[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12884-12889]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             FREEDOM OF RELIGION IS WHAT MADE AMERICA GREAT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Keller). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I want to spend a few minutes 
this evening talking about two events that have happened in our country 
recently. One of them is national and the other is very local.
  The national event was the decision of two of three members of the 
Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco that the Pledge of Allegiance to 
the flag, including the words ``under God,'' can no longer be used in 
our schools with those two words; that if we are going to say the 
Pledge of Allegiance in our schools, we have to take ``under God'' out.
  The second event is a very local event. It is in the town of 
Frederick, Maryland. I live just 5 miles from there on a farm. We have 
a little memorial park in Frederick across from the armory. We have 
there memorials to our soldiers in all of the wars with their 
individual names on these memorials. There is also in that park a 
replica of the Ten Commandments on the two stones. A senior student in 
one of our schools; interestingly, a student in one of our schools 
wrote asking, is it really appropriate to have the Ten Commandments in 
this memorial park because the park is owned by the city and the city 
is a part of what we call the State, and certainly, there is this big 
wall of separation between church and State?
  Now, this has caused quite a dither in Frederick. The ACLU came out 
and they said, yes, that is right, the Ten Commandments should not be 
there. Why do we not just sell the park for $1 to the American Legion 
and then the problem will go away? But if you do not do that, then we 
are going to sue.
  Most of our institutions are, I guess all of them, are creatures of 
our culture. We remember from history that the Supreme Court pre-Civil 
War handed down the Dred Scott decision. Now, I suspect there are very 
few people today who believe that that was a correct decision handed 
down by that Court. So our courts today are creatures, at least to some 
extent, of our culture. These two events would have been absolutely 
unheard of in my childhood, that a court would say that one could not 
say under God in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and that one 
could not have the Ten Commandments in a memorial park for our service 
people who fought and bled and died for this country.
  Now, how did we get here? What has happened to this Nation? I can 
clearly remember 60 years ago. I can remember writing 1933 on my school 
papers, so I can easily remember 60 years.
  There are three great lies in our Nation today, and they are the 
result of, well, of two things. They are the result of an educational 
system that has, in large measure, tried to rewrite our history. These 
three lies are also the result of a media which has joined with our 
educational institutions in educating the American people about a 
history which really is not true. These three great lies are that our 
Founding Fathers were atheists and deists. Now, everybody knows what an 
atheist is. It is a person who does not believe there is a God. A deist 
believes there is a God. He believes that God created the Earth, but 
then God stood back and he placed in effect a number of physical laws 
and biological laws, and there is no use praying to him, because these 
laws are going to determine what happens to us.
  So the first great lie is that our Founding Fathers were atheists and 
deists. The second great lie is that they sought to establish a non-
Christian Nation. They did not want God associated with this country. 
As a corollary to this, they sought to erect a wall of separation 
between church and State. They wanted to make sure that there was 
never, ever any discussion of religion in the State.
  To understand how we got here, I think we need to put this in some 
context. It all started, of course, in 1776. We read that Declaration 
of Independence which, by the way clearly, three times, perhaps four, 
refers to God. I wonder if the courts will declare our Declaration of 
Independence unconstitutional because it has very clear references to 
God and our creator.
  This was a very radical document. We read it without really 
concentrating on what it is and what it says. It said that all men are 
created equal. Now, we take that for granted, but that was not the 
society from which our forefathers came. Now, of course, unless you are 
a descendant of an American Indian, you are the child of an immigrant 
and today, our citizens come from, or their forefathers have come from 
all parts of the world. But in 1776, essentially all of our Founding 
Fathers had come from England and the European continent. And in 
England and on the continent, essentially every country was ruled by a 
king or an emperor who incredibly claimed and was granted divine 
rights. What that says is that the rights came from God, divine rights, 
rights came from God to the king and he would then give what rights he 
wished to his people.
  Our Declaration of Independence made a radical departure from that, 
because it said that all men are created equal. Then they set about the 
task of writing a Constitution that embodied the promise of the 
Declaration of Independence. It took them 11 years to do this. It was 
not until 1787 that the Constitution was ratified. And in that 
Constitution they sought to embody all of those promises made in the 
Declaration of Independence.
  The story is told of Ben Franklin coming out from the constitutional 
convention and being asked by a lady, Mr. Franklin, what have you given 
us? And his reply was, A Republic, madam, if you can keep it.
  Now, I hear my colleagues and most everybody in this country talking 
about this great democracy that we have. Yet, when Ben Franklin was 
asked, What have you given us, he

