David Skaggs: “Mr. Speaker, let me ask my friends, how has the first amendment failed this country? I do not understand what we are…”

“Mr. Speaker, let me ask my friends, how has the first amendment failed this country? I do not understand what we are doing here today. How has the first amendment failed this great land? As with other parts of the Bill of Rights, the Founders had the foresight to set aside this precious area of individual religious choice and belief as free and insulated forever from majority rule, a terribly important central principle in a land as huge and as diverse as ours. What this amendment, if it were to pass and become part of the Constitution, will do is to reverse that. It will make the use of public places and public spaces for religion subject to majority rule. For those of you who believe we should have prayer in those places, including prayer in school and other religious observances, please think for a moment again about how fragile this country of ours is in matters of religious tolerance, how much care and work it takes to keep its fabric together, keep it from coming undone.”