fgarvb1
We are in for it now.
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2000
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This should give some of you something to bitch about!
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http://www.aclj.org/media/pdf/ACLJ_HRes397_051109.pdf
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Members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus have introduced an important resolution called ''America's Spiritual Heritage Resolution.'' Read the Resolution. This resolution ''affirms the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as 'America's Spiritual Heritage Week' for the appreciation of and education on America’s history of religious faith.'' Read the resolution and add your name in support of this effort by Congressional leaders.
IV
111TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. RES. 397
Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation’s founding
and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the
first week in May as ‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage Week’’ for the appreciation
of and education on America’s history of religious faith.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 4, 2009
Mr. FORBES (for himself, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. MCCOTTER,
Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mr. AKIN, Mr. LATTA, Mr. JORDAN of Ohio, Mr.
FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mrs. BLACKBURN,
Ms. FOXX, Mr. GINGREY of Georgia, Mr. JONES, Mr. WOLF, Mr. TURNER,
Mr. ADERHOLT, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. HOEKSTRA,
Mr. YOUNG of Florida, Mr. WAMP, Mr. KLINE of Minnesota, Mr.
DAVIS of Tennessee, and Mr. BISHOP of Utah) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform
RESOLUTION
Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation’s
founding and subsequent history and expressing
support for designation of the first week in May as
‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage Week’’ for the appreciation
of and education on America’s history of religious
faith.
Whereas religious faith was not only important in official
American life during the periods of discovery, exploration,
colonization, and growth but has also been acknowledged
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•HRES 397 IH
and incorporated into all 3 branches of the Federal Government
from their very beginning;
Whereas the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed
this self-evident fact in a unanimous ruling declaring
‘‘This is a religious people . . . From the discovery of
this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice
making this affirmation’’;
Whereas political scientists have documented that the most
frequently cited source in the political period known as
The Founding Era was the Bible;
Whereas the first act of America’s first Congress in 1774 was
to ask a minister to open with prayer and to lead Congress
in the reading of 4 chapters of the Bible;
Whereas Congress regularly attended church and Divine service
together en masse;
Whereas throughout the American Founding, Congress frequently
appropriated money for missionaries and for religious
instruction, a practice that Congress repeated for
decades after the passage of the Constitution and the
First Amendment;
Whereas in 1776, Congress approved the Declaration of Independence
with its 4 direct religious acknowledgments referring
to God as the Creator (‘‘All people are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’’),
the Lawgiver (‘‘the laws of nature and nature’s
God’’), the Judge (‘‘appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world’’), and the Protector (‘‘with a firm reliance on
the protection of Divine Providence’’);
Whereas upon approving the Declaration of Independence,
John Adams declared that the Fourth of July ‘‘ought to
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be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn
acts of devotion to God Almighty’’;
Whereas 4 days after approving the Declaration, the Liberty
Bell was rung;
Whereas the Liberty Bell was named for the Biblical inscription
from Leviticus 25:10 emblazoned around it: ‘‘Proclaim
liberty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants
thereof’’;
Whereas in 1777, Congress, facing a National shortage of
‘‘Bibles for our schools, and families, and for the public
worship of God in our churches,’’ announced that they
‘‘desired to have a Bible printed under their care & by
their encouragement’’ and therefore ordered 20,000 copies
of the Bible to be imported ‘‘into the different ports
of the States of the Union’’;
Whereas in 1782, Congress pursued a plan to print a Bible
that would be ‘‘a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for
the use of schools’’ and therefore approved the production
of the first English language Bible printed in America
that contained the congressional endorsement that
‘‘the United States in Congress assembled . . . recommend
this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of
the United States’’;
Whereas in 1782, Congress adopted (and has reaffirmed on
numerous subsequent occasions) the National Seal with
its Latin motto ‘‘Annuit Coeptis,’’ meaning ‘‘God has favored
our undertakings,’’ along with the eye of Providence
in a triangle over a pyramid, the eye and the motto
‘‘allude to the many signal interpositions of Providence in
favor of the American cause’’;
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Whereas the 1783 Treaty of Paris that officially endied the
Revolution and established America as an independent
begins with the appellation ‘‘In the name of the most
holy and undivided Trinity’’;
Whereas in 1787, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia,
