Issue Position: Faith & Family

Issue Position

Faith

Our religious freedom as Americans is guaranteed in the Constitution's Bill of Rights. The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…." Unfortunately, the courts have run roughshod over this guarantee in order to implement their vision of how religion in public life should be conducted. History does not bear out their views.

Shortly after the Constitution was ratified, there were concerns in the country that Congress would establish a national church. The founders who served in the First Congress wanted to make it clear that Congress has no authority to establish a national church. In order to do so, they included the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment. That was the founders' sole purpose for placing this provision into our Constitution.

Years after the Bill of Rights were ratified, Thomas Jefferson as a private citizen expressed in a letter his opinion that there is a wall of separation between church and state. When the Bill of Rights were drafted and adopted, he was out of the country, finishing his service as Minister to France. The words "wall of separation between church and state" do not appear anywhere in the Constitution or its amendments.

Nothing indicates the founders in Congress intended for there to be such a wall. In the same year they proposed the Bill of Rights, the founders serving in the First Congress encouraged the teaching of religion and morality in the schools which would be established through land grants under the Northwest Ordinance. They also suggested that President Washington proclaim a national day of public thanksgiving and prayer, "acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God…." The founders' religious practice and views were reflected in other ways in the early federal and state governments, but are far too numerous to mention here.

The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has on its own initiative, and contrary to the Constitution, used the idea of a wall of separation between church and state to trample religious freedom in our country. Citing this phrase, they have prohibited prayer and Bible reading in public schools and essentially removed God from the public square.

Religious freedom could further be eroded by hate crimes legislation enacted by Congress in 2009, which makes it a criminal offense to harm someone in the legislation's protected class. The law raises the question of whether pastors who preach biblical admonitions against homosexuality can potentially be prosecuted if congregants within their hearing harm someone the law protects.

ObamaCare may require physicians to perform or refer medical procedures which violate their religious beliefs. As recently as 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. that the Department of Health and Human Services cannot require closely held companies to pay, through health insurance plans, for morning-after pills for its employees as part of ObamaCare mandated health insurance requirements, citing the employers' religious freedom. But the case was decided on a 5-4 vote. If President Obama has an opportunity to replace one of the five majority justices, religious freedom will be further eroded as a liberal U.S. Supreme Court reviews similar government restrictions on religious freedom.

America is a Christian nation, contrary to what any president may say. The evidence of our Christian heritage is irrefutable. We need conservative fighters in Congress who will join the battle to restore our religious freedoms and protect them from further assault. We need conservative fighters in Congress who aren't afraid to have us once again honor God as a nation. We need conservative fighters in Congress who will hold U.S. Supreme Court Justices accountable when these Justices render decisions which clearly do not follow the Constitution as written or as discerned by the founders' original intent.

Family

The family is the foundation of any society. The foundation of the family is marriage, the first institution created by God. The Bible defines marriage as a man leaving his family and joining himself to his wife. No court has the wisdom to redefine what God has created. Parents have the responsibility to teach children, reared within this union, the virtues that will make them productive, law-abiding citizens of the society in which they live.

At minimum, the laws which recognize and license marriage should be left to the states. Federal courts have no Constitutional authority to intervene. Because of the essential, foundational nature of traditional marriage, I support a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman. A true exercise in federalism, the amendment process requires approval by the legislatures of 38 states. If a marriage amendment is ratified, this most important and fundamental issue would no longer be subject to the whims and social preferences of liberal judges.

Life begins at conception, and the person in the womb enjoys every legal protection enjoyed by any other person. Contrary to U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence, there is no right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution which affords abortion rights.

In Congress, I would fight to keep the Hyde Amendment in force, eliminate federally funded abortions in U.S. facilities overseas, eliminate foreign aid which could be used for abortions, work to defund and repeal ObamaCare, defund Planned Parenthood, eliminate federally-funded stem cell research, and oppose any other abortion enabling measure. I would sponsor and support a pro-life Constitutional amendment.

In America today, marriage is unknown among a large segment of our population, largely due to the Great Society benefit changes Congress made to welfare programs. Governmental subsidization of childbearing outside of marriage has caused the virtual disappearance of marriage among welfare recipients. Overall, births outside of marriage constitute over 40% of all births in the United States, compared to 5% in 1960. Without fathers in the home, generations of youth have dropped out of school, succumbing to drugs, gangs, and crime. Millions more have joined the welfare system.

Congress has long known of the demise of marriage and the family that has resulted from its welfare laws, but has done virtually nothing to reform these laws to reverse this situation.

We need Conservative fighters in Congress who will restore Biblical values and personal responsibility by preserving traditional marriage, reforming welfare to encourage marriage and the presence of fathers in beneficiaries' homes, and protecting the unborn. We need bold leaders in the U.S. Congress, who aren't merely concerned about their career and the next election, in order to change the course of our nation.

Help me to join the fight to restore America's pillars of faith and family in the United States House of Representatives.

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