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 When
I first arrived in Washington over six years ago, one of the things I
quickly realized was how difficult it can be to navigate the Washington
city streets. There are a lot of one way streets, a lot of streets whose
names change every few blocks, and the city is laid out in a circular
system rather than a typical grid system. While discussing the
difficulty of finding my way around the city, someone told me the story
of man who was visiting Washington with his family. He had his two
children in the back seat and his wife on the passenger side of their
family’s red Toyota Camry as they made their way to the National
Archives to view a display of our founding documents. While driving, the
man made three wrong turns in a row. His six-year old son peered at him
from the back seat and said to him curiously, “Dad, are we lost?” The
man reached back and patted his son’s knee and said, “No son, I may have
taken a few wrong turns, but we’re not lost. Do you see the Washington
Monument over there? The wonderful thing about being here in DC is that
as long as I can keep my eyes fixed on that Washington Monument, no
matter how many wrong turns I take, I can always get to where I need to
go.”
Like the Washington Monument in DC, our religious history has always
been that sort of constant compass for us as a nation. As a nation, we
may travel down different roads, and sometimes we make wrong turns, but
as long as we can keep our eyes fixed on the religious values that
define us as a nation, we can always get to where we need to go.
Unfortunately, there have been more and more threats to the expression
of faith being made across the country today. There are many who believe
it is okay to reinterpret American history by removing all historical
references to religion in our nation.
Just this year, the Architect of the Capitol, an unelected official who
oversees the maintenance of the Capitol grounds, had begun censoring the
word “God” and other religious expressions from inscriptions on
certificates that accompanied constituent flag requests. Andrew
Larochelle, a 17-year old Eagle Scout, requested that a flag be flown
over the Capitol on behalf of his grandfather. In his request, he asked
that the certificate that accompanies the flag include the inscription
“In honor of my grandfather Marcel Larochelle, for his dedication and
love of God, Country, and family.” Andrew received the flag and
certificate with the word “God” censored.
This event created a controversy over the arbitrary censorship of God
from flag certificates by the Architect of the Capitol. I joined with a
number of my colleagues in condemning the Architect’s decision. A
bipartisan group of over 160 House Members signed a letter to House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting that the rule be changed. Eventually,
the Architect of the Capitol reversed his decision to censor the word
“God” from flag inscriptions on October 11, 2007.
Just weeks after the AOC censorship issue was resolved, a similar
situation occurred at the Washington Monument. Atop the east side of the
100-ounce aluminum cap of the Washington Monument is an engraving of the
Latin words “Laus Deo”, which mean “Praise be to God.” The actual
inscription on the cap is too small to view on top of the 555-foot
monument, but a full replica is displayed by the National Park Service
for visitors who come to the Monument. Until recently, the inscription
“Laus Deo” on the replica was visible to visitors of the Washington
Monument. However this year, the replica of the cap was moved and turned
close to the wall so that the “Laus Deo” inscription was blocked from
view and the plate that contained a translation and description of the
text was censored to remove the reference to God.
The removal of the educational reference and the obstruction of the "Laus
Deo" engraving violates the stated mission and key guiding principle of
the National Park Service to "preserve unimpaired the natural and
cultural resources and values of the national park system for the
enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations."
Like in the Architect of the Capitol situation, I along with a group of
my colleagues wrote a letter to the Director of National Park Services
urging her to replace the censored sign with new signage that properly
identifies the important engraving overlooking our nation's Capital and
to return the replica to full view. In response to the protest, the
National Park Service announced on October 30, 2007 that it is
rebuilding the display of the replica of the cap on the Washington
Monument so that the inscription "Laus Deo" is no longer obscured from
public view.
About the same time that the Washington Monument replica situation
surfaced, the Department of Veterans Affairs temporarily banned flag
folding recitations at military funerals to avoid any reference to
religion. Depriving a veteran's family of their right to expression of
their faith and their right to honor the life of a veteran who has
faithfully served our country is appalling. In an effort to see that the
Department reversed its policy, I joined with a number of my colleagues
in a letter to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs requesting that he
change the policy. In turn, the Department of Veterans Affairs backed
off the ban it has imposed.
While all of these situations ended with the decisions reversed, the
trend we see to censor our religious heritage should still be concerning
to us as a nation. It is concerning that the Architect of the Capitol
would violate our right to religious expression by trying to remove God
from flag certificates, and it is concerning that the Speaker would say
the Architect was right to leave God out. It is concerning that the
National Park Service would violate its own mission statement to remove
historical religious references from one of the key monuments in our
Capital. But what concerns me the most is that we are seeing situations
like this happen more and more regularly across our nation, and that it
takes strong protesting from citizens and letters from Members of
Congress to fight to preserve the historical significance of religion in
our nation – a part of our history that should be respected and valued.
Every year, thousands of Americans fill our nation’s museums and
historical sites eager to learn about American history and to understand
where we’ve been and where we are going as a nation. They expect to be
presented with historically accurate representations of documents,
buildings, and artifacts. As recent events have shown, we are moving
dangerously closer to reinterpreting American history at the expense of
our religious heritage. Day by day, the spiritual foundations of America
are being pushed out of our lives. But the historical significance of
religion in our nation is too important to the formation, growth, and
protection of our country to allow it to be torn down. As the founder of
the Congressional Prayer Caucus, I am joining with a small but growing
group of lawmakers in Washington dedicated to drawing a line in the sand
on matters of protecting our religious heritage and our freedom to
exercise our faith. Together we recognize the rich history, current
importance, and future challenges of preserving our religious heritage,
and we will be diligent to see that America's spiritual heritage is
sustained because we understand that entwined in our nation’s spiritual
heritage is a hopeful future.
Volunteering in Virginia
 It
seems like life keeps getting busier in the United States and one thing
that often gets forgotten about when life gets busy is making time to
volunteer. A good way to make time for volunteering is to think of
volunteering in different or small ways. It’s great to have a whole day
or weekend to volunteer, but waiting for a free weekend prevents
potential volunteers from doing something good when they have a free
hour. Maybe it’s spending time in a child’s school or bringing a
home-cooked meal to someone who just got out of the hospital. Or it
could be spending an afternoon at a church helping the pastor with a
project, picking up trash along a roadway, sending care packages to
local troops overseas, or encouraging an employer to let employees
dedicate a weekday afternoon to volunteering. All of these things are
little acts of volunteering – and all of these are things that do make a
difference in someone else’s life.
The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which is an
independent federal agency that helps encourage volunteering across the
United States, released a study on volunteering in America. The study
found some interesting conclusions – Virginians on average volunteer a
few percentage points higher than the national average – something that
can often be seen in all the good works that happen every day in the
Fourth District, even if they aren’t always reported on by the news.
Almost 29 percent of Virginians volunteered in 2006 – which means
1,680,000 people dedicated 243 million hours of service to Virginia,
according to CNCS. That is great news – but Virginians can do even
better. CNCS is encouraging all Americans to get involved so that these
rates increase for 2007, 2008 and beyond. By finding a little bit of
time – often just an hour or two every now and then - to give back,
these rates can dramatically increase. And who knows, maybe in a few
years, that hour or two of time will turn into an idea for making a
dramatic change. Because as President Theodore Roosevelt once said,
“This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless
we make it a good place for all of us to live in.”
To learn more about the CNCS’s report on volunteering in Virginia, click
here. To read about volunteering across the United States, click
here.
For ideas on how and where to volunteer, visit one of the following
sites:
•
USA Freedom Corps
• Virginia
Service
• Virginia
Corps
• Points of Light and Hands On
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