[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12656]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    AMERICAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, just a little over 5 years ago, on June 
5, 2003, I stepped on the floor of this House to take the oath of 
office to be only the fourth Member of Congress from the 19th 
Congressional District, the 236th Texan, to ever serve in the United 
States Congress.
  But what I really want to talk about, Mr. Speaker, is the hour before 
I stepped on the floor of this House and took that oath. I met in the 
Speaker's office. And while we were standing around waiting for the 
floor to open, the House to open up its daily prayer and Pledge, one of 
the Speaker's staff members came over to my wife and I and said, 
``Congressman, would you like a few minutes alone, some quiet time 
before you're sworn in? We said, well, that would be great. I brought 
my own personal Bible with me. And so that lady led me around to a room 
that I don't know that a lot of people know that is in this Capitol, 
and that's our chapel, that's just around from the Speaker's lobby. And 
I didn't know exactly where she was taking us, but she opened the door, 
and to my wife's surprise, and myself, we saw that we were in a chapel 
in our Nation's Capitol. She closed that door behind us, and we walked 
over and knelt at the front of that chapel. And we just sat down as a 
couple and we began to pray because we realized what an awesome 
responsibility that the people in the 19th Congressional District of 
Texas had given us. And so we knelt there, and we began to pray. And we 
just said, Lord, we are about to embark on a journey that you have 
brought us here. We ask for Your guidance, we ask for Your direction, 
we ask for Your wisdom, and Father, all of those things that we're 
going to need to know in order to serve the American people.
  And as we prayed there as a couple, it was a very special moment. And 
as I was sitting there and we were praying, I began to think about 232 
years ago this July 4th, we thought about those men that got up and had 
this Declaration of Independence that started this great country called 
America. And I always recall the way they ended that declaration 
because they said, ``We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our 
fortunes, and our sacred honor.'' You see, Mr. Speaker, they signed 
their death warrant for Dana and I to be able to sit there and kneel in 
the Nation's Capitol and exercise our right to pray to our Lord and 
Savior.
  And I thought about the men and women over the 232 years that have 
served this Nation, that have given their lives and their service to 
protect the right for us to do that. I think about just a few hundred 
feet from where we are tonight, Mr. Speaker, I think about the church 
services that used to be held right in our Nation's Capitol and what a 
privilege and honor that must have been to come over to the Nation's 
Capitol and not only to see the center of freedom and democracy known 
around the world, but to worship your Lord and Savior.
  And so, Father, tonight--Mr. Speaker, tonight--and really I guess 
that we're talking to our Heavenly Father tonight, and we're talking to 
you, too, Mr. Speaker--we've been talking about an important part of 
America, an important part of the foundation and the values of these 
men that started this great Nation, the foundation of the men and women 
that have kept this great freedom and democracy alive over these years 
and how important that is, and what a shame it is going to be if we 
don't protect that for future generations. Unfortunately, we've seen 
some Federal judges try to take away what these gentlemen pledged their 
lives to do. I hope we never let that happen.
  And so just 2 weeks ago I reflected back on that very special day 
that right here in our Capitol there was an opportunity to get down on 
our knees and pray. But what's more important is that weekly this 
Congressional Prayer Caucus, these men and women from both sides of the 
aisle, believe in America and believe in the founding principles.
  More importantly they understand that Who is the ultimate leader of 
this universe.
  And so Mr. Speaker, I thank you for this time to talk tonight about a 
very important part of America, and that is the ability to praise our 
Lord and Savior.

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