Date: 2016-07-08
Speaker: JODY B. HICE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Speaker. I rise to support the First Amendment Defense Act and the importance of defending religious liberties in America. And I dont know that there has ever been a greater time for us to address this than right now. We have. unfortunately. become accustomed in this country of the news similar to what we woke up to this morning where we see one tragedy after another. Certainly racial tensions are extremely high in this country. Anger is high. We face a number of other issues across this country. like greed and selfcenteredness. a disregard for authority and personal property and the rule of law. We see corruption in so many different places. including our government at all levels. be it on the local level. the State. or here on the national level as well. [ 1245 Things like immorality and abuse. And. yes. we hear a lot these days. especially days like today. a lot of people talking about gun violence. But. Mr. Speaker. I am convinced at the core of my being that we cannot address these type of issues by turning our backs on God and by kicking God out of the public square. And. yet. we are seeing an increase of hostility in this country toward people of faith and the right that people have under the First Amendment to express those beliefs in the public square without fear of intimidation. without fear of being punished by our government. Mr. Speaker. all of this concerns me greatly. and I know it concerns many people not only in the peoples House. but all across our Nation. I think many people dont realize that. even according to the Scriptures. the institutions of family. as well as church and government. have been instituted by God. These are not creations of man. And I think many of us. Mr. Speaker. forget the reality of this. In fact. the reason that government was created by God in the first place is because He knew that we. as human beings. need boundaries within which to live. and those boundaries actually comprise a civil society. And so we have government given to us as a great gift to enable us to have a tangible understanding of right and wrong and the boundaries within which to live. and if we get outside those boundaries. government is there for correction and to keep us within certain boundaries of behavior. That is what comprises a civil society. But. of course. the problem of all of this. Mr. Speaker. is that we realize that government itself is comprised of human beings. and if human beings within government themselves are corrupt. then everyone suffers. and so it becomes extremely important for us to understand the purpose of government and why it exists and why it has such an influence on all of our lives. On the other side. I guess. of the coinperhaps not totally the other side. but certainly within the context of this discussionis. in fact. people of faith. Mr. Speaker. I have been involved in this battle personally for very closely. nearly 15 years. but I find these days people of faith are very much intimidated. scared to get involved. And there are all sorts of reasons for this. I hear all kinds of excuses. but some of the bigger excuses that I hear frequently is people say we have that separation of church and State. Of course. we know. Mr. Speaker. that that is not in the Constitution. and. yet. we have heard it over and over and over and over to the extent that many people today actually believe that there is a separation that prohibits people of faith from being involved. be it in government or in multiple other avenues and areas of our society. And so that kind of erroneous thinking has an impact on something like the First Amendment and the right of the people to have belief and belief of conscience. and the right to exercise those beliefs publicly. but I also see. indeed. because of the growing hostility that is becoming more and more evident. that people are fearful of our government. People are fearful to stand up. There are multiple examples. multiple examples. I had a radio program for 12 years and I dealt with this type of thing on a regular basis. but the examples go everywhere from a baker to photographers. some of whom have actually lost their businesses because they chose to stand on their First Amendment right to exercise their businesses according to the dictates of their faith. and they have ended up losing their businesses. We have examples of valedictorians scared to offer a prayer or to express their beliefs in their valedictorian speech. We have workplace intimidation. We could go on and on and on. Mr. Speaker. a long time. talking about this. but the concern is highlighted by judicial leanings that we are seeing these days. I think it is more important now than ever that we understand that the First Amendment is the first amendment. It is our first liberty. It is the foundation upon which so much else rests. If the First Amendment is altered or chipped away at continually. then I am fearful that our entire Nation will suffer massive consequences and change as a result. Mr. Speaker. I just want to take a few moments to not only support the First Amendment Defense Act and the importance of defending religious liberties. but I think within that understanding. that context. now more than ever with the issues that we are watching. I want to kind of draw a word picture of why this is so important and why our Founders. why our Nation was actually established on these principles that we seem today so willingly to walk away from. But we have. I believe. a moral obligation to defend our First Amendment and to defend the rights of people to believe what they believe and to exercise those beliefs publicly without fear of intimidation. let alone punishment. I go all the way back to begin with. Mr. Speaker. our very first President. George Washington. Many of us probably had to memorize portions of his Farewell Address. but. you know. I have tried to place myself in that context many times. and the reality is that many within our country. when Washington was stepping down. were fearful. We had never had another President in our country at that time. and George Washington had done a superb job. People were anxious of