[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 12404-12405]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            GOD AND COUNTRY

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. JACK KINGSTON

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 27, 2002

  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I find the ruling by the 9th Circuit Court 
of Appeals regarding the Pledge of Allegiance an outrage. Labeling the 
Pledge unconstitutional and banning it from Public Schools is an 
uninformed and narrow-minded decision by a notoriously irresponsible 
and radical court.
  Mr. Speaker, I denounce this decision, and for the record, I want to 
include the following remarks, which include quotations from some of 
our Founding Fathers as respects their view on religion and the law:
  Any high school student with a basic knowledge of history and with a 
minimal interest in politics understands that there exists a strong 
separation of church and state in the United States today. This idea of 
separation is bitterly enforced by some politicians and always emerges 
as a hot topic in political debate.
  But ask these same high school students about the religious beliefs 
of our Founding Fathers and the place of religion in the early history 
of our government, and you will probably find that their knowledge of 
these subjects is vague and incomplete.
  In fact, many Americans today would be surprised to find out that the 
creators of our nation were profoundly religious, that many of them had 
no reservations about the role of God in our Government.
  Yet, it is amazing to me that our understanding of the Founding 
Fathers and the creation of our country has been forgotten or ignored. 
For in one of our most cherished documents, The Declaration of 
Independence, which holds our most basic statement of our rights as 
Americans, we are told that it is ``self-evident, that all men are 
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit 
of Happiness.''
  It goes on, ``That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted 
among Men . . .'' It is as simple as that--our morality, the basis for 
our laws, comes from our Creator. Our government, or any democratic 
government for that matter, is based on our divinely inspired sense of 
right and wrong. This was an undisputed understanding amongst our 
Founding Fathers, which, somehow, escapes the modern imagination.
  The Declaration of Independence presents the idea of Divine authority 
in vague terms, a wise and conscious choice by the authors who 
understood the importance of religious freedom. But the use of that 
language should not forsake our founding fathers as believers in a 
vague and indeterminable God.
  On the contrary, most of these men believed in a personable and 
loving God. They followed the teachings of Christianity; they were 
public in their faith and unreserved about their convictions. Yet, on 
the whole the lives of these men--signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution--on the 
whole their lives and contributions to the founding of the United 
States are unknown to us. The details of their lives are surprising to 
many and certainly are relevant to today's debate and are instructive 
on the topic in general:
  Reverend John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg--A pastor of two churches in 
Woodstock, Virginia and a member of the Virginia legislature. On 
January 21, 1776, Reverend Muhlenberg preached his Sunday sermon on 
Ecclesiastes 3, ``to everything there is time and a season.'' At verse 
8--A time for war; A time for peace--he declared to his congregation 
that for Virginia and the other colonies, it was a time of war. He then 
removed his clerical robes, revealing to the congregation the full 
military uniform he was wearing underneath.
  After the service, Muhlenberg recruited 300 men for the war; they 
eventually were known as the Eighth Virginia Regiment. He served 
throughout the Revolutionary War, achieving the rank of Major General. 
There is a statue of him in the Capitol depicting the moment when he 
disrobed in front of the congregation.
  John Witherspoon--signed the Declaration. He was an ordained minister 
and wrote the introduction to one of the first American editions of the 
Bible in 1791.
  Dr. Ben Rush--signed the Declaration. A leading educator, has been 
called the ``Father of American Medicine,'' personally trained 3,000 
students for medical degrees, founder of America's first abolition 
society as well as America's first Bible society: The Bible Society of 
Philadelphia. One of the objectives of Dr. Rush's society was to mass-
