federal Government tell you, and 
marry whoever we tell you to marry.
  You believe Romans 1? Forget it. Tear it out of your Bible because 
we're the Federal Government. We have a right to tell you what you can 
or can't believe.
  Some say it's okay to force Catholics to violate their Christian 
consciences and their religious beliefs because our Federal Government 
has the power to tell them what to do. Not enough people are crying 
out. I guess they figure, well, I'm not really Catholic, or maybe I'm 
Catholic but surely they wouldn't try to tell me what to do in 
violation of my Christian spiritual beliefs.
  But if the government can order, with the full power of Federal law 
enforcement, anyone to violate their Christian beliefs, we have come 
full circle. And the prayers of generations, the work of churches 
throughout our history--first, to even have a revolution based on 
freedom, based on the liberty that they knew God gave us, where over a 
third of the signers of the Declaration of Independence weren't

[[Page H438]]

just Christians, they were ordained Christian ministers. But they 
believed in freedom so strongly that they were willing to fight and die 
for the spiritual freedom of all people in this country.
  And a Constitution was put together and followed by a Bill of Rights, 
and it said what it meant, but it took a long time for it to be applied 
across racial bounds. It should have been clear. It's not a living, 
breathing document, but it says what it means, and it means that all 
people should have those rights under the Bill of Rights, that we were 
all created equal in God's eyes. The Founders believed that.
  The churches were the heart and soul of the abolitionist movement to 
do away with that horrible evil called slavery. People like John Quincy 
Adams, 16, 17 years down the hall, Statuary Hall, after he was defeated 
for a second term as President, beseeching, preaching against the evils 
of slavery, inspired by what he knew from William Wilberforce as a 
Christian in the United Kingdom doing the same thing before him.
  Abraham Lincoln, inspired by that overlapping time with John Quincy 
Adams, down the hall, because of his Christian beliefs and faith. If 
anybody doubts his belief, what motivated that man, go read the second 
inaugural address on the inside of the north wall of the Lincoln 
Memorial, as he tried to make sense, as a Christian, spiritually, about 
all the injustice and wrongs and death and suffering in America.
  The movement for women's equality involved women of great faith. The 
civil rights movement, the greatest saint of the movement was a man who 
was an ordained Christian minister, who knew in his heart what Jesus 
had done for him, and he wanted all people to have liberty equally 
together, and be judged by the content of their character, not the 
color of their skin.
  And now, it appears, war is being waged like never before on people 
of biblical Christian beliefs. You wonder what some of the Founders had 
to say. Samuel Adams was one of the strongest Christians alive during 
the Revolution. He was inspirational.
  ``How strangely will the tools of a tyrant pervert the plain meaning 
of words!'' Samuel Adams, that devout, strong Christian said, his 
wonderful quote inspired by his faith.
  And he said:

       If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of 
     servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us 
     in peace. We seek not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down 
     and lick the hands that feed you. May your chains sit lightly 
     upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our 
     countrymen.

  These are people of faith who believed in liberty that started this 
place. And to have courts saying you can't say the word ``God'' in 
invocation, benediction--we start every day with a prayer in this 
Chamber, and have for centuries.
  But we go back and finish with this. The speech of Benjamin Franklin 
that we have from his own handwriting. So what he said, 1787, late 
June, 1787, when nearly 5 weeks had gone by and they'd accomplished 
virtually nothing, and he pointed out that they had accomplished 
virtually nothing, that they had more ``nos'' than ``ayes'' on 
virtually every vote.
  And he went on to say:

       In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in 
     the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to 
     distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, 
     Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly 
     applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our 
     understandings? In the beginning of the contest with Great 
     Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer 
     in this room.

  That was Independence Hall. This great, brilliant man, who most of us 
were taught was a Deist, went on to say:

       Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously 
     answered.

  That's not a Deist.

       All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have 
     observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in 
     our favor.
       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.

  Now, the judges in this country, there are those who would say, he 
shouldn't be able to give that speech. He just mentioned the ``G'' 
word. Yet, it was what inspired people, these kind of speeches.
  He said:

       And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His 
     notice, is it possible an empire could rise without His aid?
       We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that 
     ``except the Lord build the House, they labour in vain that 
     build it.'' I also firmly believe, without His concurring 
     aid, we shall succeed in our political building no better 
     than the Builders of Babel: We shall be confounded by our 
     local partial interests and we ourselves shall become a 
     byword down through the ages.

  He went on to say he believed they should start every day with 
prayer.
  He was followed by Randolph from Virginia, who basically pointed out 
that here we are at the end of June, we are about to celebrate our 
anniversary, let's all go to church together, hear a sermon together, 
which they did, the reformed Calvinist Lutheran Church. They all went 
to church and heard a sermon together. They came back in a new spirit, 
and gave us the Constitution, and gave us the Bill of Rights after 
that.
  How in the world can a Federal Government that came from those roots 
begin to declare war on Christians, and Catholic Christians now? 
Beware, beware. The Federal Government that can declare war on Catholic 
Christian faith may be after your faith next.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________