Jeff Duncan: “let me mention one other unrelated thing that the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts) got into, and that is the…”

“let me mention one other unrelated thing that the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts) got into, and that is the Supreme Court decision on school prayer that was issued a couple of days ago. In 1952, the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Zorach v. Clauson said there is ``no constitutional requirement which makes it necessary for government to be hostile to religion and throw its weight against efforts to widen the effective scope of religious influence.'' I remember, about 3 years ago, William Raspberry, the great columnist for the Washington Post, wrote a column, and he asked a question. He said, ``Is it not just possible that antireligious bias masquerading as religious neutrality has cost us far more than we have been willing to admit?'' And that is a good question, tonight, Mr. Speaker. Is it not just possible that anti-religious bias, masquerading as religious neutrality, has cost us far more than we have been willing to acknowledge? The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts) pointed out this Congress opens every session with prayer, and yet we will not allow this to be done at school events. There was a very poor decision by the Supreme Court a couple of days ago, and I think our Founding Fathers would be shocked if they knew the extent to which people are going to in this country to keep people from saying voluntary prayers.”