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Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as "American Religious History Week" for the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith.
Other Bill Titles (1 more) 12/18/2007--Introduced.
Declares that the House of Representatives:
(1) affirms the rich spiritual and diverse religious history of our nation's founding and subsequent history, including up to today;
(2) recognizes that the religious foundations of faith... moreSee Full Bill Text
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Amendments
This bill has no amendments.
Bill Status
| Introduced |  | Voted on by House |
| December 18, 2007 |
Users tracking H.Res.888 (17) are also tracking:
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In the News
January 22, 2008 The Beginning of an American Theocracy
Specifically about Mr. Forbes efforts on a bill he's introduced, H.Res 888, entitled: Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's ...
January 15, 2008 Congress Aims to Dumb Down History,Pushes Fiction of Christian ...
H. Res. 888, “Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history….” specifically proposes an “American ...
Source: Common Dreams (press release), ME
January 15, 2008 House Passes, Considers Evangelical Resolutions
Rodda says Forbes has grossly misrepresented and distorted the historical record he references in the 75 proclamation of H. Res 888. ...
Blog Coverage
August 08, 2008 110th CONGRESS,.1st Session,.H. RES. 888,.Religious Faith ...
1777, Congress,print a Bible that would be a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools,first Bible printed in America,with congressional endorsement that the United States in Congress,recommend this edition,for United ...
June 25, 2008 H. Res. 888 Update -- It's Not Dead Yet
H. Res. 888, on the other hand, is not year specific, calling for its proposed "American Religious History Week" to be designated "each year." The resolution currently has 86 co-sponsors -- 80 Republicans, and 6 Democrats.
June 25, 2008 H. Res. 888 Update -- It's Not Dead Yet
Over the past few months, other important issues have led me to stray from my usual writing on Christian nationalist...
Source: Talk To Action
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As a religious person (and a Christian by the way) I have no problem with recognizing that this country has a religious heritage. I do have a problem with this bill however. Our countries religious heritage moves beyond simply the Bible and Christianity. Other religions have also contributed to its history. Not only that, but our revered documents note that no one religion should have dominance. I believe that the language in this bill is too biased in the direction of the Bible and Christianity. Our country is full of people of many faiths, and our legislation should reflect that.
Do not forget that this country was founded upon Christian beliefs. You are correct in saying that other religions contribute, and that is what they should be doing. Just like Different cultures should 'contribute' and not burden our society with each owns beliefs.
Our Country is a county of many faiths as you have stated but founded on Christian beliefs. Remember Christianity is not one religion.
This bill is only trying to preserve our history, as the far left try’s to erase what they think is not p.c.
God Bless.
Anonymous, that's bull. Our country is a country of many faiths, founded on reason. It's stated over and over in the words of the Founding Fathers.
A lengthly article debunking many of the outrageous lies contained in this resolution can be found at...
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/4/24725/53989
Or nation's religious heritage is broad and replete with people with many beliefs, including many of our founders who were either non-religious or Deists (did not believe in a personal, intervening, god as Christians do).
This resolution is simply an underhanded cowardly attempt to to inject false American history into the congressional record to serve as a basis upon which to launch additional assaults on our Constitutional rights in the future.
Al I know is that the separation of church and state is the foundation that has allowed for true religious freedom in the USA. There are more than enough documents to show what the founding fathers intended, and this legislation is not acceptable.
It looks to me that this bill is another attempt by the radical Christian Right to undermine our freedoms. They wage a continuous war against freedom in this country, and this is just another step in their fascist attempt to take over the government and found the Theocratic American Empire of Christ According to Us. This sort of underhanded assault on long held American values can not be permitted or tolerated. In order to remain free, we must remain vigilant and we must win every battle. In order to be enslaved, we need only look the other way. In order for them to take our freedoms, they only need to win a few battles. This is a daunting task that I truly believe true Americans can, must, and will win. Freedom must be for everyone equally, or we are not free at all.
This bill in no ways allows for a theocracy. It just verifies that the United States was founded on strong religious principles. It has nothing to do with forcing anybody to do anything, it only allows the freedom to worship where and when you choose to do so. A religious education merely gives one the right to choose which tolerance to ascribe to.
Jerry, your ignorance is staggering. The very same people who support this bill are on record elsewhere with regard to abortion, homosexuality, and sexual proclivity insisting that to even permit an act or to not prevent it 'gives it implied endorsement by the population'. This is their answer to that; and to ignore this gives it implied endorsement by the population.