the thought of him leaving. and it had never happened. We had never passed the baton from one President to another at that time. Washington. in his Farewell Address. Mr. Speaker. made this statement: "Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity. religion and morality are indispensable supports." Indispensable. Those are strong words: indispensable supports. religion and morality. He went on. Mr. Speaker. and he said thisand I think a lot of people overlook this comment. but he said: "In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism. who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness." In other words. Mr. Speaker. I believe it is totally fair to say that George Washington. in his Farewell Address. literally stated that you could not claim to be a patriot if you didnt understand the role of religion and morality in American culture and those indispensable pillars upon which our Nation rests. Amazing words that. unfortunately. we tend to overlook. Well. George Washington did pass the baton. and for the first time in our Nations history we had another leader. His name was John Adams. Many of us know a lot about John Adams and some of the things that he did and said. but probably one of the most famous quotes from Adams was this one. Mr. Speakerand if this paper here represents the Constitution. it was Adams who said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." I think those are enormously significant words. I mean. we all know that our Constitution basically is a contract. It is a contract between our government and we. the people. and that contract says that our government is not going to be overly intrusive into our lives. that we will have limited government and maximum freedom. That is the contract. John Adams said that that contract. that Constitution. was written for a moral and religious people. that it is totally inadequate for the government of any other. So. Mr. Speaker. I recallit has been several years ago nowI was actually in a meeting with Governor Huckabee. and he made a statement that for years now has just bubbled inside me. and it actually has become a changing moment in my life to understand what our Founders meant when they gave us the importance of religion and morality. But lets suppose we have two towns. a town A and a town B. Lets just suppose. Mr. Speaker. that town A is what we may refer to as a secular town. It is a town that. for the most part. has ignored the role of religion and morality. They. more or less. have kicked God out of the public square. What kind of behavior would we expect. Mr. Speaker. from town A here? Well. if we ponder that and if we look historically at this type of scenario. we will find that this type of society. for the most part. has greater incidence of things like violence. robbery. crime. gang violence. broken families. and all these types of things seem to go on the rise. Now. here is the important question. Mr. Speaker. that I think we have got to address when we are looking at something like this: What is the role of government toward town A? Well. if you think about it. of necessity. government must be very much involved in town A because there are so many problems here. We need more law enforcement because we have got so much more crime. We need more judges because we have got all these different things that are happening here. and there are conflicts between one another. Of necessity. government must be very much involved in town A. Now. lets go over here to town B. Lets just suppose town B is a town that. for the most part. has embraced a JudeoChristian worldview. much like our Founders gave us. Many people here representing this House of Representatives probably grew up in a town B. I like to refer to this as a Mayberry type of a town. Not that everyone in town B is a person of faith or a religious person. but there is a certain worldview that is embraced in this town that embraces. that is accepted within this culture. this community. things like the Golden Rule. where we are going to treat one another the way we ourselves want to be treated. Now. lets just say. for example. that this town B accepts certain values along those things. Now. what kind of behavior do we expect out of town B? Well. not everyone over here is perfect by any means. but overall. many of us can go back and we can look 20. 30. 40. 50 years ago. the difference of life then compared to life now. when we did have more of a town Btype understanding in our country. and there was less crime. Families did stay together more. We didnt suffer with the same extent of issues like gang violence. drug and alcohol abuse. and these type of things. So. Mr. Speaker. now the question is: What is the response of government to town B? Well. it is not nearly as great. The reason being. Mr. Speaker. the primary difference between these is what I believe our Founders gave us. In town B you have a group of people who are capable of selfgoverning their own lives with an authentic understanding of right and wrong because there is deeply held religious. moral convictions that dictate the conduct of these individuals. I believe it is totally fair to say that I believe our Founders gave us the indispensable pillars of religion and morality because they understood that it is only within this context that we can have limited government. The role of government in this town is much less because you have selfgoverning people. and it is only within a context of selfgovernance that we are able to have limited government. Thereby. the understanding of the statement by John Adams that says our Constitution. that contract of limited governmentJohn Adams said our Constitution was written for a moral and religious people. it is totally inadequate for a government of any other. Mr. Speaker. it is my conviction. and I believe consistent with our Founders. to say that it is impossible to have limited government in a secular society. I dont know that that is even a possibility. [ 1300 So we. as Members of this House and this governing body. be it Federal or on the State level or even local level. have a moral obligation to defend our First Amendment. because therein grows the roots of religion and morality that