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 appre-
ciation 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. TURN-
ER, Mr. ADERHOLT, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. HOEK-
STRA, 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 Gov-
ernment Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Na-
tion’s founding and subsequent history and expressing 
support for designation of the first week in May as 
‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage Week’’ for the apprecia-
tion 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 Gov-
ernment 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 Con-
gress in the reading of 4 chapters of the Bible; 
Whereas Congress regularly attended church and Divine serv-
ice together en masse; 
Whereas throughout the American Founding, Congress fre-
quently appropriated money for missionaries and for reli-
gious 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 Inde-
pendence with its 4 direct religious acknowledgments re-
ferring 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 happi-
ness’’), 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 inscrip-
tion from Leviticus 25:10 emblazoned around it: ‘‘Pro-
claim 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 cop-
ies 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 produc-
tion of the first English language Bible printed in Amer-
ica that contained the congressional endorsement that 
‘‘the United States in Congress assembled . . . rec-
ommend 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 fa-
vored our undertakings,’’ along with the eye of Provi-
dence 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 Phila-
delphia, 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 con-
cluded their work by in effect placing a religious punctua-
tion mark at the end of the Constitution in the Attesta-
tion 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 thou-
sand 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 mir-
acle,’’ and Benjamin Franklin believed that its writing 
had been ‘‘influenced, guided, and governed by that om-
nipotent, 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 prac-
tice was instituted whereby ‘‘public worship is now regu-
larly 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 oper-
ations 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 govern-
ment 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 requir-
ing 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-com-
pleted 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 chap-
lains; 
Whereas in 1853, Congress declared that congressional chap-
lains 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 au-
thorities and the whole public action of the nation the 
dead and revolting spectacle of atheistical apathy’’; 
Whereas in 1854, the United States House of Representa-
tives declared ‘‘It [religion] must be considered as the 
foundation on which the whole structure rests . . . Chris-
tianity; in its general principles, is the great conservative 
element on which we must rely for the purity and perma-
nence 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 Wil-
liams, Jason Lee, Marcus Whitman, and Martin Luther 
King Jr., Gospel theologians such as Roger Sherman, 
Catholic priests such as Father Damien, Jacques Mar-
quette, 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 holi-
days; 
Whereas, beginning in 1904 and continuing for the next half- 
century, 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 na-
tion 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’’ dis-
played 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 grat-
itude to God; 
Whereas America’s first Presidential Inauguration incor-
porated 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 ac-
knowledgment 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 serv-
ices at the Capitol throughout his presidency and had the 
Marine Band play at the services, but during his admin-
istration church services were also begun in the War De-
partment and the Treasury Department, thus allowing 
worshippers on any given Sunday the choice to attend 
church at either the United States Capitol, the War De-
partment, or the Treasury Department if they so desired; 
Whereas Thomas Jefferson urged local governments to make 
land available specifically for Christian purposes, pro-
vided 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] fun-
damental 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 destruc-
tion’’; 
Whereas President Harry S. Truman declared that ‘‘The fun-
damental 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 Exo-
dus 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 be-
lieved 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 gov-
ernment, 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 Con-
gress of the United States, in recognition of the unique 
contribution of the Bible in shaping the history and char-
acter 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 Amer-
ica; 
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 na-
tion’’, ‘‘a Christian people’’, ‘‘a religious people whose in-
stitutions presuppose a Supreme Being’’, and that ‘‘we 
cannot read into the Bill of Rights a philosophy of hos-
tility to religion’’; 
Whereas Justice John Jay, an author of the Federalist Pa-
pers 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 ulti-
mately 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 Constitu-
tion, declared that ‘‘Religion and morality . . . [are] nec-
essary 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 cen-
turies, 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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•HRES 397 IH 
er service of Christopher Columbus, the Baptism of Poca-
hontas, 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 loca-
tions; 
Whereas images of the Ten Commandments are found in 
many Federal buildings across Washington, DC, includ-
ing 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 Jus-
tices, 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 numer-
ous 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 benefi-
cence’’, and ‘‘In God We Trust’’, but the Latin inscrip-
tion 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-cen-
tered, 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 acknowl-
edgments 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 per-
manent display and etched on the walls are Bible verses, 
including: ‘‘The light shineth in darkness, and the dark-
ness 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 fir-
mament 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 appro-
priate week to designate as ‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage 
Week’’: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the United States House of Rep-
resentatives— 
(1) affirms the rich spiritual and diverse reli-
gious history of our Nation’s founding and subse-
quent history, including up to the current day; 
(2) recognizes that the religious foundations of 
faith on which America was built are critical 
underpinnings of our Nation’s most valuable institu-
tions and form the inseparable foundation for Amer-
ica’s representative processes, legal systems, and so-
cietal structures; 
(3) rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any 
effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such 
history from our Nation’s public buildings and edu-
cational resources; and 
(4) expresses support for designation of a 
‘‘America’s Spiritual Heritage Week’’ every year for 
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the appreciation of and education on America’s his-
tory of religious faith. 
Æ 
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