Sanford Bishop: “I respect very, very deeply our Constitution and our First Amendment, but I share the gentleman's concern with the…”

“I respect very, very deeply our Constitution and our First Amendment, but I share the gentleman's concern with the interpretations that have been given of the First Amendment over the last 30 years by our Supreme Court. Ironically, it seems that the Founding Fathers who certainly had the specter of a national religion fresh on their minds probably never, ever envisioned a time in history like we experience today when religious expression and exercise of any kind in a public place is shunned so adamantly by our government. They were running from a government that was too involved in religion, and we now have a government that discriminates against religion. So I want to commend the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Istook) for his efforts and for lifting up this issue for the American people and for the Members of this body to carefully deliberate on so that we can really consider where we want to go in the future to right what has been 30 years of the wrong direction.”