[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 177 (Wednesday, November 16, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H8528-H8532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISSUES OF THE DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I do appreciate my friend, Congressman Al
Green. We are friends. People have said: ``What do you have in common
with Al Green?'' Well, actually, he is my brother. We are Christian
brothers. He adds significantly to this body, and I am proud to be his
brother.
Slavery does shock the conscience, and, I agree, it is really a crime
against humanity. And it is still going on. It is happening across our
southern border. It is horrendous what is happening to some of the
people who are being sex trafficked.
We saw it in Nigeria after the 250-plus girls were kidnapped by Boko
Haram from a Christian girls school and handcuffed to beds and,
according to some of the stories from the girls who had escaped,
repeatedly raped day after day. Just horrendous conditions.
I had been asked to fly over to meet with some of the parents of the
girls who were kidnapped. We had to go out a few hours from the city to
a safe house. We met with no fathers, all mothers. I asked the pastor
who was there with them during a break in our meeting, ``Where are all
the fathers?'' He said that is part of the tragedy. The fathers don't
feel like they did their jobs as a father since their daughters were
abducted and, they knew, were being made to perform acts, chained and
handcuffed to beds, being raped every day repeatedly. The fathers
didn't feel like they had done their job or that they deserved to have
a home and a bed, so they went out into the bush. As I understood,
later on, many of them had died out there.
It is tragic. It is a form of slavery. Horrendous. To think that is
still going on, I was totally shocked.
I thought humanity had advanced so far, yet during the later years of
the Obama administration, we learned that, in the world today, there
are currently more slaves than ever in the history of the world, with
over 40 million people in slavery while the United States is a
superpower.
I know the people in Nigeria told me they had word from the Obama
administration that if Nigeria would legalize same-sex marriage and
would legalize and provide abortions, then the United States would help
Nigeria defeat Boko Haram. But as a very scrupulous, caring Catholic
bishop in Nigeria said, our Christian beliefs are not for sale to the
United States, to President Obama, or to John Kerry. We are not selling
our Christian beliefs.
That seemed pretty tragic, too, that we would basically try to compel
people to go against their Biblical beliefs so that they could get help
removing children from sex slavery.
I was surprised many years ago to find out that as a history major--I
was with the Army 4 years, so I was going to be going there. I loved
math; I was good at it. Biology was very interesting. Not as
interesting to me was botany. I loved history, and I majored in it. It
turned out that when the horrendous mistake, crime against humanity,
whatever you want to call it, it was horrendous, that first ship
brought slaves to America, it turns out they weren't the first slaves
to North America.
There were numerous cases of Indian tribes that would war with
another tribe. They would kill many of the braves, the males, and often
take women and children as slaves. That is something for which mankind
should not be proud at all. There are even references in the Bible to
people selling children to pay off their debts. It is just tragic.
Hopefully, in the days ahead, we can do more to alleviate this crime
against humanity that has grown substantially in the world today.
I saw this article from The Washington Times: ``DHS released
unvaccinated Afghans while threatening to fire unvaccinated Border
Patrol agents.'' That seems grossly unfair to American law enforcement,
kind of a war against law enforcement. We are going to force you, even
though we know that the vaccinations don't actually prevent the spread
of COVID.
That is science now. That should be clear. Even Fauci and President
Biden have admitted that what they thought was originally true was not.
It doesn't prevent people from getting COVID. We are told, ``Oh, it
keeps it from being as serious,'' unless you happen to get myocarditis
or one of the other terrible side effects that have been found to
occur.
Then we got Secretary Mayorkas maintaining the border is secure.
While he is saying the border is secure, we have had millions of people
come across illegally just since President Biden has been in office.
Then a big headline recently has been the big Democrat donor Sam
Bankman-Fried, SBF some call him, the founder of FTX, the second
largest contributor to the Democrat-affiliated political action
committees. The company he founded dealing in cryptocurrency, FTX, has
gone bankrupt, and he has gone out of business. We have a letter that
was prepared by one of our Republican colleagues to Secretary Blinken.
