National Bible Week

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Lamborn for organizing this little group of speeches.

As has been mentioned, the first National Bible Week was less than 2 weeks before Pearl Harbor in 1941. Why do we have a National Bible Week? Because the Bible was the preeminent text of our forefathers when they wrote our Constitution.

To leave you with a couple quotes, George Washington said: ``It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are indispensable supporters.''

John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: ``The Bible is best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and regulate your life by its precepts.''

Clearly, if you want to understand the Constitution, you have to understand the Bible. That is why John Adams said that the Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people and totally unfit for any other kind.

The most read book or most cited book, by our forefathers, in the Old Testament was Deuteronomy. I have always felt the reason they quoted Deuteronomy so much is they wanted America to be the type of country that God had wanted Israel to be.

Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses. As has been mentioned, in the relief up here, the wisest man, or the man with the most important position in this room, is Moses, which shows that Congress, even at the time we built this Capitol, talked about the importance of the Bible in understanding what behavior should be and in understanding what our Constitution has made a reference to.

In any event, I thank Congressman Lamborn one more time for putting together this ceremony and encourage, particularly all of the young people out there, to read the Bible so you understand the basis of our country.

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