Benjamin Franklin declared, ‘‘God governs in
the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire
can rise without His aid? . . . Without His concurring
aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better
than the builders of Babel’’;
Whereas the delegates to the Constitutional Convention concluded
their work by in effect placing a religious punctuation
mark at the end of the Constitution in the Attestation
Clause, noting not only that they had completed the
work with ‘‘the unanimous consent of the States present’’
but they had done so ‘‘in the Year of our Lord one thousand
seven hundred and eighty seven’’;
Whereas James Madison declared that he saw the finished
Constitution as a product of ‘‘the finger of that Almighty
Hand which has been so frequently and signally extended
to our relief in the critical stages of the Revolution,’’ and
George Washington viewed it as ‘‘little short of a miracle,’’
and Benjamin Franklin believed that its writing
had been ‘‘influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent,
omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler, in Whom all
inferior spirits live, and move, and have their being’’;
Whereas, from 1787 to 1788, State conventions to ratify the
United States Constitution not only began with prayer
but even met in church buildings;
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Whereas in 1795, during construction of the Capitol, a practice
was instituted whereby ‘‘public worship is now regularly
administered at the Capitol, every Sunday morning,
at 11 o’clock’’;
Whereas in 1789, the first Federal Congress, the Congress
that framed the Bill of Rights, including the First
Amendment, appropriated Federal funds to pay chaplains
to pray at the opening of all sessions, a practice that has
continued to this day, with Congress not only funding its
congressional chaplains but also the salaries and operations
of more than 4,500 military chaplains;
Whereas in 1789, Congress, in the midst of framing the Bill
of Rights and the First Amendment, passed the first
Federal law touching education, declaring that ‘‘Religion,
morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government
and the happiness of mankind, schools and the
means of education shall forever be encouraged’’;
Whereas in 1789, on the same day that Congress finished
drafting the First Amendment, it requested President
Washington to declare a National day of prayer and
thanksgiving, resulting in the first Federal official
Thanksgiving proclamation that declared ‘‘it is the duty
of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty
God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and
humbly to implore His protection and favor’’;
Whereas in 1800, Congress enacted naval regulations requiring
that Divine service be performed twice every day
aboard ‘‘all ships and vessels in the navy,’’ with a sermon
preached each Sunday;
Whereas in 1800, Congress approved the use of the just-completed
Capitol structure as a church building, with Divine
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services to be held each Sunday in the Hall of the House,
alternately administered by the House and Senate chaplains;
Whereas in 1853, Congress declared that congressional chaplains
have a ‘‘duty . . . to conduct religious services
weekly in the Hall of the House of Representatives’’;
Whereas by 1867, the church at the Capitol was the largest
church in Washington, DC, with up to 2,000 people a
week attending Sunday service in the Hall of the House;
Whereas by 1815, over 2,000 official governmental calls to
prayer had been issued at both the State and the Federal
levels, with thousands more issued since 1815;
Whereas in 1853, the United States Senate declared that the
Founding Fathers ‘‘had no fear or jealousy of religion
itself, nor did they wish to see us an irreligious people
. . . they did not intend to spread over all the public authorities
and the whole public action of the nation the
dead and revolting spectacle of atheistical apathy’’;
Whereas in 1854, the United States House of Representatives
declared ‘‘It [religion] must be considered as the
foundation on which the whole structure rests . . . Christianity;
in its general principles, is the great conservative
element on which we must rely for the purity and permanence
of free institutions’’;
Whereas in 1864, by law Congress added ‘‘In God We Trust’’
to American coinage;
Whereas in 1864, Congress passed an act authorizing each
State to display statues of 2 of its heroes in the United
States Capitol, resulting in numerous statues of noted
Christian clergymen and leaders at the Capitol, including
Gospel ministers such as the Revs. James A. Garfield,
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John Peter Muhlenberg, Jonathan Trumbull, Roger Williams,
Jason Lee, Marcus Whitman, and Martin Luther
King Jr., Gospel theologians such as Roger Sherman,
Catholic priests such as Father Damien, Jacques Marquette,
Eusebio Kino, and Junipero Serra, Catholic nuns
such as Mother Joseph, and numerous other religious
leaders;
Whereas in 1870, the Federal Government made Christmas
(a recognition of the birth of Christ, an event described
by the U.S. Supreme Court as ‘‘acknowledged in the
Western World for 20 centuries, and in this country by
the people, the Executive Branch, Congress, and the
courts for 2 centuries’’) and Thanksgiving as official holidays;
Whereas, beginning in 1904 and continuing for the next halfcentury,
the Federal Gvernment printed and distributed
The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth for the use of
Members of Congress because of the important teachings
it contained;
Whereas in 1931, Congress by law adopted the Star-Spangled
Banner as the official National Anthem, with its phrases