{time} 1445
It points out: ``It has come to our attention that millions of
taxpayer dollars sent to Ukraine to assist with their war efforts were
potentially invested in a crypto exchange that then made massive
donations to Democrats in the United States during the 2022 midterm
elections.
``In March 2022, the Ukrainian Government officially--and for the
first time--partnered with crypto exchange FTX Trading Limited to
launch a crypto donations website, `Aid for Ukraine' ''--it was
called--``within days of President Joe Biden pledging billions of
American taxpayer dollars to assist the country with war efforts
against the Russian invasion.''
It goes on to say: `` . . . the Ukrainian Government also invested
portions of the $54 billion of U.S. economic assistance into FTX to
keep Democrats in power.''
Madam Speaker, this is just incredibly outrageous.
So their answer is being demanded, and Secretary Blinken will need to
respond. I feel sure that he will be called as a witness shortly after
the first of the year.
I hate to think that with all the suffering going on in Ukraine that
some of that money intended to help them ended up helping FTX before it
went broke, and, obviously, some of his money went to the Democrat
campaigns. So we will see what is going on there.
[[Page H8529]]
I have made a dear friend since I have been in Congress, and he has
been co-chair of the Thursday Morning Prayer Breakfast. He is a friend,
and he is a fine person.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Suozzi).
Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for
yielding.
Madam Speaker, I want to read into the Record a poem by an American
poet who happened to live in my district in the 1800s. This poem was
brought to my attention by my sister, Rosemary Lloyd, and the poem was
brought to her attention by a historian from my college, Boston
College, Heather Cox Richardson.
In this poem Walt Whitman spoke about America's choosing day. We see
the confrontations and divisions we have in our country right now, but
in 1884 there were great divisions in this country, less than 20 years
after the Civil War, and there was great disruption among the political
parties to decide how we would move forward.
Madam Speaker, I want to read Walt Whitman's poem into the Record. It
is a great guidance for all of us today.
If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest
scene and show,
'Twould not be you, Niagara--nor you, ye limitless prairies--
nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite--nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic
geyser-loops ascending to the skies, appearing and
disappearing,
Nor Oregon's white cones--nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes--
nor Mississippi's stream:
This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name--the
still small voice vibrating--America's choosing day,
The heart of it not in the chosen--the act itself the main,
the quadrennial choosing,
The stretch of North and South arous'd--seaboard and inland--
Texas to Maine--the prairie States--Vermont, Virginia,
California,
The final ballot shower from East to West--the paradox and
conflict,
The countless snowflakes falling--a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's:
the peaceful choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity--welcoming the darker odds, the
dross:
Foams and ferments the wine? It serves to purify--while the
heart pants, life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.
Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my friend, and my apologies if calling the
gentleman my friend gets him in trouble.
There is an article in The Epoch Times by Joseph Hanneman titled:
``Judge's Latest Refusal to Grant Bail Looms Large for January 6
Defendant Maced Twice by D.C. Jail Guard.''
Having been a felony judge in Texas handling how many thousands of
felony cases, nobody gets more incensed than I do when judges abuse
their position. I recall having a bailiff. I found out that during
recesses he was trash-mouthing, talking terrible to people who I was
sentencing. When I found out, I called him in and said, look, I am
sentencing these people to prison. We are supposed to show the example
of civility. When you trash-talk somebody when they come into court, it
builds up hatred and anger. They seethe during the time they are in
prison, and it makes them more likely to come back and recidivate.
There is no reason to do that. We are going to treat them civilly and
fairly and make sure they are not abused verbally and physically.
Yet, I see Federal judges who seem to have the attitude of gee, I am
confirmed for life, so once I am confirmed, I will do as I please and
as I think I can get away with on appeal. It is outrageous.
So I am encouraging my friends on the Judiciary Committee that there
is such abuse by Federal judges, there is such abuse by the Department
of Justice, and by the FBI adopting gestapo tactics.