[[Page 12885]]

says, A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it, if we think back through 
that Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, we will note that it refers to a 
Republic.
  Why is this important? It is important to the subject that we are 
discussing this evening.
  I heard an interesting definition of a democracy. It was two wolves 
and a lamb voting on what they were going to have for lunch. And 
someone noted that an example of a democracy was a lynch mob, because 
clearly, in a lynch mob, the will of the majority is being expressed. 
Are we not glad, Mr. Speaker, that we live in a Republic where one 
respects the rule of law, regardless of what the majority would like at 
that moment?
  Now, clearly, we can change the law against which all other laws are 
measured, which is the Constitution, and we have done that 27 times; 
but this is a considered event. It takes two-thirds of the House and 
two-thirds of the Senate; it bypasses the President and goes directly 
to the State legislatures and three-fourths of them must ratify it.
  Our Founding Fathers were not certain that the promise of the 
Declaration of Independence was, in fact, made crystal-clear in the 
Constitution, so before the ink was hardly dry on the Constitution, 
they started 12 amendments through the process of two-thirds of the 
House, two-thirds of the Senate, and three-fourths of the State 
legislatures. Ten of them made it through that process, and we know 
them as the Bill of Rights. If we read down through the Constitution, 
it is a little book that has had a big, big effect. If we read down 
through that, we will see that their primary aim in this Bill of Rights 
was to make sure that everybody understood what was implicit in the 
Constitution was explicit in these 10 amendments.