such as ‘‘may the Heav’n-rescued land Praise the Power
that hath made and preserved us a nation,’’ and ‘‘this be
our motto, ‘In God is our trust!’ ’’;
Whereas in 1954, Congress by law added the phrase ‘‘one nation
under God’’ to the Pledge of Allegiance;
Whereas in 1954, a special Congressional Prayer Room was
added to the Capitol with a kneeling bench, an altar, an
open Bible, an inspiring stained-glass window with
George Washington kneeling in prayer, the declaration of
Psalm 16:1: ‘‘Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put
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my trust,’’ and the phrase ‘‘This Nation Under God’’ displayed
above the kneeling, prayerful Washington;
Whereas in 1956, Congress by law made ‘‘In God We Trust’’
the National Motto, and added the phrase to American
currency;
Whereas the constitutions of each of the 50 States, either in
the preamble or body, explicitly recognize or express gratitude
to God;
Whereas America’s first Presidential Inauguration incorporated
7 specific religious activities, including—
(1) the use of the Bible to administer the oath;
(2) affirming the religious nature of the oath by the
adding the prayer ‘‘So help me God!’’ to the oath;
(3) inaugural prayers offered by the President;
(4) religious content in the inaugural address;
(5) civil leaders calling the people to prayer or acknowledgment
of God;
(6) inaugural worship services attended en masse by
Congress as an official part of congressional activities;
and
(7) clergy-led inaugural prayers, activities which
have been replicated in whole or part by every subsequent
President;
Whereas President George Washington declared ‘‘Of all the
dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports’’;
Whereas President John Adams, one of only 2 signers of the
Bill of Rights and First Amendment, declared ‘‘As the
safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially
depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty
God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is
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not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to
Him’’;
Whereas President Jefferson not only attended Divine services
at the Capitol throughout his presidency and had the
Marine Band play at the services, but during his administration
church services were also begun in the War Department
and the Treasury Department, thus allowing
worshippers on any given Sunday the choice to attend
church at either the United States Capitol, the War Department,
or the Treasury Department if they so desired;
Whereas Thomas Jefferson urged local governments to make
land available specifically for Christian purposes, provided
Federal funding for missionary work among Indian
tribes, and declared that religious schools would receive
‘‘the patronage of the government’’;
Whereas President Andrew Jackson declared that the Bible
‘‘is the rock on which our Republic rests’’;
Whereas President Abraham Lincoln declared that the Bible
‘‘is the best gift God has given to men . . . But for it,
we could not know right from wrong’’
Whereas President William McKinley declared that ‘‘Our
faith teaches us that there is no safer reliance than upon
the God of our fathers, Who has so singularly favored the
American people in every national trial and Who will not
forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and
walk humbly in His footsteps’’;
Whereas President Teddy Roosevelt declared ‘‘The Decalogue
and the Golden Rule must stand as the foundation of
every successful effort to better either our social or our
political life’’;
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Whereas President Woodrow Wilson declared that ‘‘America
was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of
righteousness which are derived from the revelations of
Holy Scripture’’;
Whereas President Herbert Hoover declared that ‘‘American
life is builded, and can alone survive, upon . . . [the] fundamental
philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen
centuries ago’’;
Whereas President Franklin D. Roosevelt not only led the
Nation in a 6 minute prayer during D-Day on June 6,
1944, but he also declared that ‘‘If we will not prepare
to give all that we have and all that we are to preserve
Christian civilization in our land, we shall go to destruction’’;
Whereas President Harry S. Truman declared that ‘‘The fundamental
basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses
on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of
Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus
and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul’’;
Whereas President Harry S. Truman told a group touring
Washington, DC, that ‘‘You will see, as you make your
rounds, that this Nation was established by men who believed
in God. . . . You will see the evidence of this deep
religious faith on every hand’’;
Whereas President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared that
‘‘Without God there could be no American form of government,
nor an American way of life. Recognition of the
Supreme Being is the first, the most basic, expression of
Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw
it, and thus with God’s help, it will continue to be’’ in
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a declaration later repeated with approval by President
Gerald Ford;
Whereas President John F. Kennedy declared that ‘‘The
rights of man come not from the generosity of the state
but from the hand of God’’;
Whereas President Ronald Reagan, after noting ‘‘The Congress
of the United States, in recognition of the unique
contribution of the Bible in shaping the history and character
of this Nation and so many of its citizens, has . . .