They didn't used to act like that. I heard so many FBI just tell me,
you remember how it was in the eighties and nineties? We didn't go
break down doors of people we knew would show up voluntarily if we just
told them when and where. We didn't do it in the middle of the night to
scare families and drag them out in their underwear and alert the news
media so they would be there to humiliate them. Yet, it has been going
on.
People say January 6 and think that justifies the worst criminality
by the Department of Justice and even Federal judges. Because I do
believe it is a breach of a Federal judge's oath when they ignore due
process requirements and they take the position, I am not going to do
anything about somebody that is being abused in jail until I am told to
by an appellate court.
So I am hoping that the Judiciary Committee will even be subpoenaing
judges to find out--not belabor specific cases--but to find out what
their judicial philosophy is that allows them to avoid due process and
to allow prisoners to be punished in pretrial confinement against the
constitutional rights they have, and what allows and provokes a Federal
judge to act like a dictator in their courtroom?
Here are some examples: I would not know U.S. District Judge Emmet
Sullivan if he was here in the room, but I have read and heard
firsthand from people who have had to deal with some of the injustice
of him.
And I know the Federal judge that refused to recuse himself so he
could sentence Dr. Simone Gold, even though he dated her, and she
wouldn't date him anymore, so he looked forward to abusing his position
to sentence her as the first woman with no criminal record and only
guilty of a misdemeanor trespass. He got to sentence the girl that quit
going out with him--the woman, the brilliant lawyer and MD--to a
maximum security facility down in Miami.
He needs to come in and answer about recusal and who he thinks he is,
above the law. It is in the law that a judge must recuse himself or
herself if there is even an indication there might be some impartiality
there.
We have got a lot of cleaning up in the Federal system to do, and I
am glad that Republicans will be able to do that.
The article points out:
``Despite audio and video evidence showing former Tennessee sheriff's
deputy Ronald Colton McAbee did not assault a police officer on the
Capitol steps on January 6 as alleged by prosecutors, a Federal judge
again refused the defendant's motion to be released from the District
of Columbia jail pending trial.
``The issue took on added urgency on September 5 when McAbee, 28, was
twice assaulted with chemical spray by a guard in the District of
Columbia jail for not wearing a COVID mask, his wife Sarah told The
Epoch Times.
`` `This is just inhuman,' Sarah McAbee said. `It doesn't even matter
what your political beliefs are. You should never treat somebody that
way. Are we living in the same universe?' she asked. `This is not the
America I once knew.'
``McAbee is charged by Federal prosecutors with seven January 6-
related crimes: assaulting, resisting, or impeding a Federal officer;
two counts of civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted
building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and
disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or
dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted
building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and committing
an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.''
That sounds horrible. But then when you find out that actually--if
you listen to the audio as you watch the video, Madam Speaker--you find
out he was helping a Capitol policeman who was down. Yet, this judge
has the audacity to say, we are not listening to the audio, so he could
hear that evidence.
Why wouldn't you listen to the evidence as well as watch a video that
gives a false impression?
Why?
Then to chastise this guy and punish him even more because he was law
enforcement, he should have known better than to assault a police
officer, but he wasn't.
The judge doesn't want the facts to get in the way. He is too busy
being a tyrant and punishing January 6 defendants while they are in
pretrial and punishing them with pretrial.
People need to answer for the tyranny of our justice system as it has
become.
I have no problem--and I didn't as a judge--punishing people who
deserve
[[Page H8530]]
the punishment. There were people on January 6 who deserved to be
punished. But it sounds like that corruption continues to grow in the
Department of Justice, the FBI, and even in our judicial courts,
Federal courts.
It is tragic. He had been pepper sprayed in the jail twice and was
not allowed to clean it all off. It was a threat to his health.
By the way, this request for bail sat in front of the judge 117 days.
In our State courts, we make sure somebody has a hearing--we used to, I
am sure they still do--within 48 hours. If they had other evidence to
bring in, then we would set a hearing and have that.
But this judge had this matter sitting in front of him for 117 days
while the prisoner was being abused in the D.C. jail where there was a
deputy warden that had tweeted out, F the supporters of Trump.
{time} 1500
Well, she made sure what she tweeted was what was being done at the
jail.
