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 prayVerDate Nov 24 2008 03:57 May 05, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR397.IH HR397

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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 

1 Resolved, That the United States House of Rep2 resentatives— 

3 (1) affirms the rich spiritual and diverse reli4 gious history of our Nation’s founding and subse5 quent history, including up to the current day; 

6 (2) recognizes that the religious foundations of 

7 faith on which America was built are critical 

8 underpinnings of our Nation’s most valuable institu9 tions and form the inseparable foundation for Amer10 ica’s representative processes, legal systems, and so11 cietal structures; 

12 (3) rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any 

13 effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such 

14 history from our Nation’s public buildings and edu15 cational resources; and 

16 (4) expresses support for designation of a 

17 ‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage Week’’ every year for 


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1 the appreciation of and education on America’s his2 tory of religious faith. 

Æ 


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