requested the President to designate the year 1983 as the
‘Year of the Bible’ ’’, officially declared 1983 as ‘‘The
Year of the Bible’’;
Whereas every other President has similarly recognized the
role of God and religious faith in the public life of America;
Whereas all sessions of the United States Supreme Court
begin with the Court’s Marshal announcing, ‘‘God save
the United States and this honorable court’’;
Whereas a regular and integral part of official activities in
the Federal courts, including the United States Supreme
Court, was the inclusion of prayer by a minister of the
Gospel;
Whereas the United States Supreme Court has declared
throughout the course of our Nation’s history that the
United States is ‘‘a Christian country’’, ‘‘a Christian nation’’,
‘‘a Christian people’’, ‘‘a religious people whose institutions
presuppose a Supreme Being’’, and that ‘‘we
cannot read into the Bill of Rights a philosophy of hostility
to religion’’;
Whereas Justice John Jay, an author of the Federalist Papers
and original Justice of the United States Supreme
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Court, urged ‘‘The most effectual means of securing the
continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always
to remember with reverence and gratitude the Source
from which they flow’’;
Whereas Justice James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution,
declared that ‘‘Human law must rest its authority ultimately
upon the authority of that law which is Divine
. . . Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law
are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants’’;
Whereas Justice William Paterson, a signer of the Constitution,
declared that ‘‘Religion and morality . . . [are] necessary
to good government, good order, and good laws’’;
Whereas President George Washington, who passed into law
the first legal acts organizing the Federal judiciary,
asked, ‘‘where is the security for property, for reputation,
for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the
oaths in the courts of justice?’’;
Whereas some of the most important monuments, buildings,
and landmarks in Washington, DC, include religious
words, symbols, and imagery;
Whereas in the United States Capitol the declaration ‘‘In
God We Trust’’ is prominently displayed in both the
United States House and Senate Chambers;
Whereas around the top of the walls in the House Chamber
appear images of 23 great lawgivers from across the centuries,
but Moses (the lawgiver, who—according to the
Bible—originally received the law from God,) is the only
lawgiver honored with a full face view, looking down on
the proceedings of the House;
Whereas religious artwork is found throughout the United
States Capitol, including in the Rotunda where the pray-
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er service of Christopher Columbus, the Baptism of Pocahontas,
and the prayer and Bible study of the Pilgrims
are all prominently displayed; in the Cox Corridor of the
Capitol where the words ‘‘America! God shed His grace
on thee’’ are inscribed; at the east Senate entrance with
the words ‘‘Annuit Coeptis’’ which is Latin for ‘‘God has
favored our undertakings’’; and in numerous other locations;
Whereas images of the Ten Commandments are found in
many Federal buildings across Washington, DC, including
in bronze in the floor of the National Archives; in a
bronze statue of Moses in the Main Reading Room of the
Library of Congress; in numerous locations at the U.S.
Supreme Court, including in the frieze above the Justices,
the oak door at the rear of the Chamber, the gable
apex, and in dozens of locations on the bronze latticework
surrounding the Supreme Court Bar seating;
Whereas in the Washington Monument not only are numerous
Bible verses and religious acknowledgments carved
on memorial blocks in the walls, including the phrases:
‘‘Holiness to the Lord’’ (Exodus 28:26, 30:30, Isaiah
23:18, Zechariah 14:20), ‘‘Search the Scriptures’’ (John
5:39), ‘‘The memory of the just is blessed’’ (Proverbs
10:7), ‘‘May Heaven to this Union continue its beneficence’’,
and ‘‘In God We Trust’’, but the Latin inscription
Laus Deo meaning ‘‘Praise be to God’’ is engraved
on the monument’s capstone;
Whereas of the 5 areas inside the Jefferson Memorial into
which Jefferson’s words have been carved, 4 are God-centered,
including Jefferson’s declaration that ‘‘God who
gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation
be secure when we have removed a conviction that these
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liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice
cannot sleep forever’’;
Whereas the Lincoln Memorial contains numerous acknowledgments
of God and citations of Bible verses, including
the declarations that ‘‘we here highly resolve that . . .
this nation under God . . . shall not perish from the
earth’’; ‘‘The Almighty has His own purposes. ‘Woe unto
the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that
offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense
cometh’ ’’ (Matthew 18:7), ‘‘as was said three thousand
years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether’ ’’ (Psalms 19:9),
‘‘one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill and
mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be
made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh
see it together’’ (Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, based
on Isaiah 40:4–5);
Whereas in the Library of Congress, The Giant Bible of
Mainz, and The Gutenberg Bible are on prominent permanent
display and etched on the walls are Bible verses,
including: ‘‘The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehendeth it not’’ (John 1:5), ‘‘Wisdom is the
principal thing; therefore, get wisdom and with all thy
getting, get understanding’’ (Proverbs 4:7), ‘‘What doth
the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God’’ (Micah 6:8),
and ‘‘The heavens declare the Glory of God, and the firmament
showeth His handiwork’’ (Psalm 19:1);
Whereas numerous other of the most important American
government leaders, institutions, monuments, buildings,
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and landmarks both openly acknowledge and incorporate
religious words, symbols, and imagery into official
venues;
Whereas such acknowledgments are even more frequent at
the State and local level than at the Federal level, where
thousands of such acknowledgments exist, and
Whereas the first week in May each year would be an appropriate
week to designate as ‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage
Week’’: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the United States House of Rep- 1
resentatives— 2
(1) affirms the rich spiritual and diverse reli- 3
gious history of our Nation’s founding and subse- 4
quent history, including up to the current day; 5
(2) recognizes that the religious foundations of 6
faith on which America was built are critical 7
underpinnings of our Nation’s most valuable institu- 8
tions and form the inseparable foundation for Amer- 9
ica’s representative processes, legal systems, and so- 10
cietal structures; 11
(3) rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any 12
effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such 13
history from our Nation’s public buildings and edu- 14
cational resources; and 15
(4) expresses support for designation of a 16
‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage Week’’ every year for 17
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the appreciation of and education on America’s his- 1
tory of religious faith. 2
Æ
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****************************************************
PDF FILE
http://www.aclj.org/media/pdf/ACLJ_HRes397_051109.pdf
***************************************************88
Members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus have introduced an important resolution called ''America's Spiritual Heritage Resolution.'' Read the Resolution. This resolution ''affirms the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as 'America's Spiritual Heritage Week' for the appreciation of and education on America’s history of religious faith.'' Read the resolution and add your name in support of this effort by Congressional leaders.
