National Bible Week

Floor Speech

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Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to stand here in this Chamber and commemorate National Bible Week along with my colleagues here tonight.

Tonight, I want to talk about what the Bible has meant to me and its impact on our Nation's history, the divisions we see across our country, including in this Chamber, and highlight the challenges we are facing.

I am currently reading the Bible, with a prayer group here in Congress, in its entirety for the third time. I am constantly reminded of the answers this book provides to the current issues we are facing in our Nation.

Unfortunately and regrettably, we are a Bible-illiterate society. Just above our flag here in this Chamber is ``In God we Trust.'' How do you put your faith and trust in God if you don't know Him and understand His Word?

I was baptized in a small, rural church at the age of 9 in Georgia, and, of course, I began to go my own way in high school and college. After marrying my wife, we found another church home. For some 30 years, that meant so much to our family, raising our children in that church, but it became more of a ritual and somewhat meaningless to me. I had my priorities out of order.

A friend asked me to join him in a Bible study. Some 6 months later, I realized that God didn't want my rituals; He wanted my heart. I have had this urge to know God since then and study His Word intently and try my best to understand His will for me. What I have learned is that God created the church through Jesus Christ to evangelize, and God created government to moralize and restrain evil.

Today, both the church and the government are divided on these issues. We have Moses, his full face looking down on the entire Chamber, who gave us the first five books of the Bible, the moral law. It should be pretty plain to us what God expects.

As I said earlier, ``In God We Trust'' is above the flag, and it is on our money, yet in this body we are without excuse.

Joshua 1:8 says: This book of the law, the Bible, shall not depart from your lips, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do what it says and what is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

God's Word is full of great promises.

So where are we today?

My fellow Americans, Billy Graham offered a prayer on inauguration in 1969, and I would like to read it.

I will read just part of it: Our Father and our God, Thou hast said, ``Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord.'' We recognize on this historic occasion that we are ``one Nation under God.''

As the prayer goes on, Reverend Graham describes the current situation in 1969. Today, we are struggling with the same issues. Emotional health has become an epidemic because so many do not have hope and understanding.

Mr. Speaker, I ask you to seek God's Word, pray, and meet with others and your colleagues and seek understanding.

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