[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12657]
[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 Alabama (Mr. Aderholt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ADERHOLT. Mr. Speaker, I do want to thank my colleagues for 
taking time to call attention to this topic that we have been 
discussing tonight. And certainly from the very beginning of our 
history in this Nation, religious expression and faith was the norm 
amongst conversations that our Founding Fathers had.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes) along with 
several of my colleagues tonight pointed out that as we stand here 
tonight in this Chamber that as we look around the room and we see the 
reliefs under the ceiling of the Chamber, and we see the 23 different 
lawgivers that are depicted above the gallery doorways, the most 
prominent relief, of course, has been noted is that of Moses who handed 
down the Ten Commandments. And of course those Ten Commandments were 
handed down to the children of Israel from God Himself.
  Furthermore, it has been noted here tonight that ``In God We Trust'' 
is above the Speaker's chair, as it is our national motto. And of 
course let's not forget that as we started the legislative day today, 
before we voted on the legislation just a couple of hours ago, a 
chaplain said a prayer that began the legislative day. And of course 
that has been the custom dating back to the days of our Founding 
Fathers.
  The Founding Fathers no doubt believed that God had His Almighty hand 
in the founding and the building of this Nation. George Washington 
himself believed that America's independence from Britain ultimately 
depended on God and not man. I find it interesting that it is not 
unusual for the Founding Fathers when they dated documents at that time 
they would use the phrase ``in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1776'' 
of what the date may have been.
  A few months ago, I was walking down the stairways just outside of 
the House Chamber, and one of the paintings that is above the stairways 
is the ``Signing of the Constitution.'' And I have passed by that 
painting hundreds of times. Of course, most Americans are very familiar 
with that famous painting. But for some reason, one thing caught my eye 
that was not usually the case, and I noticed there was an open book 
there near where the presiding officer was over the signers of the 
Constitution. And I took a closer look and noticed that it was an open 
book. And at the top it said ``Saint Matthew.'' And certainly I don't 
think it is any coincidence that that book was open on that particular 
day.
  One may ask why our Founding Fathers were so concerned about this 
issue. And one reason I believe that they were so focused on this issue 
and thought it was so important is because they had this radical belief 
that we are all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. 
And this was indeed a radical concept in the time, because in England 
your rights were granted to you by the king. Therefore, if the king or 
the queen granted your rights, or if man granted your rights, then the 
king or the queen or the man could take those rights away. However, if 
God granted those rights, no person, be he king or queen, could take 
them away. They were a gift of God.
  So when one asks the importance of religious history and faith in 
America, one can point to many reasons. And one reason that we can 
point back to is that in the United States of America, rights are 
granted by God and not by man.

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