IV
111TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. RES. 397
Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation’s founding
and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the
first week in May as ‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage Week’’ for the appreciation
of and education on America’s history of religious faith.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 4, 2009
Mr. FORBES (for himself, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. MCCOTTER,
Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mr. AKIN, Mr. LATTA, Mr. JORDAN of Ohio, Mr.
FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mrs. BLACKBURN,
Ms. FOXX, Mr. GINGREY of Georgia, Mr. JONES, Mr. WOLF, Mr. TURNER,
Mr. ADERHOLT, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. HOEKSTRA,
Mr. YOUNG of Florida, Mr. WAMP, Mr. KLINE of Minnesota, Mr.
DAVIS of Tennessee, and Mr. BISHOP of Utah) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform
RESOLUTION
Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation’s
founding and subsequent history and expressing
support for designation of the first week in May as
‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage Week’’ for the appreciation
of and education on America’s history of religious
faith.
Whereas religious faith was not only important in official
American life during the periods of discovery, exploration,
colonization, and growth but has also been acknowledged
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and incorporated into all 3 branches of the Federal Government
from their very beginning;
Whereas the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed
this self-evident fact in a unanimous ruling declaring
‘‘This is a religious people . . . From the discovery of
this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice
making this affirmation’’;
Whereas political scientists have documented that the most
frequently cited source in the political period known as
The Founding Era was the Bible;
Whereas the first act of America’s first Congress in 1774 was
to ask a minister to open with prayer and to lead Congress
in the reading of 4 chapters of the Bible;
Whereas Congress regularly attended church and Divine service
together en masse;
Whereas throughout the American Founding, Congress frequently
appropriated money for missionaries and for religious
instruction, a practice that Congress repeated for
decades after the passage of the Constitution and the
First Amendment;
Whereas in 1776, Congress approved the Declaration of Independence
with its 4 direct religious acknowledgments referring
to God as the Creator (‘‘All people are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’’),
the Lawgiver (‘‘the laws of nature and nature’s
God’’), the Judge (‘‘appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world’’), and the Protector (‘‘with a firm reliance on
the protection of Divine Providence’’);
Whereas upon approving the Declaration of Independence,
John Adams declared that the Fourth of July ‘‘ought to
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be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn
acts of devotion to God Almighty’’;
Whereas 4 days after approving the Declaration, the Liberty
Bell was rung;
Whereas the Liberty Bell was named for the Biblical inscription
from Leviticus 25:10 emblazoned around it: ‘‘Proclaim
liberty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants
thereof’’;
Whereas in 1777, Congress, facing a National shortage of
‘‘Bibles for our schools, and families, and for the public
worship of God in our churches,’’ announced that they
‘‘desired to have a Bible printed under their care & by
their encouragement’’ and therefore ordered 20,000 copies
of the Bible to be imported ‘‘into the different ports
of the States of the Union’’;
Whereas in 1782, Congress pursued a plan to print a Bible
that would be ‘‘a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for
the use of schools’’ and therefore approved the production
of the first English language Bible printed in America
that contained the congressional endorsement that
‘‘the United States in Congress assembled . . . recommend
this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of
the United States’’;
Whereas in 1782, Congress adopted (and has reaffirmed on
numerous subsequent occasions) the National Seal with
its Latin motto ‘‘Annuit Coeptis,’’ meaning ‘‘God has favored
our undertakings,’’ along with the eye of Providence
in a triangle over a pyramid, the eye and the motto
‘‘allude to the many signal interpositions of Providence in
favor of the American cause’’;
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Whereas the 1783 Treaty of Paris that officially endied the
Revolution and established America as an independent
begins with the appellation ‘‘In the name of the most
holy and undivided Trinity’’;
Whereas in 1787, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia,
Benjamin Franklin declared, ‘‘God governs in
the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire
can rise without His aid? . . . Without His concurring
aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better
than the builders of Babel’’;
Whereas the delegates to the Constitutional Convention concluded
their work by in effect placing a religious punctuation
mark at the end of the Constitution in the Attestation
Clause, noting not only that they had completed the
work with ‘‘the unanimous consent of the States present’’