Judge Sullivan took 69 days after the hearing to issue a ruling on
whether somebody should stay in jail or not. What kind of judge is
that? And then he dismissed the new video and audio evidence, calling
them ambiguities the Court could not resolve.
Well, apparently the only reason he had a hearing in the first place
was because the U.S. Court of Appeals was going to require it if he
didn't do it. So he did it, begrudgingly.
This matter had gone before a U.S. magistrate in the Middle District
of Tennessee, he heard the evidence and saw the evidence and he ordered
McAbee to be released to home detention pending trial after hearings
were had in August and early September of 2021.
That judge said, ``I do not believe that Mr. McAbee poses a future
danger to the community if he were to be released between now and the
time that he resolves this case. And the government, despite my request
that they provide me any evidence that he's presented any sort of a
danger to the community, have been able to point to absolutely nothing
beyond the events around and during January 6.''
Well, prosecutors knew they had to get that matter away from the
judge in Tennessee where there was more evidence of who McAbee really
was to the core. So they got it up here to Judge Sullivan, who
immediately rescinded that order and kept him in jail as punishment,
despite the requirement to the contrary by the U.S. Constitution.
It really is outrageous. If a judge were deciding whether Judge
Sullivan breached his sworn oath, that judge could say exactly what
Judge Sullivan said to McAbee. Judge Sullivan said, ``Someone tasked
with enforcing the law has shirked that responsibility, and that is why
they are dangerous.''
Well, it sounds kind of like that is where Judge Sullivan is. He has
shirked his responsibility to the law and the Constitution, and that is
why he is a dangerous judge. I hope they will have hearings and get to
the bottom of what his problems are with following the Constitution.
Last summer, there were a number of times, I met Pastor Tommy Nelson
of Denton Bible Church in Denton, Texas. I listened, years ago, to
hours and hours of Bible study he did. I am very impressed with him,
and I love the fact that he loves history so much. He uses that as he
speaks.
I heard him online doing sermons to his church, and he would kid and
say: I am going to include that when I get to speak to Congress some
day. I talked to Tommy, and I said: Look, you know, you are not going
to be able to come in and talk to Congress as Tommy Nelson, but I can
pass on your messages, we quote people all the time. Put together what
you think would be good to have Congress hear and I will deliver that.
Tommy provided me this information. ``His father was born in 1914''--
and these are Tommy's words. ``If you had asked my father if one should
steal, kill, cheat on his taxes, commit adultery, or lie, he would have
said `Absolutely not'. If you had asked him, `Why not?', he would have
said, `Because it is wrong'. If you responded, `Says who?', he would
have said, `God'. If you said, `Where does God say it is wrong?', he
would have said, `The Bible'. If you asked for an explanation, `How do
you know it is true?', he could not have given much of a defense of
Biblical authority. But his world view, like most of his generation was
of a Western or Judeo-Christian world view. He connected all the dots
of diversity within the unity of an infinite personal God who had
spoken truly to all mankind through His word, the Bible, and had
intersected man through the Bible's chief idea, the incarnation of God
in His son, Jesus Christ.''
The God we speak of, actually, I am glad to say, is the one mentioned
right up there: In God we Trust; because we used to.
Tommy said: ``If you had said to any of that greatest generation,
`Truth is something relative to what you want it to be'. Or `There is
no final truth', not only would there be wonderment at you, but anger.
They would have seen you as a threat to their day.
``Wisdom to that generation and every generation of Americans before
them was to know the truth and to follow the will of God as truth was
not simply the way that was true but the way that was best. Truth that
carried them through the hardest century of our history.
``Now? That former view is seen as antiquated, as though greater
minds have progressed beyond that. That former view is now seen as that
which holds back the growth of society.
``But the belief in `oughtness', in moral truth, is the marvelous
byproduct of belief in the true God.
``It was Plato who said, `In life we must seek the best opinions of
men and hold to them as to a boat in a storm unless we have a more
certain word of God.' The idea of God, the Bible, Christ the Redeemer
is the highest dream of the hopes of man. We can know what must be
known to truly be mankind. Morality, marriage, the home, the dignity of
man, the meaning of love, right and wrong, all are revealed on that
which was the foundation of our civilization, Bible.