produce and distribute Bibles to American citizens. In order to do so, 
the society had to purchase and import special stereo printing plates. 
Under president James Madison, congress passed an act that cancelled 
all importation duties for the society; it was entitled the ``Act for 
the Relief of the Bible Society of Philadelphia,'' passed February 2, 
1813.
  John Hancock--signed the Declaration. After the revolution he became 
Governor of Massachusetts; during his tenure he issued several 
proclamations for days of prayer and thanksgiving. Typical of his 
proclamations was the one issued October 15, 1791, which ended with a 
call for the citizens of Massachusetts to pray ``that universal 
happiness may be established in the world; [and] that all may bow to 
the scepter of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole earth filled with 
His Glory.''
  Sam Adams--signed the Declaration. He served as Governor of 
Massachusetts after John Hancock. Like his predecessor, he issued a 
number of proclamations for State wide days of prayer and thanksgiving. 
In an example from 1795, he asked that citizens pray ``that the 
peaceful and glorious reign of our Divine Redeemer may be known and 
enjoyed throughout the family of mankind.''
  John Quincy Adams--sixth president of the U.S. elected to the House 
after his presidency. Read the Bible in its entirety once a year. On 
February 21st, 1848, Adams collapsed from his chair on the House floor; 
he was placed on a sofa and carried to the nearby Speaker's Apartment 
(just off of the House Chamber). It was there that Adams uttered his 
last words before dying, ``This is the end of earth. . . . I am 
composed.'' His words are an indication of his faith; he went out of 
life with the expectation of eternal reward.
  George Washington--After the Revolution, Washington sent a circular 
letter to the 13 Governors and State legislatures declaring his 
resignation as Commander of the Continental army. The letter closed 
with a prayer:
  ``I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you and the 
State over which you preside in His holy protection,--that He would 
incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of 
subordination and obedience to government,--to entertain a brotherly 
affection and a love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the 
United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have 
served in the field--and finally, that He would most graciously be 
pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean 
ourselves with that charity, humility, and temper of the mind which 
were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, 
without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can 
never hope to be a happy nation.''
  Alexander Hamilton--signed the Constitution and was one of the 
authors of the Federalist papers, a document that heavily influenced 
the creation of the Constitution. Hamilton was a devout Christian whose 
faith remained strong even on his deathbed. He reluctantly entered into 
a duel with Aaron Burr, recording in his Journal:
  ``I have resolved, if . . . it pleases God to give me the 
opportunity, to reserve and throw away my first [shot]; and I have 
thoughts even of reserving my second [shot]--and thus giving a double 
opportunity to Col. Burr.''
  Hamilton's decision cost him his life. On July 11th, 1804, Hamilton 
was mortally wounded by Burr and died 24 hours later. On his deathbed, 
the Rev. Benjamin Moore asked of him, ``Do you sincerely repent of your 
sins past? Have you a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ, with 
a thankful remembrance of the death of Christ? And are you disposed to 
live in love and charity with all men?'' Hamilton replied, ``With the 
utmost sincerity of heart I can answer those questions in the 
affirmative--I have no ill will against Col. Burr. I met him with a 
fixed resolution to do him no harm--I forgive all that happened.'' The 
Reverend went on to report that Hamilton, ``Expired without a struggle, 
and almost without a groan.'' Hamilton's death inspired the Reverend to 
write:
  ``By reflecting on this melancholy event . . . let the infidel be 
persuaded to abandon his opposition to that Gospel which the strong, 
inquisitive, and comprehensive mind of Hamilton embraced.''
  At the time of his death, Hamilton was in the process of creating a 
religious society with the suggested name of the ``Christian 
Constitutional Society.''
  Its goals were to support the Christian Religion and to support the 
Constitution of the United States. This organization was to have 
numerous clubs throughout each state, which