but they had done so ‘‘in the Year of our Lord one thousand
seven hundred and eighty seven’’;
Whereas James Madison declared that he saw the finished
Constitution as a product of ‘‘the finger of that Almighty
Hand which has been so frequently and signally extended
to our relief in the critical stages of the Revolution,’’ and
George Washington viewed it as ‘‘little short of a miracle,’’
and Benjamin Franklin believed that its writing
had been ‘‘influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent,
omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler, in Whom all
inferior spirits live, and move, and have their being’’;
Whereas, from 1787 to 1788, State conventions to ratify the
United States Constitution not only began with prayer
but even met in church buildings;
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Whereas in 1795, during construction of the Capitol, a practice
was instituted whereby ‘‘public worship is now regularly
administered at the Capitol, every Sunday morning,
at 11 o’clock’’;
Whereas in 1789, the first Federal Congress, the Congress
that framed the Bill of Rights, including the First
Amendment, appropriated Federal funds to pay chaplains
to pray at the opening of all sessions, a practice that has
continued to this day, with Congress not only funding its
congressional chaplains but also the salaries and operations
of more than 4,500 military chaplains;
Whereas in 1789, Congress, in the midst of framing the Bill
of Rights and the First Amendment, passed the first
Federal law touching education, declaring that ‘‘Religion,
morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government
and the happiness of mankind, schools and the
means of education shall forever be encouraged’’;
Whereas in 1789, on the same day that Congress finished
drafting the First Amendment, it requested President
Washington to declare a National day of prayer and
thanksgiving, resulting in the first Federal official
Thanksgiving proclamation that declared ‘‘it is the duty
of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty
God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and
humbly to implore His protection and favor’’;
Whereas in 1800, Congress enacted naval regulations requiring
that Divine service be performed twice every day
aboard ‘‘all ships and vessels in the navy,’’ with a sermon
preached each Sunday;
Whereas in 1800, Congress approved the use of the just-completed
Capitol structure as a church building, with Divine
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services to be held each Sunday in the Hall of the House,
alternately administered by the House and Senate chaplains;
Whereas in 1853, Congress declared that congressional chaplains
have a ‘‘duty . . . to conduct religious services
weekly in the Hall of the House of Representatives’’;
Whereas by 1867, the church at the Capitol was the largest
church in Washington, DC, with up to 2,000 people a
week attending Sunday service in the Hall of the House;
Whereas by 1815, over 2,000 official governmental calls to
prayer had been issued at both the State and the Federal
levels, with thousands more issued since 1815;
Whereas in 1853, the United States Senate declared that the
Founding Fathers ‘‘had no fear or jealousy of religion
itself, nor did they wish to see us an irreligious people
. . . they did not intend to spread over all the public authorities
and the whole public action of the nation the
dead and revolting spectacle of atheistical apathy’’;
Whereas in 1854, the United States House of Representatives
declared ‘‘It [religion] must be considered as the
foundation on which the whole structure rests . . . Christianity;
in its general principles, is the great conservative
element on which we must rely for the purity and permanence
of free institutions’’;
Whereas in 1864, by law Congress added ‘‘In God We Trust’’
to American coinage;
Whereas in 1864, Congress passed an act authorizing each
State to display statues of 2 of its heroes in the United
States Capitol, resulting in numerous statues of noted
Christian clergymen and leaders at the Capitol, including
Gospel ministers such as the Revs. James A. Garfield,
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John Peter Muhlenberg, Jonathan Trumbull, Roger Williams,
Jason Lee, Marcus Whitman, and Martin Luther
King Jr., Gospel theologians such as Roger Sherman,
Catholic priests such as Father Damien, Jacques Marquette,
Eusebio Kino, and Junipero Serra, Catholic nuns
such as Mother Joseph, and numerous other religious
leaders;
Whereas in 1870, the Federal Government made Christmas
(a recognition of the birth of Christ, an event described
by the U.S. Supreme Court as ‘‘acknowledged in the
Western World for 20 centuries, and in this country by
the people, the Executive Branch, Congress, and the
courts for 2 centuries’’) and Thanksgiving as official holidays;
Whereas, beginning in 1904 and continuing for the next halfcentury,
the Federal Gvernment printed and distributed
The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth for the use of
Members of Congress because of the important teachings
it contained;
Whereas in 1931, Congress by law adopted the Star-Spangled
Banner as the official National Anthem, with its phrases
such as ‘‘may the Heav’n-rescued land Praise the Power
that hath made and preserved us a nation,’’ and ‘‘this be
our motto, ‘In God is our trust!’ ’’;
Whereas in 1954, Congress by law added the phrase ‘‘one nation
under God’’ to the Pledge of Allegiance;