``It brought a world view which was light and salt to our culture and
our country. It brought law and order and dignity. It served as a point
of integration to which all answered. Our only problem was our refusal
to live in keeping with it.
``But our day has cut off the limb upon which we were sitting in our
rejection of God, banning school prayer, permitting the murder of
children in the womb, and abolishing traditional marriage.
``Modernism is the belief that God can be rejected and yet be
replaced by the reasoning and science of man. Post-modernism is the
recognition that modernism will not work. Because post-modernism states
that there is no such thing as absolute truth and with God refused,
society as we have known it `dis-integrates'. The earthquake beneath
our feet began in the country's shift in the 1960s. The tsunamis
followed and with each year more and more devastating. We are now worse
than in the jungle. The jungle has natural law which governs it. But
the law that governs man is God. Man as in God's image chooses. He can
be angelic or demonic based on those choices. Without God and His word
to guide man his fallen nature is unleashed. And unlike nature, man has
become more and more immoral, violent, ignorant, and cruel. And that is
the horror that is sweeping our country day by day. And as it has laid
waste to Europe, it is about to eliminate the greatest culture in the
history of man, the Western culture, the Judeo-Christian world view
that sees all of life through the perspective of the God of the Bible
which we, the leaders of the United States as a body have renounced.
``Washington's last words to us were to beware of following the path
of Europe. A path that began in the exaltation of reason and science in
the Enlightenment. We have not heeded his words, and now Europe's
inhumanities of the 20th century have become ours.
``I need not spend much time on the violence, contempt of authority,
breakdown of the home, violence in our cities, decay of our educational
system, the division of our leaders and citizens, pornography, STDs, 65
million dead through abortion, gender confusion, illegal immigration,
drug addiction, opioids, loss of constitutional freedoms, the homeless,
the increase of mental illnesses, pedophilia, gun control, racial
tensions. Not to speak of the economy and COVID.
``And yet in all this plethora of dysfunction, the terms `God,
righteousness, sin, repentance, Jesus Christ, the
[[Page H8531]]
Bible, and salvation' are forbidden terms. We cry over `what ain't
right' and yet offer nothing but Band-Aids and tourniquets.
``Man must be changed. His heart must be changed at the deepest
level. He must have a new birth. He must be born again as a child of
God. He must as Nineveh in the days of Jonah, repent and heed the
warning of God that destruction awaits.
``Our country and its leaders must `humble themselves and pray and
turn from their wicked ways that God may hear our prayer, forgive our
sins, and heal our land.
``We must be reconciled to Him who is our life and being. It starts
with us, the God-ordained leaders.
``Sadly, repentance cannot be legislated.
``It begins in revival. It begins in the yearning of individuals who
have cast off the blinders of modern man and face the truth that their
can be no truth, right, love, or life without the unique personal God
of the Bible.''
Tommy Nelson referenced a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville. I want to
provide some, with thanks to William Federer's research and
publication, there is much to be learned from Alexis de Tocqueville.
He was born July 29, 1805. He was a French social scientist, he
traveled the United States in 1831, and wrote a two-part work
``Democracy in America,'' 1835, and then the second in 1840, which has
been described as ``the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of
the relationship between character and society in America that has
every been written''.
In it, de Tocqueville said: ``Upon my arrival in the United States,
the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my
attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the
great political consequences resulting from this new state of things,
to which I was unaccustomed.
``In France, I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the
spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America, I
found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over
the same country . . . ''
He also said: ``They brought with them . . . a form of Christianity,
which I cannot better describe, than by styling it a democratic and
republican religion . . . ''
``From the earliest settlement of the emigrants, politics and
religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved.''
That was Alexis de Tocqueville's note back in the 1800s. He said:
``Religion in America . . . must be regarded as the foremost of the
political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a
taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it . . . This opinion is
not peculiar to a class of citizens or party, but it belongs to the
whole Nation.''