                              {time}  2000

  That is that they really wanted most of the rights to reside with the 
people. Remember, they had come from monarchies, from empires where the 
king or the emperor said that all the rights came to him. In the 
Declaration of Independence, they said that all men are created equal, 
and they wanted to make sure that it was very clear that essentially 
all of the rights remained with the people.
  Now, our Founding Fathers came to this country not to get wealthy; as 
a matter of fact, many of them left wealth to come here. They came here 
for freedom. They came here to achieve freedom from two tyrannies.
  One was the tyranny of the church. In England, it was the Episcopal 
church; and on the continent, it was the Roman church. For both of 
those churches, power had been given to them by the state, so our 
Founding Fathers wanted to make sure that never, ever in this new 
country would the state ever give power to a religion so that it could 
oppress the people.
  I guess our Founding Fathers could be excused for some 
shortsightedness before they wrote the Constitution, because in old 
Virginia, Roman Catholics could not vote. In colonial Maryland, I 
understand that both Roman Catholics and Jews could not vote.
  But to their great credit, when it came time to write the First 
Amendment, they recognized that that is really not what they came here 
to achieve; that they really wanted freedom of religion, which is very 
different, as Ronald Reagan pointed out, from freedom from religion, 
which is what the courts now want to achieve.
  It was a Roman Catholic, Charles Carroll, for whom Carroll County is 
named, one of the counties in the district I represent; Carroll Creek 
runs through Frederick City, not far from the Ten Commandments in that 
little memorial park. So it was a Roman Catholic who was a major 
architect of the establishment clause in the First Amendment.
  In the Second Amendment, they addressed their concerns of the tyranny 
of the state. This is a subject for another day, but let me just read 
it in that context: ``A well-regulated militia being necessary to the 
security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms 
shall not be infringed.''
  Abraham Lincoln understood that this was a new experiment and that it 
might not succeed. In his Gettysburg Address, we remember, Four score 
and seven years ago, and if we go back 87 years, we will come to 1776; 
``Four score and 7 years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this 
continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty and,'' and note, 
``dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.'' He 
recognized what a radical departure this was from the norms of the 
time, and he knew that this experiment might not succeed.
  He said, we are now engaged in a war ``testing whether this Nation or 
any Nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.''
  Then he ended that Gettysburg Address with almost a prayer: ``that 
this government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall 
not perish from the Earth.''
  I am going to use four sources to refute these three lies. Again, the 
three lies are that our Founding Fathers were atheists and deists; that 
they wanted to establish a non-Christian Nation; that they wanted a 
wall of separation between the church and the state. To do that, I am 
going to let our Founding Fathers speak for themselves. I am going to 
quote from some court decisions. I am going to note some actions of 
Congress. Then we will take a brief look at our schools. I will use a 
number of quotes this evening, and I would like to make two comments 
regarding those quotes.
  The first is that not everyone will agree to the specific wording of 
these quotes. No one argues that these are the kinds of things that 
these men, these courts, that the Congress would have said or would 
have done; but Members may find some dispute as to the exact wording. I 
will tell the Members my references, and Members can talk to those on 
whom I depended for these quotes.
  One is David Barton, who probably is the most knowledgeable person in 
America today on the Christian nature of our Founding Fathers. He has 
thousands of original documents. He conducts a fascinating tour through 
the Capitol building here, stopping at statue after statue and reading 
from original documents their quotes.
  The second source for my quotes this evening is Dr. Richard 
Fredericks, who is the pastor of the Damascus Road Community Church in 
Montgomery County.
  The second observation I want to make about the quotes this evening 
is that there will be a lot of references to Christianity and Jesus 
Christ. I would submit that when these quotes were made, that these 
words were more synonymous with the words that we would use today which 
would probably be ``God-fearing.'' They meant no affront to other 
religious persuasions who worshipped the same God.
  I just want to note that there will be lots of references to 
Christianity and Jesus Christ, if Members would simply hear ``Judeo-
Christian'' and ``God-fearing'' when these quotes are read.
  Freedom is not free. It is said that the price of freedom is eternal 
vigilance. That is just as true today as it was then. Certainly, our 
national freedom was very costly. Five of the 55 signers of the 
Declaration of Independence were captured and executed by the British; 
nine of them died in battlefields of the war; another dozen lost their 
homes, possessions, and fortunes to British occupation. Our birth as a 
Nation was not cheap for these men.
  Let us first look at this wall of separation which our courts today 
talk so much about. That does not appear anywhere in our Constitution. 
It does not appear in the First Amendment. As a matter of fact, those 
three words, ``separation,'' ``church,'' and ``state,'' do not appear, 
but they do appear in one constitution. It is the Constitution of the 
United Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR.
  Let me read from that Constitution. It is Article 124: ``In order to 
ensure to citizens freedom of conscience, the church in the USSR is 
separated from the state and the schools from the church.''
  Let me let the Founding Fathers speak for themselves now, and then 
Members can decide whether they think they are atheist or deist.

[[Page 12886]]