Whereas in 1954, a special Congressional Prayer Room was
added to the Capitol with a kneeling bench, an altar, an
open Bible, an inspiring stained-glass window with
George Washington kneeling in prayer, the declaration of
Psalm 16:1: ‘‘Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put
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my trust,’’ and the phrase ‘‘This Nation Under God’’ displayed
above the kneeling, prayerful Washington;
Whereas in 1956, Congress by law made ‘‘In God We Trust’’
the National Motto, and added the phrase to American
currency;
Whereas the constitutions of each of the 50 States, either in
the preamble or body, explicitly recognize or express gratitude
to God;
Whereas America’s first Presidential Inauguration incorporated
7 specific religious activities, including—
(1) the use of the Bible to administer the oath;
(2) affirming the religious nature of the oath by the
adding the prayer ‘‘So help me God!’’ to the oath;
(3) inaugural prayers offered by the President;
(4) religious content in the inaugural address;
(5) civil leaders calling the people to prayer or acknowledgment
of God;
(6) inaugural worship services attended en masse by
Congress as an official part of congressional activities;
and
(7) clergy-led inaugural prayers, activities which
have been replicated in whole or part by every subsequent
President;
Whereas President George Washington declared ‘‘Of all the
dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports’’;
Whereas President John Adams, one of only 2 signers of the
Bill of Rights and First Amendment, declared ‘‘As the
safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially
depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty
God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is
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not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to
Him’’;
Whereas President Jefferson not only attended Divine services
at the Capitol throughout his presidency and had the
Marine Band play at the services, but during his administration
church services were also begun in the War Department
and the Treasury Department, thus allowing
worshippers on any given Sunday the choice to attend
church at either the United States Capitol, the War Department,
or the Treasury Department if they so desired;
Whereas Thomas Jefferson urged local governments to make
land available specifically for Christian purposes, provided
Federal funding for missionary work among Indian
tribes, and declared that religious schools would receive
‘‘the patronage of the government’’;
Whereas President Andrew Jackson declared that the Bible
‘‘is the rock on which our Republic rests’’;
Whereas President Abraham Lincoln declared that the Bible
‘‘is the best gift God has given to men . . . But for it,
we could not know right from wrong’’
Whereas President William McKinley declared that ‘‘Our
faith teaches us that there is no safer reliance than upon
the God of our fathers, Who has so singularly favored the
American people in every national trial and Who will not
forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and
walk humbly in His footsteps’’;
Whereas President Teddy Roosevelt declared ‘‘The Decalogue
and the Golden Rule must stand as the foundation of
every successful effort to better either our social or our
political life’’;
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Whereas President Woodrow Wilson declared that ‘‘America
was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of
righteousness which are derived from the revelations of
Holy Scripture’’;
Whereas President Herbert Hoover declared that ‘‘American
life is builded, and can alone survive, upon . . . [the] fundamental
philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen
centuries ago’’;
Whereas President Franklin D. Roosevelt not only led the
Nation in a 6 minute prayer during D-Day on June 6,
1944, but he also declared that ‘‘If we will not prepare
to give all that we have and all that we are to preserve
Christian civilization in our land, we shall go to destruction’’;
Whereas President Harry S. Truman declared that ‘‘The fundamental
basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses
on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of
Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus
and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul’’;
Whereas President Harry S. Truman told a group touring
Washington, DC, that ‘‘You will see, as you make your
rounds, that this Nation was established by men who believed
in God. . . . You will see the evidence of this deep
religious faith on every hand’’;
Whereas President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared that
‘‘Without God there could be no American form of government,
nor an American way of life. Recognition of the
Supreme Being is the first, the most basic, expression of
Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw
it, and thus with God’s help, it will continue to be’’ in
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a declaration later repeated with approval by President
Gerald Ford;
Whereas President John F. Kennedy declared that ‘‘The
rights of man come not from the generosity of the state
but from the hand of God’’;
Whereas President Ronald Reagan, after noting ‘‘The Congress
of the United States, in recognition of the unique
contribution of the Bible in shaping the history and character
of this Nation and so many of its citizens, has . . .