De Tocqueville says: ``The sects that exists in the United States are
innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship that is due to
the Creator; but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due
from man to man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner,
but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God . . .
``Moreover, all the sects of the United States are comprised within
the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere
the same.''
{time} 1515
De Tocqueville also said: ``In the United States the sovereign
authority is religious . . . there is no country in the whole world
where the Christian religion retains a greater influence than in
America . . . ''
Inserting parenthetically, that drove and led to the Civil War. There
were so many people that were going, wait a minute; we can't treat
brothers and sisters with chains and bondage. Yes, I understand some
fought for States' rights. But let's face it, it was about slavery for
most.
De Tocqueville said: ``In the United States the influence of religion
is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of
the people . . . Christianity, therefore, reigns without obstacle, by
universal consent . . . ''
He is talking about America. He said: ``The Americans combine the
notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds,
that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other;
and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren
traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to
live.''
In Book Two of his Democracy in America, de Tocqueville wrote:
``Christianity has therefore retained a stronghold on the public mind
in America . . . in the United States . . . Christianity itself is a
fact so irresistibly established, that no one undertakes either to
attack or to defend it.''
Wow, things have changed.
Tommy Nelson points out: ``Remember the words of the atheist, John
Paul Sartre, without an infinite reference point by which all things
are judged, all singular points are meaningless. Without God, all of
life disintegrates.
``It has always amused me that in 1789 two historical events occurred
simultaneously. The American Constitution in Philadelphia and the
French Revolution in Paris, both representing opposite world views. The
American Constitution though not uniquely Christian reflected the
historic Christian world view of `nature's God' and the `inalienable
right' of life and liberty. It gave birth to a culture that France
honored in their sending us the Statue of Liberty because our country
was successful. Not because of our revolution but because of our
Constitution. Revolutions are relatively easy. They are simply tearing
down. What is difficult is rebuilding. The French had their revolution,
but their replacement was not a document that reflected the Bible. It
was a culture that reflected French enlightenment; atheism that
replaced God with nature, science, and unaided reason. With no divine
standard it collapsed into a socialistic bloodbath that prompted a new
term, `guillotine.' All of Europe would follow and by 1848, the year of
revolution, all European monarchies were gone.
But in France without the God of truth their replacement failed only
to be conquered by a dictator to bring order, Napoleon, who plunged
Europe into darkness.''
And let me add, I agree with historians that have said the major
difference between the American Revolution and the French Revolution
was the American Revolution, like Tommy Nelson points out, it was about
liberty that stemmed from biblical belief, whereas the French
Revolution was about revenge. And we see how that worked out.
``The same would happen in Russia who exchanged the church for the
communism of Marx and Lenin and, finally, the horror of Stalin.''
Tens of millions killed.
``Germany had Hitler; China had Mao; and Cuba had Castro.
``But as a Russian pastor has said: `Russia is a nation of darkness
looking for the light. America is a country of the light searching for
the darkness.' Our search has sadly been successful.
``The Christian philosopher and author Francis Schaeffer said: `Where
there is no absolute to govern society, society is absolute.' There is
nothing magic about democracy or `government of the people, by the
people, and for the people'. It assumes that the majority of the voting
public has the wisdom and character to place worthy men and women in
places of authority. Should that society over time abandon their
historic world view and adopt a modern one where truth is shaped by
individual opinions . . . or should that society reject God and
enthrone man, then absolute divine law will erode with each generation
until the tyranny of the majority removes the freedoms enjoyed by the
past. And considering the influence of modern media the majority will
be controlled by the few. And the America of history will be just that
. . . past history.
``To abandon God is to disintegrate.
``Imagine, if you will, a great metal machine operated by a man. The
parts are sharp and pointed, moving with great speed and perfect
synchronization. Anything that would get caught in the machine would be
ground into nothingness within seconds. As long as the man operating
the machine is careful to stay outside of the machine, he is safe. But
should he catch a shirt sleeve in the gears, he will soon disintegrate.
