[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17033-17034]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West 
Virginia (Mr. Mooney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share a 
growing concern in our country, which is that one of our founding 
principles, our freedom of religion, is being taken away.
  I have here a beautiful picture of the Constitutional Convention, the 
signing of the Constitution at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on 
September 17, 1787. The very First Amendment to that Constitution, the 
very first one, our Founding Fathers solidified our citizens' right to 
freedom of religion.
  The amendment says: ``Congress shall make no law respecting an 
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or 
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the 
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a 
redress of grievances.''
  Despite this freedom being explicitly laid out in our Constitution, 
we have seen Federal, State, and local governments continue to violate 
our founding principles.
  One of the most notorious violations of religious liberty was 
recently rehighlighted by His Eminence Pope Francis. The Little Sisters 
of the Poor have been fighting an ongoing battle against ObamaCare's 
contraception mandate. These Catholic nuns are forced under ObamaCare 
to provide contraception to their employees, even though their faith 
tells them that this is morally wrong.
  It is outrageous and offensive to force these nuns to violate their 
religious liberties to comply with the will of the President and his 
allies. These are Catholic nuns trying to take care of poor people, and 
the government is getting in their way and imposing on their religious 
values.
  Another example is Kelvin Cochran, a resident of the city of Atlanta. 
Chief Cochran was appointed by President Obama in 2009 as the U.S. Fire 
Administrator for the United States Fire Administration before 
returning to become the fire chief of Atlanta. He came under attack for 
his Christian beliefs.
  Chief Cochran is also a deacon at Elizabeth Baptist Church, where he 
leads a men's Bible study. His faith inspired him to write the book 
called ``Who Told You That You Were Naked?'', a book that explains and 
examines the state of man since the fall of Adam.
  In his book, Chief Cochran briefly discusses the clear biblical 
teaching that sex is reserved for marriage between a man and a woman. 
Kelvin had 30 years of distinguished service, including under the Obama 
administration, when he was fired for sharing his faith.
  Sadly, these types of religious freedom violations are happening in 
my own district in the State of West Virginia.
  Almost a year ago, a high school student who is a Christian, in 
Buckhannon, West Virginia, was forced by his teachers in his public 
high school to attend a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender club, and 
then he was punished for expressing that he did not want to attend the 
club on the grounds that it went against his religious beliefs.
  The hypocrisy of those who claim to promote tolerance, yet display 
such an intolerance towards those with traditional religious values, is 
stunning. These are just a few examples. These attacks know no 
boundaries. They are not based on political party, race, sex, or 
ethnicity. These attacks go after everyone in America.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to let the citizens of our great country know 
that we

[[Page 17034]]

disapprove of these continued infringements on our religious freedom.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in signing on to my 
resolution, which I plan to introduce tomorrow, to express the sense of 
the House of Representatives that Federal, State, and local governments 
should not infringe on the ability of citizens to act in accordance 
with their sincerely held religious beliefs.

                          ____________________