requested the President to designate the year 1983 as the
‘Year of the Bible’ ’’, officially declared 1983 as ‘‘The
Year of the Bible’’;
Whereas every other President has similarly recognized the
role of God and religious faith in the public life of America;
Whereas all sessions of the United States Supreme Court
begin with the Court’s Marshal announcing, ‘‘God save
the United States and this honorable court’’;
Whereas a regular and integral part of official activities in
the Federal courts, including the United States Supreme
Court, was the inclusion of prayer by a minister of the
Gospel;
Whereas the United States Supreme Court has declared
throughout the course of our Nation’s history that the
United States is ‘‘a Christian country’’, ‘‘a Christian nation’’,
‘‘a Christian people’’, ‘‘a religious people whose institutions
presuppose a Supreme Being’’, and that ‘‘we
cannot read into the Bill of Rights a philosophy of hostility
to religion’’;
Whereas Justice John Jay, an author of the Federalist Papers
and original Justice of the United States Supreme
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Court, urged ‘‘The most effectual means of securing the
continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always
to remember with reverence and gratitude the Source
from which they flow’’;
Whereas Justice James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution,
declared that ‘‘Human law must rest its authority ultimately
upon the authority of that law which is Divine
. . . Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law
are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants’’;
Whereas Justice William Paterson, a signer of the Constitution,
declared that ‘‘Religion and morality . . . [are] necessary
to good government, good order, and good laws’’;
Whereas President George Washington, who passed into law
the first legal acts organizing the Federal judiciary,
asked, ‘‘where is the security for property, for reputation,
for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the
oaths in the courts of justice?’’;
Whereas some of the most important monuments, buildings,
and landmarks in Washington, DC, include religious
words, symbols, and imagery;
Whereas in the United States Capitol the declaration ‘‘In
God We Trust’’ is prominently displayed in both the
United States House and Senate Chambers;
Whereas around the top of the walls in the House Chamber
appear images of 23 great lawgivers from across the centuries,
but Moses (the lawgiver, who—according to the
Bible—originally received the law from God,) is the only
lawgiver honored with a full face view, looking down on
the proceedings of the House;
Whereas religious artwork is found throughout the United
States Capitol, including in the Rotunda where the pray-
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er service of Christopher Columbus, the Baptism of Pocahontas,
and the prayer and Bible study of the Pilgrims
are all prominently displayed; in the Cox Corridor of the
Capitol where the words ‘‘America! God shed His grace
on thee’’ are inscribed; at the east Senate entrance with
the words ‘‘Annuit Coeptis’’ which is Latin for ‘‘God has
favored our undertakings’’; and in numerous other locations;
Whereas images of the Ten Commandments are found in
many Federal buildings across Washington, DC, including
in bronze in the floor of the National Archives; in a
bronze statue of Moses in the Main Reading Room of the
Library of Congress; in numerous locations at the U.S.
Supreme Court, including in the frieze above the Justices,
the oak door at the rear of the Chamber, the gable
apex, and in dozens of locations on the bronze latticework
surrounding the Supreme Court Bar seating;
Whereas in the Washington Monument not only are numerous
Bible verses and religious acknowledgments carved
on memorial blocks in the walls, including the phrases:
‘‘Holiness to the Lord’’ (Exodus 28:26, 30:30, Isaiah
23:18, Zechariah 14:20), ‘‘Search the Scriptures’’ (John
5:39), ‘‘The memory of the just is blessed’’ (Proverbs
10:7), ‘‘May Heaven to this Union continue its beneficence’’,
and ‘‘In God We Trust’’, but the Latin inscription
Laus Deo meaning ‘‘Praise be to God’’ is engraved
on the monument’s capstone;
Whereas of the 5 areas inside the Jefferson Memorial into
which Jefferson’s words have been carved, 4 are God-centered,
including Jefferson’s declaration that ‘‘God who
gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation
be secure when we have removed a conviction that these
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liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice
cannot sleep forever’’;
Whereas the Lincoln Memorial contains numerous acknowledgments
of God and citations of Bible verses, including
the declarations that ‘‘we here highly resolve that . . .
this nation under God . . . shall not perish from the
earth’’; ‘‘The Almighty has His own purposes. ‘Woe unto
the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that
offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense
cometh’ ’’ (Matthew 18:7), ‘‘as was said three thousand
years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether’ ’’ (Psalms 19:9),
‘‘one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill and
mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be
made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh
see it together’’ (Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, based
on Isaiah 40:4–5);
Whereas in the Library of Congress, The Giant Bible of
Mainz, and The Gutenberg Bible are on prominent permanent
display and etched on the walls are Bible verses,
including: ‘‘The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehendeth it not’’ (John 1:5), ‘‘Wisdom is the
principal thing; therefore, get wisdom and with all thy
getting, get understanding’’ (Proverbs 4:7), ‘‘What doth
the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God’’ (Micah 6:8),
and ‘‘The heavens declare the Glory of God, and the firmament
showeth His handiwork’’ (Psalm 19:1);
Whereas numerous other of the most important American
government leaders, institutions, monuments, buildings,
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and landmarks both openly acknowledge and incorporate
religious words, symbols, and imagery into official
venues;
Whereas such acknowledgments are even more frequent at
the State and local level than at the Federal level, where
thousands of such acknowledgments exist, and
Whereas the first week in May each year would be an appropriate
week to designate as ‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage
Week’’: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the United States House of Rep- 1
resentatives— 2
(1) affirms the rich spiritual and diverse reli- 3
gious history of our Nation’s founding and subse- 4
quent history, including up to the current day; 5
(2) recognizes that the religious foundations of 6
faith on which America was built are critical 7
underpinnings of our Nation’s most valuable institu- 8
tions and form the inseparable foundation for Amer- 9
ica’s representative processes, legal systems, and so- 10
cietal structures; 11
(3) rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any 12
effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such 13
history from our Nation’s public buildings and edu- 14
cational resources; and 15
(4) expresses support for designation of a 16
‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage Week’’ every year for 17
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the appreciation of and education on America’s his- 1
tory of religious faith. 2
Æ
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