  Patrick Henry is often called the ``firebrand of the American 
Revolution.'' I want to quote his words spoken in St. John's Church in 
Richmond on March 23 in 1775. Those words are very well known: ``Give 
me liberty or give me death,'' and they are still memorized by most 
students. But I will challenge the Members to go to their child's 
school and look in their history books and see if these words are put 
in context.
  Here is what he said, in context: ``An appeal to arms and the God of 
hosts is all that is left us, but we shall not fight our battle alone. 
There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The 
battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so 
sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, 
almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, 
give me liberty or give me death.''
  Now, those words have a whole lot different meaning when we place 
them in that context, and I will wager that Members will have great 
difficulty finding any textbook in our current schools that puts them 
in that context.
  Benjamin Franklin is widely noted by our history books today as being 
a deist. Was he a deist? Let us let him speak for himself. The time was 
June 28, 1787. We will recognize that that is during the Constitutional 
Convention.
  Benjamin Franklin was 81 years old. He was the Governor of 
Pennsylvania, and perhaps the most honored member of the Constitutional 
Convention. The convention was deadlocked over several issues, and one 
of the key issues was the balance of State and Federal rights.
  When Franklin rose and reminded them of the Continental Congress in 
1776, just 11 years prior, this is what he said: ``In the days of our 
contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had our 
daily prayer in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were 
heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in 
the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending 
Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy 
opportunity to establish our Nation. And have we now forgotten that 
powerful friend? Do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?'' 
And then I love these words: ``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. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the 
ground without his notice, is it probable that a new nation can rise 
without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writing that 
except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain that built it. I 
therefore beg leave to move,'' and this began a precedent that we 
follow today; we begin every day in the House with prayer, and every 
day in the Senate.
  This is what he asked: ``I therefore beg leave to move that 
henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its 
blessings on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning 
before we proceed to any business.'' Thanks to Mr. Franklin, we still 
do this.
  The following year, in a letter to the French minister of state, 
Franklin, speaking of our Nation, said ``Whoever shall introduce into 
public office the principles of Christianity will change the face of 
the world.''
  And now to that second person who is very often noted as being a 
deist, and by the way, did Members think these are the words of a 
deist, these words of Benjamin Franklin; that God created a world and 
then let it run on its own, with just the physical laws and the 
biological laws that he developed guiding it?
  Thomas Jefferson was a great student of Scriptures who honored Christ 
as his greatest teacher and mentor, but doubted his divinity. On the 
front of his well-worn Bible Jefferson wrote, ``I am a real Christian; 
that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little 
doubt that our country will soon be rallied to the unity of our 
creator, and I hope to the pure doctrine of Jesus, also.''
  And note his words relative to slavery. See if this sounds like a 
deist. ``Almighty God has created men's minds free. Commerce between 
master and slave is despotism. I tremble for my country when I reflect 
that God is just, and his justice cannot sleep forever.'' These are 
certainly not the words of a deist.
  George Washington is called the Father of our Nation. Listen to his 
heart on the Christian faith in his farewell speech September, 1796; 
the only President, by the way, unanimously elected by the Electoral 
College not once but twice, and perhaps the first ruler in 2000 years 
to voluntarily step down from power.
  ``It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of 
all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, our 
religion and morality are the indispensable supporters. Let us with 
caution indulge the supposition that is the idea that morality can be 
maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to 
expect that our national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious 
principle.''
  What did Washington mean by religion? Was he a true Christian? Let me 
excerpt several lines from his personal prayer book: ``Oh, eternal and 
everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words, and work. Wash away my sins 
in the immaculate blood of the lamb, and purge my heart by thy holy 
spirit. Daily frame me more and more in the likeness of thy son, Jesus 
Christ, that living in thy fear and dying in thy favor, I may, in thy 
appointed time, obtain the restoration justified onto eternal life.''
  In Mount Vernon, and we can go there today, just down the river, we 
can see on the little crypt the benediction that George Washington 
asked to be put there over his grave and his wife's grave. It is John 
11:25: ``I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me 
shall live, even if he dies.''

                              {time}  2015

  And you may wonder why as you tour through Washington and go to our 
monuments that you see so many references to scripture. It is because 
that is the milieu in which these men lived.
  John Adams, our second President, also served as chairman of the 
American Bible Society started by our Congress, by the way. In an 
address to military leaders he said, ``We have no government armed with 
the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by 
morality and true religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral 
and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any 
other.''
  John Jay, our first Supreme Court Justice, stated that when we select 
our national leaders and preserve our Nation, we must select 
Christians. This is what he said, ``Providence has given to our people 
the choice of their rulers. It is the duty as well as the privilege and 
interest of our Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for 
their rulers.''
  In fact, 11 of the 13 new State constitutions were also ratified in 
1776. All required leaders to take an oath similar to this oath in 
Delaware. This is the oath in Delaware: ``Everyone appointed to public 
office must say, I do profess faith to God, the Father, and in the 
Lord, Jesus Christ, his only son, and in the Holy Ghost and in God who 
is blessed forevermore. I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures, both Old 
and New Testaments, which are given by divine inspiration.''
  The time of our Nation's bicentennial in 1976, political science 
professors at the University of Houston began to ask some questions. 
Why is it that the American Constitution has been able to stand the 
test of time? We have the longest enduring republic in the history of 
the world. Why has it not gone through massive revisions? Why is it 
looked on as a model by dozens of nations? What wisdom possessed these 
men to produce such an incredible document? Who did they turn to for 
inspiration?
  So they looked at the writings of our Founding Fathers and they 
catalogued 15,000 documents. They found the Founding Fathers quoted 
most often three men, Baron Charles Montesquieu, Sir William 
Blackstone, and John Locke. Yet, most importantly they found that the 
Bible itself was directly