are absolutely essential to our system and form of government. Mr. Speaker. I think it is important for us also to be reminded that we have a tremendous religious heritage in this country that has carried us faithfully since our founding that we must not depart from. I remember coming across a statement a few years ago. In fact. this was in 1950. T would be curious to know. Mr. Speaker. how many of my colleagues were alive in 1950. but I would venture to say it is quite a number. I came across a court ruling by the Supreme Court of the State of Florida. It was a decision that they made in 1950. In that decision. Mr. Speaker. the Florida Supreme Court actually made this statement. By the way. they were referring to our Founders. But that court in Florida said: A people unschooled about the sovereignty of God. the ethics of Jesus. and the Ten Commandments. could never have evolved the Bill of Rights. the Declaration of Independence. or the Constitution. They went on and said: There is not one. solitary. fundamental principle of our democratic policy that did not stem directly from the basic moral concepts embodied in the Ten Commandments. Mr. Speaker. I read that. In our lifetime. and that of many Representatives. a State supreme court was making a comment like that. I compare it to this. I cannot imagine any court in America making a decision with those kinds of words. They would be ruled unconstitutional quicker than we could imagine. Yet. in our lifetime. we had State supreme courts making decisions such as this. My. we have come a long. long way from understanding the role that religion and morality play in supporting our entire system of governance. Mr. Speaker. as I begin to land the plane here and wind down. I am just reminded. of course. that many know that I have been a pastor for many years. So this whole issue is very. very close to me personally. People of faith understand that they have a responsibility. according to the Scripture. to be salt and light in the world in which they live. Regardless of what countryanywhere in the worldwe have a Biblical mandate to be salt and light in our world. and I take that very seriously. So. when we see our First Amendment rights being challenged or chipped away. it is an alarming thing. because we have a responsibility. in accordance with our faith. to take a stand for those things which we believe. and to do so out loud. Just from that perspective. Mr. Speaker. it is alarming. But the beautiful thing is. here in America. we are blessed to live in a nation where our system of government does not work without involvement from the people. Our whole system is reliant on the people of this great country to step up to the plate and engage it. That is the concept behind those powerful words. "we. the people." This is our country. It is our turf. It is we. the people. So. we have a system of government that does not work unless we. the people. get involved in one capacity or another. whether it is voting or whether it is running for office or a million other things to be done in between. That is the way our system works. Mr. Speaker. I want to just emphasize the importance that we have to maintain those principles that allow all of us. regardless of religious beliefs. regardless of those who have no religious beliefs. but also remembering those who do have religious beliefs. that this is a country where the First Amendment protects all of us. This is a country where the First Amendment Defense Act applies to all of us. Mr. Speaker. I want to close with a quote. Right out these doors is Statuary Hall. Sometime back late one evening. I had some spare moments. and I came back over here to the Capitol and was walking alone. I was virtually all by myself here in these great Halls. I went into Statuary Hall. and I started reading and going to one statue after another. I went around reading about those individuals. and I came to one. James Garfield. Mr. Speaker. many people dont know much about Garfield these days. but he is the only minister to ever be elected President of the United States of America. I stood before that statue and I looked at him and. Mr. Speaker. I was reminded of a statement. I actually have come to be a great admirer of Garfield. It seems to me that everything I have read from him has been powerful. He seemed to have a keen awareness and understanding of the role of what I am talking about today: the role of religion and morality in American society and culture and our entire system of government. Garfield made this statement. Mr. Speaker. and I believe it is more applicable today than it has been in any day in which we have lived. Here is what he said: "Now more than ever before. the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant. reckless and corrupt. it is because the people tolerate ignorance. recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent. brave and pure. it is because the people demand these qualities to represent them in the national legislature." Then. he said this. Mr. Speaker: "If the next centennial does not find us a great nation . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise. the culture. and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces." What a powerful statement. Mr. Speaker. being reminded of that statement. I would ask us today: How can we. the people be involved. be it in the enterprise. the culture. or the morality of the Nation? How can we. as Garfield said. be involved in controlling the political forces if we do not have the First Amendment protections to do so? How can we be engaged if we continue to chip away at the right of people to believe what they believe and to exercise those beliefs within the public square without fear of intimidation or punishment? Mr. Speaker. I believe now more than ever is the time for us not to chip away at our First Amendment rights. but to defend them and protect them and ensure that those rights are maintained for all Americans now and for the next generation and for as long as this Nation exist. Mr. Speaker. as the First Amendment Defense Act comes before this body in the weeks to come. I hope and pray that we will stand behind it. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.