Ernest Istook: “I think the gentleman has stated things very well. I appreciate your recognition and expression of the fact that this…”

“I think the gentleman has stated things very well. I appreciate your recognition and expression of the fact that this amendment is about tolerance. Some people have developed the mistaken notion that if they are present when somebody says something with which they disagree, that they have been put upon. Well, hearing something with which you disagree and being respectful of it does not mean you agree with it. It happens all the time on the floor of this House. It happens all the time in classrooms at school. And to single out religion and say, you cannot say something that does not have unanimous approval because it infringes on someone else's rights, what you are really doing is stomping on the rights of almost everyone just because somebody there is intolerant. I think of the case, this was the graduation prayer case, the prayer there was said by a Jewish rabbi. The Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional to expect people to be there because they would be expected to be respectful. That interfered with their constitutional rights. I suggest to you and to everyone that if they said, well, we expect students to be respectful when somebody is speaking, we expect them to be respectful if the school choir is singing a song, we expect them to be respectful of all the occasions, but if it is a prayer, you cannot expect respect. What a terrible doctrine the Supreme Court unleashed there. We have to correct it.”