[[Page 12887]]

quoted four times more than Montesquieu, six times more than Blackstone 
and 12 times more than John Locke. In fact, 34 percent of all the 
quotes and the writings of the Founding Fathers were direct word-for-
word quotes from the Bible. Further, another 60 percent of their quotes 
were quoting from men who were quoting the Bible. So that an incredible 
94 percent of all of the quotes in these 15,000 documents were direct 
quotes or references to the Bible.
  So how did they produce a document that has withstood the test of an 
evolving government and growing Nation for 226 years now? The answer, 
they were steeped in the word of God. They understood their need of its 
constant direction, and they established a Nation based on its 
underlying principles.
  John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams, was the sixth President of 
the United States. He was a Congressman, the U.S. minister to Russia, 
France and Great Britain, Secretary of the State under James Monroe. He 
was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, as was his father. 
As a matter of fact, he felt that chairmanship of that society was a 
more important function and a higher honor than being President of the 
United States. I might note that the Continental Congress bought 20,000 
copies of the Bible to distribute to its new citizens. And for 100 
years at the beginning of our country, taxpayers' money was used to 
send missionaries to the Indians.
  Mr. Speaker, 104 years later, the 30th President of the United 
States, Calvin Coolidge reaffirmed this truth on March 4, 1925. 
``America seeks no empires built on blood and forces. She cherishes no 
purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.'' He later wrote, 
``The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the 
teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if 
faith and these teachings would cease to be practically universal to 
our country.''
  Let us turn now to the Supreme Court. We have let our Founding 
Fathers speak for themselves. I think it is very clear they were not 
atheists or deists. It is very clear that they did not attempt to 
establish a nonChristian nation. Let us look now at the Supreme Court. 
For 160 years the court consistently and categorically ruled in favor 
of church and State united hand in hand, but never the State empowering 
the church, a single church, so that it could oppress the people.
  The first ruling came in 1796, Runkle v. Winemiller. The Supreme 
Court ruled, ``By our form of government, the Christian religion is the 
established religion of all sects.''
  The Supreme Court consistently ruled for Christian principle as the 
foundation of our American laws. In 1811 in the Peoples v. Ruggles', 
Mr. Ruggles' crime was that he publicly slandered the Bible. What would 
happen today if somebody publicly slandered the Bible? Let me read the 
decision the court made then. In 1811 he was arrested and his case went 
all the way to the Supreme Court. This was their verdict. ``You have 
attacked the Bible. In attacking the Bible, you have attacked Jesus 
Christ. And in attacking Jesus Christ, you have attacked the roots of 
our Nation. Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity manifests 
itself in the dissolving of our civil government.''
  The Justices sentenced him to three months in prison and a $500 fine. 
That is one year's wage in those days. You might contrast that today 
with convicted rapists who on average serve 85 days in jail.
  In 1844, Vida v. Gerrard, a public school teacher decided she would 
teach morality without using the Bible. Incredibly she was sued and it 
went to the Supreme Court and this is what they said. ``Why not use the 
Bible, especially the New Testament? It should be read and taught as 
the divine revelation in the schools. Where can the purest principles 
of morality be learned so clearly and so perfectly as from the New 
Testament?''
  And then the Justices went on to cite 87 different legal precedents 
to affirm that America was formed as a Christian Nation by believing 
Christians.
