Washington  -  In God we trust.   For God and Country.   Under God.

Religion and faith have played crucial roles in the lives and accomplishments of our leaders from even before the birth of our nation.

But today, faith is under attack in the public life of our country.  From successful efforts to remove the Ten Commandments from view in public buildings to Supreme Court review of the phrase, “under God,” in our Pledge of Allegiance, a few Americans prefer that our nation be completely secular. 

I am not among them. 

In the U.S. House of Representatives, where we begin each legislative day with a prayer, religion plays a vital role.  Like military units, we too have a chaplain to assist us with the challenges of service in our personal lives.  In a ring around the highest part of the chamber is a series of sculpted historical legislators facing to their left or their right.  In the center, looking directly down on the speaker’s podium, is Moses.

His placement is significant – to remind all of us who do the people’s work in the chamber that the Ten Commandments are the foundation of all law.

The Establishment Clause in the First Amendment was intended to prevent the United States from becoming ruled as a theocracy.  Our founding fathers judged that a “presidential” role for a religious leader was not in the best interests of a republic.  In our democracy, elected leaders would be publicly accountable to the people they represent as well as God, but not to God alone.

Those who strive to extend the division of church and state to our national life forget that the founding fathers who penned these words into the Constitution were deeply religious.  Their faith enabled them to shape the document that has served our nation so well.  They would not want us to minimize it or forget it.

Those who decry religion as a practice favored by the weak need only remember the famous words of Jefferson: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”  This sentence, which references God in general, but personal, terms that could apply to any American of faith, is engraved above him in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington.

Just as we would not remove our churches and other signs of faith from our Southern Missouri landscape, we should not remove the idea that a higher power has blessed us with the fruits and responsibilities of democracy.

During the season of Easter and Passover, we can draw many parallels between faith and freedom.  In each religious celebration, Americans are mindful of the blessings of liberty, as well as our obligation to serve others.  We are united in our dedication to the free practice of religion, and we are humbled by the sacrifices of generations before us.  God is a necessary part of the equation, linking religious teachings with our laws and translating examples of service into guiding principles for our lives.

My spiritual relationship with God is a tremendous part of my desire to serve in Congress.  Next year, as president of the House of Representatives Prayer Breakfast, I will continue to work with my colleagues to unite faith and service, using each to enrich the other.

Together, we can extend this philosophy of service to our communities as well.  New opportunities to fund faith-based organizations have enriched our state through facilities such as the Farmington Children’s Home.

As we put others before ourselves in the spirit of service, the reflection of God in our government is a positive partnership.  In our free nation, Americans are not compelled to believe in God, but they must respect that widely-held belief.  No one can deny the power of the good done in His name.

Happy Easter and happy Passover to you all.  God bless you, and God bless our great nation.