Andrea Joy Campbell: “how quick we are to condemn and how quick we are to neglect the advice of scripture to be sure about what may be in our…”

“how quick we are to condemn and how quick we are to neglect the advice of scripture to be sure about what may be in our own eye before we go and criticize what we find in another's. But this is particularly difficult when the criticism is against a friend and when we have not given that friend the opportunity to be heard. Let me be very explicit. We, the House of Representatives, the Committee on International Relations, has not given Germany the opportunity to be heard. There is an allegation that Senator D'Amato might have invited German witnesses, they might have refused. I understand that is a give and take in that particular context. I understand that at one point Senator D'Amato's chief of staff said that a German witness was not going to be needed after all. But the point about our committee and our House is that we are today condemning a friend, an ally of the United States and we have not had the common courtesy to ask Germany to send a representative to our committee to answer the charges. That is no way to treat a friend and ally. These are very strong charges. Let me quote from the resolution. We believe that Germany has ``fostered an atmosphere of intolerance toward certain minority religious groups.'' Given the history of Germany, these are very painful words. These are words that we should not be saying lightly. Yet we do without having heard from our friends.…”