  This was in a court case in February 29, 1892, against the claims of 
the cult called the Church of the Holy Spirit that Christianity was not 
the faith of the people. The Supreme Court made a decision saying that 
it clearly was and they marshalled 87 different legal precedents to 
affirm that America was formed as a Christian Nation by believing 
Christians. They even spent the first 100 years' tax dollars for 
Christian missionaries, which I mentioned previously.
  Regardless of how we feel about it today, the historical fact is 
there was no separation of church and state. There was a clear denial 
of the right of the state to empower any one religion so that it could 
oppress the people. But never, ever could our Founding Fathers ever 
imagine that we would interpret that establishment clause of the First 
Amendment as requiring freedom from religion. They certainly meant it 
to assure freedom of religion.
  Let us move across the street from this House to the Supreme Court. 
As humanism and Darwinism began to rise in the 19th century, some made 
challenges to the idea that America was a Christian Nation. Both houses 
of Congress spent one year, from 1853 to 1854, studying the connection 
of America and the Christian faith.
  On March 27 of 1854, Senator Badger, from the Senate, issued the 
final report. Let me quote very briefly from that final report. ``The 
First Amendment religion clause speaks against an establishment of 
religion. What is meant by that expression? The Founding Fathers 
intended by this amendment to prohibit an establishment of religion 
such as the Church of England presented or anything like it. But they 
had no fear or jealousy of religion itself. Nor did they wish to see us 
an irreligious people.''
  I really like these next words. They are so picturesque. ``They did 
not intend to spread all over the public authorities and the whole 
public action of the Nation the dead and revolting spectacle of 
atheistic apathy.'' And I continue the quote, ``In this age there can 
be no substitute for Christianity. By its general principles, the 
Christian faith is the great conserving element on which we must rely 
for the purity and permanence for our free institutions.'' And it goes 
on and on to quote more and more in this vein.
  Based on his report in May of 1854, in joint session of Congress, 
this resolution was passed by our Congress. ``The great, vital and 
conserving element in our system of government is the belief of our 
people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ.'' This was a resolution of the Congress in May of 1854.
  Let us move from Congress to our public schools. For over 140 years 
after the First Amendment was passed, we spent tax dollars to educate 
students in public schools that were distinctly Christian. In 1782 the 
United States Congress voted this resolution: ``The Congress of the 
United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in our 
schools.'' That was this Congress. All of our institutions, even our 
Congress, is at least to some extent the product of a culture, 
creatures of a culture.
  In grammar schools from 1690 until after World War II, two books were 
the dominant teaching tools. The first and oldest was the New England 
Primer, used for 200 years. The basics of alphabet were taught as 
follows:
  ``A, A wise son makes a glad father but a foolish son is heaviness to 
his mother.
  ``B, Better is little with the fear of the Lord than abundance apart 
from him.
  ``C, Come unto Christ all you who are weary and heavily laden.
  ``D, Do not the abominable thing, which I hate, sayeth the Lord.
  ``E, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.''
  The second great teaching tool for 100 years was the McGuffey Reader, 
and not too many years ago it was called back to some of our schools 
because when students used that reader, they learned to read. Now we 
have graduated about a million from our high schools who literally 
cannot read their diploma.
  William Holmes McGuffey was the Professor of Moral Philosophy at 
Jefferson's University of Virginia and the

