John Danforth: “there are some things that cannot be done by people in the name of their religion on the floor of the U.S. Senate. There…”

“there are some things that cannot be done by people in the name of their religion on the floor of the U.S. Senate. There are some things that must be done in one's own life and in one's own community. That realization that there are limits to what Government can do and what Government cannot do pertaining to religious activity is the rationale for this Senator, or one of the rationale for this Senator, leaving the Senate. That is not to say that important values cannot be stated on the floor of the U.S. Senate and even furthered on the floor of the U.S. Senate. But what is done here in Washington can never be confused with religious observance or purely religious activity. At least, it does not encompass the totality of religious activity. So I would simply like to point out that when we deal with religious matters in Government, when we deal with religious matters in Congress, it is not necessarily a question of: Well, who is for religion and who is against religion? It is not a matter of let us go to the Senate floor and vote on whether or not we are going to be religious. Because, in fact, there is not any religious position that I know of on this legislation.”