By L.A. Williams
Christian Action League
March 17, 2023
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) injected a history lesson and a bit of Christian testimony into a recent hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, riling several Democrats who tried unsuccessfully to interrupt.
Challenging Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen and others for their view that there is no real connection between the rights of U.S. citizens and the existence of God, Bishop pointed to one of the most famous lines of the Declaration of Independence during the Feb. 28 hearing.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” he recited.
“I’m certain that this country succeeds because of a beneficent and forgiving and caring God,” he continued, refusing to give way when a Democrat congressman tried to interrupt.
“I’m not going to yield! I’m not going to yield because I’m going to make this statement really clear so that even Democrats can get it,” Bishop responded, issuing what amounted to a warning to those who would embrace “woke” ideology.
“You do what you want to, you reject God if you want to, you tell Americans that if they embrace God you’re going to persecute them with the FBI if you want to. You go get ’em, call ’em White supremacists, why don’t you? Let’s set everybody against one another as enemies based on whatever thing that you can dream up to do,” Bishop railed.
“You do that; I’m going to stick to God; I’m going to cling to God like Barack Obama talked about. You do you,” he added, alluding to Obama’s description of Pennsylvania voters who were angered over losing their jobs. (“It’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion …,” the then-presidential candidate said in 2008.)
After the hearing Bishop posted a video of the exchange accompanied by further explanation about where he believes Americans get their rights.
“Democrats seem to believe that rights come from the government, not from God,” Bishop wrote. “They demonize and attack Americans of faith. I’m sticking with our founders – all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. Not endowed by the government.”
The Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, said Bishop’s fellow lawmakers would do well to heed his words.
“Whether they agree with his political views or not, our elected officials cannot sidestep the truth that Bishop is standing for,” Creech said. “His inclination to cling to God and his take on the intentions of our nation’s founders are spot on.”
Creech said anyone who believes that those who built the framework of our nation did so on a foundation other than God need read no further than these words of Thomas Jefferson: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”