Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. I thank Mr. Forbes, and I thank the Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, if, indeed, our Founding Fathers were right, that all men are created, then it follows that all men of reason much surely sense their duty to reverently acknowledge their Creator.
In the modern world of abundance in which we live, I am afraid that we have become arrogant and often educated beyond our own common sense to the extent that we have forgotten sometimes that self-evident truth. But Mr. Speaker, how fortunate we are that those who went before us did not forget that foundational truth and they held it in their hearts.
President George Washington, on the very same day that Congress finished drafting the first amendment, 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 to humbly implore His protection and favor.'' William Penn, one of our great champions of liberty and founder of what would become Pennsylvania said, ``Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.'' And President Andrew Jackson said, ``The Bible is the bedrock on which our Republic rests.''
Mr. Speaker, today the secular left often seeks to destroy any vestige of this Nation's religious heritage in history. They seek not to prevent the establishment of religion, but rather, to relentlessly destroy the free exercise thereof. Indeed, they are determined to rewrite America's history, devoid of any mention or trace of the very ideal that gave birth to this Nation in the first place. If left unchecked, they will not stop until they have pulled down the very last Christian cross or Star of David out in Arlington National Cemetery. But, Mr. Speaker, they will not succeed. Because, you see, there is something in the heart of every human being that knows that beyond this world, beyond the stars, and beyond life itself is an Almighty God that holds each one of us in His hands. Our Founding Fathers knew that truth, Mr. Speaker. They knew that America herself was proof that indeed there is an angel that still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm. I pray for the sake of America and all that made her great tonight that this generation does not forget this great, immutable, self-evident truth that for more than two centuries has been the bedrock foundation of the greatest Republic in the history of mankind.