Such is man and the universe. As he stands unique in God's image
outside of nature, man can observe the machine, use it and marvel at
it. But should he become part of the impersonal, he is ground into
mulch.
[[Page H8532]]
Such is man and nature. Though part of the creation, man stands
infinitely distinct from it as in the image of God. As distinct from
the impersonal machine, man maintains his glory but to be merely part
of nature, all of the glory of man, mind, reason, conscience, soul, and
will, merely become biological phenomena. The loftiness and magic of
`man' is lost in the machine of nature.
``King David wrote, `When I consider the heavens and the works of Thy
hands what is man that Thou art mindful of him? Yet Thou has made him
for a little while lower than the angels. Thou dost crown him with
glory and majesty and Thou dost appoint him over the works of Thy
hands.' And these are the `hands' that America has rejected.
``Man without God is a cosmic orphan with no one who gives him
meaning, care, or hope of redemption or life after death. There is no
way, truth, or life without God.
John 3:16 evaporates in that circumstance. ``For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life.''
``Man may `act' atheistic, wise and secular, but he cannot `react' as
an atheist. As soon as he is sinned against and done unjustly, he
becomes a Puritan longing for an injustice to receive absolute
retribution. Without God the only thing man can feel guilty about is
guilt. Guilt assumes transgression, and transgression assumes law that
assumes God. Without God there can be no final law, guilt, or true
government. No civility to build a civilization. No `cult' or religious
rules to build `culture'.
``We cannot legislate a return to truth. One hundred and fifty years
of governmental, academic, artistic, scientific, philosophic, moral,
domestic, medical, education, and judicial denial cannot be naturally
fixed. We are beyond hope for a return. We are too stubborn, and too
proud, and too self-centered, and too indulged.
``Our only hope is the divine reprieve of Nineveh in the day of
Jonah. A prophet who rose from the dead promised life or destruction in
40 days upon their response to his prophecy of destruction. From the
king to the people and even to the animals, a fast was called for and
all wore sackcloth. The disaster was averted, and so it is now.
Prophets who rise from the dead after 3 days and nights are not to be
disregarded.
``If indeed man, has judged rightly for 20 centuries that there is an
infinite and personal God who has revealed Himself in the Bible, the
foundation of history's greatest culture, who raised His son from the
dead to offer man repentance and salvation, and if he is indeed a God
of wrath upon those countries who hold Him in contempt . . . then our
country revels today in the shadow of Vesuvius.
``Jeremiah 48:42, `Moab will be destroyed from being a people because
he has magnified himself against the Lord'.
``Icarus may fly high with his wings of wax, but should Hubris carry
him too high, his wings will melt, his feathers fly to the wind, and he
shall come to a violent end.
May those who have ears to hear, take heed, repent and reform
accordingly.''
Tommy Nelson has profound truth that he has provided, but that is
because it comes from truth beyond him, which he readily acknowledges.
Dostoevsky was quoted by Solzhenitsyn. I had not seen the quote
before Solzhenitsyn used it in The Gulag Archipelago. Dostoevsky was
taking on the crazy ideas of this nut named Marx, a sad man, sad
family, who couldn't even foresee the formation of unions.
Dostoevsky said that the big problem with Marxism is not economic.
Obviously, that is a problem. They always go broke eventually. The
problem with Marxism is atheism.
I hear some of my colleagues talk about how wonderful progressivism
is. That is the new term for Marxism; how great it will be when
everybody shares and shares alike.
But as Khrushchev found when he set up a commission to come up with a
plan of how you move to true communism, where there is no government,
everybody shares and shares alike, he ended up disbanding the
commission because there is no way to ever get to a place; until the
Messiah comes, it won't happen because you have got to have a
totalitarian government that takes away everybody's rights and tells
them what they will be allowed to do and not do, and that government
becomes the God. That is what Dostoevsky was saying.
So, I won't be back next year. I will be back in 2 weeks and the week
after that.
Madam Speaker, I continue to have hope that springs eternal in the
human breast that we won't lose the greatest freedom, the greatest
country, the greatest gift of a country any people has ever received,
that it will not be our generation that sees it lost.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________