[[Page 12405]]

could meet regularly and work to elect to office those who reflected 
the Christian Constitutional Society.
  James McHenry--signed the Constitution; officer in the American 
Revolution and Secretary of War under George Washington and John Adams. 
Founded the Baltimore Bible society and explained the importance of the 
Bible in American society:
  Public utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of 
the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach--the obligation they 
impose--the punishment they threaten--the rewards they promise--the 
stamp and image of divinity they bear which produces a conviction of 
their truths--[these] can alone secure to society, order and peace, and 
to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, 
stability, and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase 
penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are 
strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked 
courses.
  The Baltimore Bible Society still exists today (now known as the 
Maryland Bible Society) and functions much as it did when it was first 
founded. Its mission is ``to encourage the circulation, distribution 
and printing of the Bible in all languages without note or comment.'' 
In 1999, the society distributed over 4 million copies.


           The Early Supreme Court: its justices and opinions

  Justice James Wilson--one of the original justices, signed the 
Constitution and the Declaration, also credited with starting the first 
organized legal training in America for law students. Here is an 
example of what he taught his students about the relationship between 
law and religion:
  ``It should always be remembered that this law, . . . made for men or 
for nations, flows from the same Divine source: it is the law of God. . 
. . What we do, indeed, must be founded on what He has done; and the 
deficiencies of our laws must be supplied by the perfections of His. 
Human law must rest its authority, ultimately, upon the authority of 
that law which is Divine. . . . We now see the deep and the solid 
foundations of human law. . . . Far from being rivals or enemies, 
religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. 
Indeed, these two sciences run into each other.''
  Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth--third Chief Justice of the supreme 
court, member of the Continental Congress during the Revolution and 
Constitutional Convention; believed religion was necessary in public 
life and declared in the Connecticut Courant of June 7, 1802:
  ``The primary objects of government, are the peace, order and 
prosperity of society. . . . To the promotion of these objects, 
particularly in a republican government, good morals are essential. 
Institutions for the promotion of good morals are, therefore, objects 
of legislative provision and support: and among these . . . religious 
institutions are eminently useful and important. . . . The legislature, 
charged with the great interests of the community, may, and ought to 
countenance, aid and protect religious institutions--institutions 
wisely calculated to direct men to the performance of all the duties 
arising from their connection with each other, and to prevent or 
repress those evils which flow from unrestrained passion.''
  Justice Joseph Story--U.S. Congressman during the presidency of 
Thomas Jefferson and appointed to the Supreme Court by James Madison. 
He founded Harvard Law School; he wrote 286 opinions while serving as a 
justice as well as several legal essays published under the title, 
``Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States.'' In this 
work, Story argues that the first amendment was not intended to 
separate religion from civil government:
  The First Amendment is ``Congress shall make no law respecting an 
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . 
. .'' . . . We are not to attribute this prohibition of a national 
religious establishment to an indifference to religion in general, and 
especially to Christianity, which none could hold in more reverence 
than the framers of the Constitution. . . . Indeed, the right of a 
society or government to [participate] in matters of religion will 
hardly be contested by any persons who are intimately connected with 
the well being of the state and indispensable to the administration of 
civil justice. . . . At the adoption of the Constitution and the 
[first] amendment to it . . . the general, the general, if not the 
universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive 
encouragement from the State. . . . An attempt to level all religions, 
and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter 
indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not 
universal indignation.
  Vidal v. Girard's Executors--This was a case that came before the 
Supreme Court in 1844. Stephen Girard in his will left $7 million 
dollars to the city of Philadelphia and asked that a school be started 
for the benefit of orphans and needy children but stipulated that 
ministers be prohibited from serving on the faculty. The court ruled 
that ministers could be excluded but that did not necessarily exclude 
the teaching of religion from public schools. In the opinion, written 
by Justice Story, the court asked:
  ``Why not the Bible, and especially the New Testament . . . be read 
and taught as a divine revelation in the [school]--its general precepts 
expounded, its evidence explained, and its glorious principles of 
morality inculcated? . . . Where can the purest principles of morality 
be teamed so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament? Where 
are benevolence, the love of truth, sobriety and industry, so 
powerfully and irresistibly inculcated as in the Sacred Volume?''
  In our Nation today, at the first hint of a mixing of church and 
state, at the mere suggestion of a correlation between religion and 
civil law, there erupts from certain factions outrage and indignation, 
followed by claims of an impending right-wing conspiracy.
  These people have made sacred the quest to keep religion out of 
public schools and out of our Government. They believe any attempt to 
do otherwise is in direct conflict with the intentions of our founding 
fathers.
  But as I have shown you, these founding fathers were absorbed with 
religion, namely Christianity, and understood its fundamental role in 
government and society.
  Even Thomas Jefferson, who intentionally kept his religious beliefs 
obscure to the public, never once admitting to an acceptance of 
Christianity, nor altogether denying its truth, even Jefferson wrote 
that in the pure and untainted teachings of Christ can be found the 
``most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been 
offered to man.''
  Why have we conceded to the ridiculous idea that religion has no 
place in government, that the creators wanted strict separation of 
church and state? These are not ideas founded upon reason but on the 
ignorance of atheism, ideas promoted by those who would like to see an 
end to religion.
  As our government is founded on self-evident and unalienable rights, 
so too is it founded upon divine Law--these are one and the same. For a 
discussion of morality without God ultimately becomes absurd. Indeed, 
there is no government without religion.

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