I for one recognize that our founders had pen and ink in hand, and if they had wanted to make us a Christian nation, they could have chosen to at that time. They chose not to for a reason. Regardless of our heritage, regardless of how Christian we may or may not have been, the point is that our individual religious identity and our collective religious expression is to be established by the people, not the Congress.
How anyone can read the words "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." and ever rationalize that this is not in direct contradition to the first ten words of that amendment?
You might not have a problem with it, but enough of the rest of us do that it certainly does not represent the "country" as a whole.
It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses...." (John Adams, on the writing of the Constitution, 1787)
Since there is an insistence by the author of this bill that the religious foundations of faith are critical underpinnings of our nation's institutions, it must be noted in the words of the Founding Fathers what the really underpins our republic.
And my I add, Jerry, that the eight mentions of "Christ" and "Christianity" are holes in the veiled language of this bill where the light of truth may shine through. This bill is the thin end of a larger wedge to undermine the Constitution and set up a nation much closer the theocracy people like John Ashcroft and Pat Robertson have envisioned for years. Shame on you, Rep. Forbes, for producing a bill so full of lies and distortions. May it die a quiet death in committee before citizens have to endure the shame of seeing it taken to a vote.
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I'm fine with it and agree with it. America has historically been a religious nation, still largely is, and it is a substantial reason for our success.
America was built on a strong Christian faith; the other religions came later due to the open door policy. The history was Christian - like it or not.
I am ardently against it.
My religious position is irrelevant. As a patriotic American I am proud of my nation's history and ashamed of these congressmen for attempting to lie about it.
And Jerry, where did you get that 47% of the constitution is directly quoted from the bible? Have you ever read the Constitution? I defy you to quote even 10 lines from the Constitution that were lifted from the Bible.
Jerry, I'm not sure where you got that figure of 47%, but I can't find anything that even remotely suggest that, so I'm going to assume it's something someone told you. If you investigate instead of just taking what someone says as 100% truth you will find out for yourself that everything in this bill is taken out of context to support its aim. The numbers of citations from the Bible during the founding of the US Constitution were grossly misrepresented. That 94% from the bible is taken from two studies. One was from a video put out by pseudo-historian David Barton. Barton concluded from his own "study" that 60% of documents in that time period were directly citing the bible, and he added a 34% figure that was from political-scientist Donald S. Lutz of the University of Houston. He published a real study in a 1984 article in "The American Political Science Review." The 916 documents included in the study were not official documents, or legislative proceedings, but writings "printed for public consumption," such as books, newspaper articles, and pamphlets. Directly from his study: "...From Table 1 we can see that the biblical tradition is most prominent among the citations. Anyone familiar with the literature will know that most of these citations come from sermons reprinted as pamphlets; hundreds of sermons were reprinted during the era, amounting to at least 10% of all pamphlets published. These reprinted sermons accounted for almost three-fourths of the biblical citations..."
He then goes on to explain in this section titled "The Pattern of Citations from 1787 to 1788," the time when the US Constitution was written that "The Bible's prominence disappears, which is not surprising since the debate centered upon specific institutions about which the Bible has little to say. The Anti-Federalists do drag it in with respect to basic principles of government, but the Federalist's inclination to Enlightenment rationalism is most evident here in their failure to consider the Bible relevant."
Mr. Forbes' use of this quote "Whereas in 1777, Congress, facing a National shortage of `Bibles for our schools, and families, and for the public worship of God in our churches,' announced that they `desired to have a Bible printed under their care & by their encouragement' and therefore ordered 20,000 copies of the Bible to be imported `into the different ports of the States of the Union';" was actually not from Congress but from three ministers from Philadelphia; they were Francis Alison, John Ewing, and William Marshall, who came up with a plan to try to alleviate the shortage of Bibles due to the inability to import books from England during the Revolutionary War.
I don't have time to debunk all the other ones, so I'll let you investigate for yourself. Don't blindly take what I'm telling you either. LOOK for yourself and you will find the real truth behind this propaganda.
It will be a toss-up between the Evangelicals and Scientologists for the more patently absurd gloss overs of such events as the Salem witch hangings, The Klu Klux Klan anti-Catholic crusade, Henry Ford's rant's about the "International Jew", and Father Cochlin's anti semitic radio rants.
Propagating the Gospel Among the Heathen? -- Another Lie from H. Res. 888
Read more: >http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/2/21/0418/11475
yes. And: www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/4/24725/53989
Yes let's all celebrate a religious week and let's do that by celebrating the Native American religions. Therefore I propose for all Americans to take copious amounts of peyote (please have a designated sober driver on hand)and experience a true American Religion.
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