Robert Wexler: “I rise with great trepidation to oppose a bill or a resolution that purports to restore religious freedom, but this bill…”

“I rise with great trepidation to oppose a bill or a resolution that purports to restore religious freedom, but this bill does nothing of the sort. If I thought for one moment, one moment, that thousands of American teenagers, because of a 15-second or a 30-second school-sponsored prayer, were going to stop taking drugs or stop being involved in teen relationships or stop using alcohol, I might vote for this bill. If I thought for one moment that a 2-minute prayer exercise at a commencement program is going to take guns out of the hands of kids across America, I might just vote for this. If I even thought that thousands of kids in America would come home after this school-sponsored prayer, come home and simply hug their mother or hug their father and say, ``Mom, I honor you,'' just like the Ten Commandments say, I just might vote for this. But let us really think, outside of the constitutional context, what will really happen to children across America? Let us think about those thin-skinned children that the sponsor spoke of, that courageous young child that will be in a high school football game after this one-size-fits-all prayer is said by the majority will of the students, and since when is our First Amendment determined by majority will? There is no such thing as majority will built into the First Amendment. But that is what we will have. What will that young, courageous child be subjected to, that thin-skinned child? They will be humiliated.…”