Joe Pitts: “if we look at the wall around us, we see medallions of famous law givers. We see profiles of Hammurabi, Napoleon, and…”

“if we look at the wall around us, we see medallions of famous law givers. We see profiles of Hammurabi, Napoleon, and Madison. But dead center facing forward, full face, is the greatest of all law givers, Moses. Moses, who received the Ten Commandments engraved on two tablets, the 10 laws that form the legal and moral foundations of Western Civilization itself. Back home in Chester County, Pennsylvania, we also honor the Ten Commandments; and for over 80 years, the plaque listing the Ten Commandments has hung on the outside wall of our county courthouse. But now a Federal judge wants the plaque removed. He says it violates the separation of church and state. I have read the Constitution. I have never seen anything about a ban on the Ten Commandments in the Constitution. James Madison, the author of the first amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion, said, ``We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.'' Mr. Speaker, we should pass the Ten Commandments Defense Act.”