Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, could the gentleman give his address for people who do not have computers.

Mr. KINGSTON. If they have a particular question, they should first search the web page and then if they cannot find their question and answer they need to contact the office of the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Istook).

Mr. KINGSTON. Because I think if people want to have some of these questions answered, and I know the gauntlet the gentleman has gone through in the last four years, having answered just about every question that has ever been raised on this, but not everybody has heard the questions or the answers. How do they find this out? How do they find out some non-Christian groups that are endorsing it?

Mr. KINGSTON. Does this religious freedom amendment have a web page, a freestanding web page?

Mr. KINGSTON. Is the Jewish rabbi group, is this a large group or an outsider group?

Mr. KINGSTON. The gentleman has worked hard with such groups. Can the gentleman tell me the non-Christian groups who are supporting this?

Mr. KINGSTON. Well, let me ask the gentleman this question. This is endorsed by a number of Christian groups.

Mr. KINGSTON. Yes, so those judgments have to be made, and the Chatham County Exchange Club does that. I do not know how they do that, but they do it. But who decides if the Ten Commandments gets put on the wall or the Articles of Goat Worship?

Mr. KINGSTON. Probably plenty of room for judges and congressmen and many others. Who will decide if the school puts up the Ten Commandments or the Articles of Goat Worship? The reason I ask that, yesterday I was at the dedication of the Coastal Middle School in Savannah, Georgia. I was at the dedication of the Freedom Shrine, which the Chatham County Exchange Club has given to many, many schools, and it is a great thing and it has the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, George Washington Inaugural Address and all sorts of good documents of American history. And as I was looking at the Freedom Shrine I was wondering how do they decide which documents go? Do you put the Gettysburg Address in there or Lincoln's second inaugural speech?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a special place in hell for a number of Federal court judges, as I am sure there will be for Members of Congress.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, a goat worshiper, a devil worshiper or a bizarre type of religion. Now, they want to have equal time. Do we want our child in the room when that prayer is taking place? That would probably, it might in a Christian parent cause a little concern, the same way it would cause the goat worshiper's parent to have concern when the Christian prayer is going on. Now, I only say that to the degree that, as our society gets more and more diverse, it is reasonable to expect in a country of 260 million people some folks who are in a very minority, extreme minority-type religion who pray perhaps in a bizarre way; and by that I mean, maybe they do not bow their heads when they pray, maybe they scream or something. And I am only phrasing this question in a hypothetical right now, but it is still very possible for some fringe religions to get under the Religious Freedom Amendment equal time in the classroom, so to speak, and it is fair, the way the gentleman has bent over backwards to draw this thing so fair that it will happen. How does the gentleman answer those concerns?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, on that subject, let us say we have somebody who is a goat worshiper.

Mr. KINGSTON. So, Mr. Speaker, they do not have that spiritual maturity that would allow them to tolerate it and say, well, let us go ahead and have that person's prayer today. How would this deal with that?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if we have a minority religion in a group, say the predominant members of a class predominantly are Christian, Jewish and Muslim, and we have another child out there who is 7 years old, and we are going around the circle with the Big 3, but he has some obscure religion. I do not know what would be an example; say he is a Zen. How do we keep that 7- or 8-year-old from being proselytized by the other religions because he is going to be a little bit embarrassed to stand up for his religion because of peer pressure? At that age, nobody has the fervency of their convictions, but children know what the majority is doing and in order to fit in, often they want to do what it takes to fit in with the majority.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, let me ask the gentleman this question, which is less than friendly.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what would keep a teacher from salting the group for one particular religion over the other or encouraging the favoritism of one religion over the other?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. As the gentleman knows, I am a cosponsor and have plans to support the gentleman's amendment and congratulate the gentleman who, over the past now, 4 years now, correct?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. KINGSTON. But the reality is this has a long, long way to go. As far as the gentleman from Oklahoma has gone with it, he is only at the starting gate still.

Mr. KINGSTON. Does the gentleman have a similar piece of legislation being introduced and worked in the Senate?

Mr. KINGSTON. Now, should this pass the House, it has to get 60 votes in the Senate.

Mr. KINGSTON. And if people want to find out if their Representative is a co-sponsor, they can go to that Web page.

Mr. KINGSTON. But it would appear to me the gap between 152 and 290 is still a large one.

Mr. KINGSTON. And there are people who will support this but will not co-sponsor it.

Mr. KINGSTON. Now, the gentleman has 152 co-sponsors.