Souder's Reflections at the Congressional Prayer Service
January 4, 2005
Congressman Mark Souder delivered the following reflections at the 109th Congressional Bipartisan Prayer Service at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, D.C., hours before Members of Congress were sworn in.
It is a humbling honor to have the opportunity to deliver some reflections at this service. In the past few days we have experienced sorrow in this House. Our highly esteemed and dignified colleague Robert Matsui passed away Sunday. Chris Cannon lost his young daughter to cancer Thursday. John Shadegg is at his mother-in-law’s funeral today.
Our prayers also go to the thousands of victims in Asia. To put that massive catastrophe in context, we lost some 3,000 Americans on 9/11 and less than 2,000 in Iraq. In Asia nearly 150,000 lives have been lost. It is staggering.
We are together just hours before being sworn in as Members of the 109th Congress.
While this past election saw a Republican sweep of the House, Senate and White House, it again showed that we legislate over a divided country. Yet it has been interesting as I have traveled in CODELs to hear in many countries that parliamentarians have difficulties in telling who are the Republicans and who are the Democrats. While our differences are important, the fact is this: we often forget how similar most of us are.
Almost all Americans have a respect for the law, something profoundly missing in much of the world. We may disagree about how to interpret the Constitution, but we accept it as a basis for discussion. Most Americans accept, to varying degrees, the superiority of capitalism as an economic system. We believe that freedom in the economic realm is critical to freedom in other areas of our lives. Most Americans accept the right to defend ourselves militarily, and to use our military might to impose basic moral decency upon other nations of the world, from Germany to Serbia to Haiti to Liberia to Korea.
This past election there was a lot of discussion about the role of religion in our political system. Why do we act as if this is some recent phenomenon?
I remember being asked on BBC radio and television, multiple times, during the height of the White House sex scandal of the last presidency, why it was that President Clinton felt it necessary to respond in such a religious way. Some of my friends get upset when I say that, but from the perspective of other nations, that is exactly what President Clinton did. He apologized, and kept apologizing. He publicly said he was getting Christian counseling. Why, they asked, didn’t he just go on like most of the world? What was the big deal? What is it with you moralistic Americans?
The United States was at its founding, and still is, not only a religious nation but largely a Christian nation. The Judeo-Christian beliefs anchor our legal, our economic, our military, and our political systems. The balance of powers and constraints upon the state, and thus upon the majority, assume the sinful nature of man and one that is not perfectible.
Arguments about religion have long dominated politics. John Adams supporters implied Thomas Jefferson was a direct handmaiden of Satan. Jefferson issued his own Bible, admittedly taking out things he didn’t like, but still hardly an admission of atheism.
The religious abolitionists, both in the United States and in England, drove the fight against slavery. They didn’t believe Kansas and Nebraska compromises were morally acceptable. Child labor laws, family law, protections for workers, alcohol and drug laws, civil rights – almost all social change in the history of the United States has been driven by those deeply committed to moral views, based upon people’s personal religious beliefs. To take religion out of the public area would leave us with the mean-spirited, survival-of-the-fittest, social Darwinism of evolution.
We are not talking about establishing a theocracy. Such accusations are laughable. I know evangelical churches that split over whether to put baby shower decorations in the church windows and over whether the minister waved his arms too much when preaching. We evangelicals could never do a theocracy.
But growing up we thought the Catholics were organized. We thought President John Kennedy would have two red phones at the White House: one for the bomb and one for the Pope. Then I went to Notre Dame. I learned that the Catholic Church is both big “C” and little “C.” My roommates over the years disagreed almost as much as they agreed.
And, you know, until Father Coughlin came along, we couldn’t even agree upon a House chaplain. If you put three Americans in a room, even three couldn’t agree on how to run a theocracy.
But that doesn’t mean we are not anchored in fundamental, moral, religious principles.
If we don’t understand who we are as a people, if we don’t understand why our legal and economic system works, why are we surprised that we have problems when we try to export it?
Capitalism without morality equals greed. Adam Smith made that clear, as do modern examples of nations where the elite used unfettered capitalism only to enrich themselves at the expense of others.
Democracy without a moral people that respect each other’s rights will fail. Why do we think John Adams said “Our Constitution is made for a moral and religious people”?
Does democracy in Iraq mean the majority Shia, upon winning, can deny rights to women and to religious minorities, not to mention exact revenge upon the Sunni? Why not do these things, if the only standard is democracy? They will win the majority of the vote.
Ultimately, our premises rest at least upon the echoes and remnants of Judeo-Christian teaching. Over 75 percent of the American people profess to be Christian, and an even higher percentage believe that they were created by God, not some randomly evolving blob of amoeba.
So when a tragedy hits Asia, we don’t saw: Tough luck, it’s social Darwinism, the fittest will survive. We don’t say: Well, they are just random amoebas.
They are fellow souls, each one fearfully and wonderfully made by God. Our hearts ache. Our hearts cry out at the pain and suffering. Our hearts bleed. By the way, did you know that the term “bleeding heart liberal” comes from “bleeds like the heart of Christ?”
In the United States, we not only give collectively through government aid, but charity pours forth from individuals as well.
We, as Members of Congress, have been given an awesome responsibility. We make the laws of the most powerful nation on earth. Our power is felt to the uttermost parts of the
Earth.
One of my favorite movies is “Rudy,” about the University of Notre Dame. A priest tells Rudy that he only knows for certain that two things in life are true: 1) that there is a God and 2) that it is not him.
We need to exercise humility as we debate very contentious issues over the next two years. But true faith fills one’s soul. It is our core being. We should not abandon faith at the door to the House floor. We should not leave the Holy Spirit in the Cloakroom. We need to reflect upon this: Do you really want a world dominated by a United States not anchored in moral views?
I hope our decision will be – in the words of Joshua 24:15,
Choose this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
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