[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 23133-23135]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) is recognized for 
60 minutes.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, today America is at a crossroads. Our people 
head into the 21st century having witnessed remarkable events all 
across the globe. We have seen the rise and we have seen the fall of 
tyranny, Nazism and Communism, with Americans being instrumental in the 
destruction of both.
  We have seen technological and scientific developments unparalleled 
in history. America itself is more prosperous than it has been at any 
time in its existence. The United States is now recognized as the 
unchallenged superpower in the world.
  Mr. Speaker, at the same time that our Nation has seen so many 
achievements, we must admit that there are some areas where we are not 
making the progress that we should. Today, Mr. Speaker, I regret to say 
that in one area where we are losing ground is our treatment of 
religious believers. We are witnessing a rising level of bigotry 
against people of faith, especially Christians.
  Mr. Speaker, let me talk about some of the most recent examples that 
I have seen. The first three followed after the tragic shootings in 
Littleton, Colorado, and Fort Worth, Texas.
  After the memorial service for the families and victims of Littleton, 
Colorado, on May 1, the May 1 issue of the Denver Post editorialized 
against what it called, ``the disenfranchising nature of this memorial 
service.''

[[Page 23134]]

  According to the editorial page writers, ``While the service deftly 
satisfied the needs of fundamentalist Christians, it estranged too many 
others who came in search of healing and due to the fact that the 
primary entertainment was by Christian singers Amy Grant and Michael W. 
Smith, and the key speech was by the Reverend Franklin Graham, son of 
Billy Graham, it drove away a sizable number of people who had come to 
mourn the deaths.'' The editorial went on to say, ``We urge State 
officials to learn from the error and plan future events to be 
inclusive, not divisive.''
  In other words, Mr. Speaker, the editors of the Denver Post objected 
to the families and victims turning to their faith in this terrible 
time of grief.
  According to the May 18 edition of the Washington Times, plans to 
create a memorial for the family and victims of the Columbine shootings 
at the Foothill Parks and Recreational District near the high school 
were scrapped after the Freedom From Religion Foundation threatened 
legal action. The spokesman for the group said that the memorial would 
make non-Christians feel unwelcome at that park.
  The day after the tragic shootings in Fort Worth this month, the 
Washington Times reported that Attorney General Janet Reno was asked 
the next day whether she thought that these shootings had anything to 
do with hatred or religious bigotry. Attorney General Janet Reno warned 
reporters that it was too early to characterize the Fort Worth shooting 
as a hate crime.
  This reticence was in stark contrast to other cases of bigotry. For 
instance, last year the Justice Department offered its resources to 
help prosecutors prove racial bias in another Texas case involving the 
dragging death of James Byrd within days of that tragic killing.
  It has been 2 weeks since the shootings in Fort Worth, and we are 
still waiting for the Attorney General.
  Mr. Speaker, there are still other examples. Whether we wish to admit 
it or not, Christians are now subject to ridicule, mistreatment and 
bigotry, pure and simple.
  The television show ``Nothing Sacred'' lived up to its billing by 
trying to develop storylines with ministers of the cloth engaging in 
immoral activity or finding ways to belittle people of faith 
altogether. According to the New York Post which ran in March 1998, 
``Nothing Sacred'' set an all-time low for viewership last year on a 
major network with 94 percent of the available market bypassing the 
program.
  Hollywood is not any better. Movies such as this summer's release of 
Stigmata attack the Catholic Church, accusing it of being on a 
millennium-long crusade to stamp out the true teachings of Christ.
  Mr. Speaker, there is more evidence that our society, rather than 
protecting religious freedom, is discouraging religious expression. 
According to the Associated Press, the ACLU sued the City of Republic, 
Missouri, on behalf of Jean Webb, a Wiccan witch, to have its city seal 
altered to remove the fish symbol.
  The May 6 article stated that the ACLU planned to also argue that 
since the symbol is often found in Christian establishments, not non-
Christian ones, and that most of the people who wrote letters 
supporting the fish symbol identified it as a Christian symbol, the 
ACLU had plenty of evidence that the city's support of keeping the fish 
symbol constituted an establishment of religion.
  The Chicago Tribune reported that the ACLU this year sued the Chicago 
Public Schools because of its activities with the Boy Scouts of 
America. Why? The April 26 news story indicated that it was because the 
Boy Scout oath pledges that a good scout will obey God. By the ACLU's 
reasoning, such an oath, because it mentions God, makes the Boy Scouts 
a religious organization which should not be allowed on school 
property.
  The USA Today ran a story last week announcing that the Augusta, 
Kansas, school board has revoked a policy that allowed students to lead 
classmates in prayer over the school intercom after the American Civil 
Liberties Union challenged the policy as unconstitutional.
  On the May 21 broadcast of CNN's Crossfire, Barry Lynn, the executive 
director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, 
went so far as to criticize the acclaim given to Cassie Bernall, the 
young girl who was shot at Columbine High because she would not 
renounce her faith.
  He said, I think that what we have done here is to take this one 
victim, turn it into an example of martyrdom, and then use it to become 
the springboard for even more exploitation of this tragedy by people 
with a religious political agenda.
  Such insensitivity would have been denounced if he had said the same 
about John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King or even, for that matter, 
Rodney King.
  The District of Columbia public school system was sued this summer 
for allowing a church to use an abandoned park as a parking lot in 
exchange for providing after-school services for the neighborhood 
children. The September 17 story, as reported in the Washington Post, 
revealed that members of the Metropolitan Baptist Church have been 
parking about 300 cars on the field on Sundays for more than 10 years. 
Reverend Hicks agreed to cancel the contract rather than force the city 
to defend the suit. Reverend Hicks, pastor of the 5,000-member 
Metropolitan Baptist Church of Washington, D.C. got my attention with 
his statement when announcing plans to terminate the contract, saying 
there has been a shift in culture, he said. We have reached the point 
where God no longer has a place in our communities.
  Mr. Speaker, imagine that. A simple contract between the city and the 
church, where the city says to the church they can use this parking lot 
on Sundays that would otherwise be vacant and unused if they will 
provide an after-school service, an opportunity for these children; and 
somebody challenges that because of their fear of religion and the city 
is forced to submit.
  The Hagerstown Suns, a Single-A affiliate of the major league Toronto 
Blue Jays, is being sued by the ACLU because they ran a promotion for 
the past 6 years that reduced ticket prices on Sundays for anyone 
coming to the stadium with a church bulletin.
  According to the Baltimore Sun in their June 29 edition, the ACLU 
believes this discount is a form of discrimination against the 
nonreligious.
  Jeff Jacoby complains in his August 19 column in the Boston Globe of 
a blatant case of anti-religious bias involving an inner city Boston 
church. On July 15, the City of Boston sent a letter to Mason Cathedral 
warning the church center, which receives taxpayer subsidies to help 
wayward youth, not to involve its teenage counselors in religious 
activities, including but not limited to the following: praying, 
reading Bible stories, drawing Bible pictures, and cleaning in the 
areas of the church where there are religious symbols. All religious 
activities must cease immediately.
  Jeff Jacoby interviewed the pastor: ``For 5 years, they have been 
saying I do good work,'' says Reverend Thomas Cross. ``This year, 
everything has changed.''
  Conversely, if anyone stood up and said that the groups like the 
National Organization of Women and the National Abortion Rights League 
should not be allowed to operate shelters for battered, homeless women 
because they cannot separate out their political agenda, they would be 
laughed right off the stage.
  Amazingly, our own Federal Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency 
Prevention even funds the middle school curriculum ``healing the 
hate.'' Get this, Mr. Speaker, our own Federal Office of Juvenile 
Justice Delinquency Prevention even funds a middle school curriculum 
entitled ``healing the hate'' that suggests that among the warning 
signs for school counselors that a child may be dangerous is if he or 
she grows up in a very religious home.

