On the recordJune 27, 2017
I thank all my fellow Members that are speaking up on this very important issue. I appreciate Dr. Murphy taking the lead. It is something that has not gotten enough attention. We continue to have people dying, and we need to deal with the issue. It is interesting: some people find great hope in their religious beliefs. Throughout America's history, Christianity has been an important foundation. No, you didn't have to be a Christian to participate in government, to be a Founder, but, as Ben Franklin said, we know because he wrote out the speech in his own handwriting immediately afterwards, as requested. So often, teachers teach that he is a Deist, as so many of the Founders, we are told, were Deists. Yet in his own words, in his own handwriting, at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, at 80 years old, 2 to 3 years away from meeting his Judge, his Maker--severe gout, arthritis, overweight, trouble getting up and down--he said these words: ``I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?'' Franklin said, we have been--by the way, that is obviously a reference to Jesus' comment about the sparrow, and God seeing the sparrow, watching the sparrow.…
