Joe Pitts: “on this day in history, September 12, 1782, 218 years ago, Congress made a significant decision reported in the records…”

“on this day in history, September 12, 1782, 218 years ago, Congress made a significant decision reported in the records of Congress. The American Revolution had just concluded, and America was no longer bound by the British law making it illegal to print a Bible in the English language. A plan was therefore presented for Congress to approve the printing of a Bible that would be ``a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools.'' Congress approved the plan and on this day in 1782 our Founding Fathers issued the endorsement printed in the front of the ``Bible of the Revolution,'' now considered one of the rarest books in the world, and I saw one recently. That endorsement declares: ``The United States in Congress assembled recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States.'' One historian observed that ``this Congress of the States assumed all the rights and performed all the duties of a Bible Society long before such an institution existed.'' This act by Congress on this day in 1782 shows that our Founding Fathers believed that it was appropriate for Congress to encourage religion and even the use of a Bible, a lesson many today would like us to forget.”