                              {time}  1345

  Mr. Speaker, I know of no religion, I know of no religion that 
preaches hate, violence, or even, for that matter, disrespect for other 
people. Yet, we have a

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Federal Government office that puts together a program that says that, 
if one identifies a child of faith, one should see that child as a 
threat to his companion children.
  Mr. Speaker, this is done without any shred of evidence showing any 
linkage whatsoever between Christians and any of these terrible acts of 
violence that our Nation has faced. Imagine saying that a warning sign 
that a child may be dangerous or a threat to other classmates was the 
skin color or sexual orientation of that child's home. Such a statement 
would be declared outrageous or condemned in every quarter of the land.
  In case after case, people of faith are told to mind their own 
business, keep to themselves, and stay out of the affairs of the rest 
of society. People of faith are called the extremists, labeled out and 
out threats to our Nation, and generally find ``Not Welcome Here'' 
signs all over the place.
  Law-abiding people who regularly attend church, try to live their 
lives as examples to their children and their community are lampooned 
and mocked. Priests, ministers, and the laymen who support them are 
expected to sit at the back of the bus when it comes to participating 
in the public square.
  As my colleagues have seen from my examples, when the rights of 
people of faith are trampled, newspapers and other leaders in our 
Nation are either silent or complicit. Why is this? What about the 
rights of people of faith?
  Bigotry of any kind, Mr. Speaker, should be confronted. It is always 
irrational, and it is always unjustified. Madmen who kill at a 
synagogue deserve our most stinging disapprobation. The tragic death of 
James Byrd was worthy of the national condemnation. But just as we 
should be eternally vigilant against racial bigotry, we must also 
protect the rights of people of faith.
  People of faith, Mr. Speaker, are decent, loving, and patriotic. They 
work hard to provide for their families and are tireless advocates for 
improving our communities across the Nation. Let us join together and 
condemn those who would deny freedom and opportunity for every 
American.
  Mr. Speaker, let us have the simple common American decency to 
respect each and every person who feels within their heart the need to 
express their faith and respect of other people. We must deal with 
these circumstances, Mr. Speaker, honestly and assertively.
  We are a great Nation. We are a Nation that has been declared in the 
past to be a good Nation, a Nation of good people. No matter what our 
prosperity, no matter what our power, we cannot be that if we cannot be 
a Nation that has the decency to respect the faith of our citizens. We 
are failing in that regard, and we must turn it around.

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