[[Page 12888]]

first president of Ohio University. President Lincoln called him the 
School Master of the Nation.
  In the introduction to teachers in the beginning of his textbook, 
McGuffey laid out his rationale. ``The Christian religion is the 
religion of our country. From it are derived our notions on the 
character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its 
doctrines are funded the peculiarities of our free institutions.''
  ``From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from 
the sacred Scriptures. For all these extracts from the Bible I make no 
apology.''
  Of the first 108 universities founded in this country, 106 were 
distinctly religious. The first of those was Harvard, named for a very 
popular New England teacher, Pastor John Harvard. In the original 
student Harvard handbook, it said that the students should come knowing 
Greek and Latin so they could study the scriptures. Now a direct quote. 
``Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to 
consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and 
Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay 
Jesus Christ as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and 
learning.''
  For over 100 years, more than 50 percent of all of Harvard's 
graduates were pastors.
  In 1947, the Supreme Court in Emerson v. The Board of Education 
deviated from every precedent for the first time and in a limited way 
affirmed a wall of separation between church and state and the public 
classroom. Now they did this ignoring 160 years of precedents. And I 
have read several decisions during these 160 years and there are many, 
many others. There is no decision of the Supreme Court today relative 
to this issue that will go back to precedents before 1947 because there 
are none. For 160 years, clearly the Supreme Court ruled 180 degrees 
different than the way it is ruling today.
  In 1962, less than 40 years ago, in Engle v. Vitale, the Supreme 
Court removed prayer from the public schools. Since the founding of the 
Nation, public school classrooms have begun their day with prayer. Now 
that was declared unconstitutional; an arbitrary use of the word.
  I have mentioned God is referred to three or perhaps four times in 
our Declaration of Independence. Will our courts now declare that 
unconstitutional?
  Then things happened fast. On June 17, 1963, the Supreme Court ruled 
in Abington v. Schemp that Bible reading was outlawed as 
unconstitutional in our public school system. Remember that our 
Congress had recommended it for use in schools before that.
  What has happened in America in these past 40 years? When we were 
true to our roots, we were the greatest Nation in the world, the dream 
destination of millions in every country. But starting in 1963, the 
Bible was banned as psychologically harmful to children.

                              {time}  2030

  That year, 1963, was the first year an entry about the separation of 
church and State ever appeared in the World Book Encyclopedia under the 
United States.
  What have we reaped? America 100 years ago had the highest literacy 
rate of any nation on Earth. Today we spend more on education than any 
other nation in the world; and yet since 1987, as I mentioned before, 
we have graduated more than 1 million high school students who cannot 
even read their diploma.
  We spend more than any other nation in the industrialized world to 
educate our children; and yet SAT scores fell for 24 straight years 
before finally leveling off in the 1990s.
  Has this protection from religion produced better students? Morally 
have they changed? Are things better in this new climate of protection 
from the dangers of religion?
  In 1960, a survey found 53 percent of America's teenagers had never 
kissed and 57 percent had never necked. Necking is hugging and kissing, 
if my colleagues wonder what that meant then; and 92 percent of 
teenagers in America said they were virgins.
  Just 30 years later, in 1990, 75 percent of American high school 
students were sexually active by 18. In the next 5 years, we spent $4 
billion to educate them how to have safe sex and it worked. One in five 
teenagers in America today lose their virginity before their 13th 
birthday, and 19 percent of America's teenagers say they have had more 
than four sexual partners before graduation.
  The result? Every day 2,700 students get pregnant, 1,100 hundred get 
abortions and 1,200 give birth. Every day, another 900 contract a 
sexually transmitted disease, many incurable. AIDS infection among high 
school students climbed 700 percent between 1990 and 1995. We have 3.3 
million problem drinkers on our high school campuses, over half a 
million are alcoholics and on any given weekend in America, 30 percent 
of the student population spends some time drunk.
  A young woman in a high school in Oklahoma wrote this poem as a new 
school prayer. Let me read it for you:

     Now I sit me down in school where praying is against the rule
     For this great Nation under God finds mention of Him very 
           odd.
     If scripture now the class recites, it violates the Bill of 
           Rights.
     And any time my head I bow becomes a Federal matter now.

     Our hair can be purple, orange, or green, that's no offense, 
           it's a freedom scene.
     The law is specific, the law is precise! Only prayers spoken 
           out loud are a serious vice.
     For praying in a public hall might offend someone with no 
           faith at all.

     In silence alone we must meditate, God's name is prohibited 
           by the State.
     We are allowed to cuss and dress like freaks, and pierce our 
           noses, tongues and cheeks.
     They've outlawed guns but first the Bible. To quote the Good 
           Book makes me liable.
     We can elect a pregnant senior queen and the unwed daddy our 
           senior king.

     It's inappropriate to teach right from wrong; we're taught 
           that such judgments do not belong.
     We can get our condoms and birth controls, study witchcraft, 
           vampires and totem poles.
     But the Ten Commandants are not allowed, no word of God must 
           reach this crowd.

