Political Quotes

“yesterday, my colleague and friend, Senator Santorum, hosted a bipartisan, bicameral event to evaluate the status of religious freedom in America and around the world. I thank Senator Santorum for his passionate commitment to the cause of religious liberty, as well as my colleagues Norm Coleman and Sam Brownback for their participation. Religious freedom is the bedrock of our founding principles. Indeed, it is the very first clause of the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution: ``Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'' As George Washington wrote in his letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May of 1789: ``Every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.'' We are blessed to live in a country built on freedom of conscience, thought, and action. Waves and waves of hopeful aspirants have flocked to these shores to exercise this basic human right. But in every era, religious freedom, like all other freedoms, has come under challenge. And in every era, we have been called upon to promote and defend religious liberty here at home and in faraway lands. We do so as a matter of principle. Freedom of conscience and religion is the most basic, fundamental human right.…”