[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 26 (Friday, February 7, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H941]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PRAYER AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

  (Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota. Madam Speaker, yesterday's National 
Prayer Breakfast brought to my mind the quote by President Lincoln: ``I 
have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming 
conviction that I had nowhere else to go.''
  I, like Lincoln, feel inadequate to my task at times. I, like 
Lincoln, seek strength and discernment from prayer. I need prayer.
  It is not just Members of Congress that should be allowed to call 
upon prayer. Students, like my three sons, and millions more, deserve 
this powerful tool. That is why I thank the administration for their 
recent decision to protect the right to pray in schools.
  The freedom to seek strength from someplace other than ourselves 
enriches this Nation, just as it enriched President Lincoln.

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