Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007

STEM CELL RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - January 11, 2007)

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Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, let me, first of all, say that, for the most part, this discussion has gone on without name calling, although it has happened once today, and so I want to start out by saying, I am coming to this floor to make a point, and not an accusation.

It is important for me to say because there are words used here, morality and moral and ethical, and in the last election, in my State, the word religion was used with this discussion because stem cell research was on the ballot.

I want to say very clearly, there is no conflict between religion and science. There was a man by the name of Paul who visited Turkey, and while in a city called Ephesus, he learned the people, went back and wrote a letter to them. And he said, ``Now Glory be to God who, by his mighty power at work within us, is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires thoughts or hopes.'

Science is but another word for hope. And hope stands on tippy toes looking for healing, looking for cures, searching for the ideal.

I will not be a hopeless pessimist. I realize that whenever we are able to use the scientific advancements, that we are not becoming the enemies of faith, but rather it is another way to praise God and his constantly evolving creation.

Now, there was a great Baptist clergyman by the name of Harry Emerson Fosdick, and in his book, ``The Modern Use of the Bible,' he says, ``If there are fresh things to learn concerning the physical universe, let us have them, that we may find deeper meaning when we say `The heavens declare the glory of God.' '

Now, it is my hope that we will not be as troglodytic as our ancestors who refused to peer through the lens of Galileo's telescope; that we are men and women who will do every single thing we can to bring about whatever we can, within our human powers, to cure the beastly diseases that wreak havoc in the lives of Americans and people all over this country.

Should science succeed in fulfilling the much vaunted optimism expressed by advocates of stem cell therapy, much of the credit should go to the community of faith.

Because I accept the Holy Bible as the inspired and interminable Word of God, I consider myself to be a Christian fundamentalist. I accept, as an inseparable component of my faith, the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of God. Therefore, I am baffled by my fellow fundamentalists who seem to be utterly opposed to and terror-stricken by the advancement of science, including stem-cell research. The propagation of knowledge and the dismantling of the boundless awe-inspiring mysteries of God's world are viewed by some in our faith as a foreboding foray toward undermining and diminishing the glory of the Creator. However, the opposite is true. When the human intellect makes strides that sets the world agog, it is God, from whom all knowledge stems, who is honored. Let us keep in mind that scientific advancement is not an enemy of faith, but yet another way to praise God and His constantly evolving creation.

Contemporary men and women of faith, as always, stand at the crossroads. In a real sense, religion has always been impelled to wage war in some area or another. The pressing question is shall we march across the battlefields of faith with open arms toward the magnificent revelations of God's great truths, or, do we use our inherent power and influence to signal a retreat from the bright and simmering sunshine of expanding scientific scholarship. The potential life-saving issue of stem cell research is before us. The scepter is in the hands of the enlightened community of believers. Our failure to speak out on the medical need for stem-cell research will allow earnest but erroneous or misguided souls who wish to constrain such study to force us back to a time when the faithful waged its fiery finger of scorn at the irreverence of scientific inquiry. Like the majority of people of faith, I totally reject the notion that today's community of believers are as troglodytic as our ancestors who refused to peer through the lens of Galileo's telescope. Nonetheless, this is a testing time.

Doctor Harry Emerson Fosdick, the legendary Baptist clergyman of the first half of the 20th century, profoundly addresses the issue of flowering faith in his wonderfully inspiring book, The Modern Use of the Bible: ``If there are fresh things to learn concerning the physical universe, let us have them, that we may find deeper meaning when we say, `The heavens declare the glory of God.' '

Should science succeed in fulfilling the much vaunted optimism expressed by advocates of stem-cell therapy, much of the credit should go to the community of faith. Every experiment that leads to greater medical breakthroughs is a discernible display of the earthly presence of God and of the presence of particles of His divinity in us.

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