David Weldon: “colleagues, it is with great sadness that I rise to speak in support of this resolution. I would like to confine my…”

“colleagues, it is with great sadness that I rise to speak in support of this resolution. I would like to confine my remarks to the issue of judgment. Several speakers on the minority side have risen today and quoted the scripture ``Judge not, that you be not judged.'' It is very appropriate that our members should be quoting this verse. For it tells us that when we appear before the throne of God, God will judge us by the measure we have used to judge others here on earth. Careful reading of the scripture, however, makes it quite clear that the message is not that we should never judge or exercise judgment. Indeed, in the same chapter of the Bible that my colleagues have been quoting, Jesus goes on to warn the people to exercise judgment and ``not cast pearls before swine'', and ``to beware of false prophets.'' Most scholars interpret this verse of scripture previously quoted about not judging to mean that we should not condemn others for their faults, and that we should forgive those who offend us. However, it has never been proposed by any reasonable person that this verse of scripture asserts that we are to let criminals go free or that our law should not be upheld. Bill Clinton is not being judged by the members here as much as he is being judged by the law itself. The preamble to the Constitution tells us that the Constitution was created for among other reasons to establish justice.…”