NAN A. S. HAYWORTH: “I would commend my colleagues from North Carolina and from Oklahoma for drafting and presenting this resolution this…”

“I would commend my colleagues from North Carolina and from Oklahoma for drafting and presenting this resolution this evening. Mr. Speaker, what type of person, what type of twisted, sick mind would choose to launch an attack on a house of worship, no matter its denomination, no matter the people who choose to worship there? Tonight, as my colleague from Georgia who preceded me in the well noted, it is time to come together. We often have spirited and contentious debate in this Chamber. Indeed, we champion that right to freely express differences of opinion honestly held. But tonight, Mr. Speaker, the call for all Americans should be, let us unite against those who would seek to deprive us of our most fundamental freedom, the freedom to worship individually or corporately according to the dictates of our own conscience. Questions of motives, indeed veiled references, if you will, to one political philosophy or another really have no place in this debate. Indeed, even as we could attack or isolate one form of communication, we could also point to the growing secularization of America and hostility toward churches and people of faith. Let us come together, Mr. Speaker, tonight, resolute in the knowledge that all these actions taken against any house of worship are blatantly wrong, and this Congress will work to stop it.”