     It is scary here I must confess; when chaos reigns the 
           school's a mess.
     So Lord, this silent plea I make: Should I be shot, my soul 
           please take!

  Our Nation, which used to lead the world in every arena, now leads 
the world in these areas: We are number one in violent crime. We are 
number one in divorce. We are number one in teenage pregnancies. We are 
number one in voluntary abortion. We are number one in illegal drug 
abuse. We are number one in the industrialized world for illiteracy. 
What happened?
  First of all, Christianity went to sleep. Forty years ago, the church 
gave up the public arena to an increasingly secular government and said 
we would focus on the souls of men. Actually, the first leader to call 
for that division was not one of our Founding Fathers. His name was 
Adolph Hitler, who told the preachers of Germany, ``You take care of 
their souls and I will take care of the rest of their lives.''
  Here is a million dollar question. Are we better off today? Since we 
banished God from all our public life and systems and allowed a vocal 
group of humanist activists to tell us our faith is dangerous to the 
liberties of this Nation, are we better off? Are we satisfied with what 
is happening in America?
  Alexis de Tocqueville was a famous French statesman and scholar. 
Beginning in 1831, he toured America for years to find the secret of 
her genius and strength which was marveled at throughout the world. He 
published a two-part book entitled ``Democracy in America,'' which is 
still hailed as the most penetrating analysis of the relationship of 
character to democracy ever written.
  Here is how de Tocqueville summed up his experience: ``In the United 
States, the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but 
shapes the intelligence of the people. Christianity therefore reigns 
without obstacle, by universal consequence. The consequence is, as I 
have before observed, that every principle in a moral world is fixed 
and in force.
  ``I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her 
great harbors; her fertile fields and boundless

[[Page 12889]]

forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her universal 
public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in 
her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.
  ``But not until I went into the churches of America and heard her 
pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her 
genius and power. America is great because America is good; and if 
America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!''
  Let me close by suggesting the answer offered by President Abraham 
Lincoln in the address he gave calling for April 30, 1860, seeking a 
national day of humiliation, fasting and prayer.
  ``We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We 
have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have 
grown in numbers, wealth and powers as no other Nation has ever grown.
  ``But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand 
which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched us; and we 
have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all 
these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our 
own.
  ``Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-
sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too 
proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then to humble 
ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and 
to pray for clemency and forgiveness.''
  That was Abraham Lincoln.
  Today, we have an entire population that has no clue as to its true 
American heritage. They have not forgotten. They never knew.
  Our textbooks have been bled dry of all of this aspect of the 
founding of our Nation. Abraham Lincoln said this to our Nation. We 
need to hear it again, and this also comes from his Gettysburg address.
  ``It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased 
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of 
devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have 
died in vain, that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of 
freedom.''
  The three great lies are our Founding Fathers were atheists and 
deists. We let them speak for themselves. They clearly were not.
  The second is that they sought to establish a non-Christian Nation. 
We let them speak. We let the courts speak. We let the Congress speak. 
We listened to what was said in our schools. Clearly, this was not the 
case.
  That wall of separation never intended that religion should not be in 
government. It was intended that government should not empower any 
religion so that it could oppress the people.
  What do we do now that our textbooks have been bled dry, that so few, 
even those in leadership positions, understand the true beginnings of 
our Nation? What we need to do is to make sure that all of our people, 
especially our leaders, become familiar with the milieu in which our 
Nation was born. We need to symbolically shout it from the housetop so 
that none can refuse to hear it.
  The two events that I started this little discussion with, the Ninth 
Circuit Court ruling in San Francisco and the question of whether the 
Ten Commandments should be taken down from Memorial Park in Frederick, 
these two things would have been unthinkable in the Nation that I grew 
up in. I can remember very well 60 years ago, and they should be 
unthinkable today, and since all of the institutions of our country are 
at least to some extent creatures of our culture, before we change our 
institutions, we need to change our culture. Mr. Speaker, every one of 
us has a responsibility and an obligation and the privilege to do that.

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