WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) spoke on the House Floor Tuesday evening, celebrating this year’s National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving alongside Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Representative Josh Brecheen (R-OK), and other Christian Republicans.
Below is a transcript of Rep. Higgins’ remarks. Watch the full video here.
Mr. Speaker, it’s a humbling moment for us to acknowledge that we are failed and fallen humans in the presence of God in service to our fellow man, standing in the chamber of the People’s House. We’ve been reminded that there are 23 marble busts in relief that surround the walls of this chamber above the gallery, one of which is facing you, Mr. Speaker, and that’s Moses, and many men up there, George Mason, William Blackstone, Thomas Jefferson, Solomon, but only Moses faces you. Only Moses faces the podium of the chamber of the People’s House in the land of the free. Our Founders were men anointed by God, and we’re called upon to acknowledge that spiritual foundation, once again in our country.
This is an acknowledgement that crosses the barriers of politics, Mr. Speaker, and joins us as one people, regardless of where we stand upon the economic strata, regardless of our color or creed or heritage, despite political affiliation or party, we’re bonded as one man unto God, in service to our fellow man. Yet we struggle. We struggle to know what is right. We seek that as children of God as men and women attempting to serve We the People. We struggle to know what is right. Do we not? Mr. Speaker, our Founders struggled as well. America was founded by imperfect men with a perfect vision. The preamble of our Constitution states: We the People, of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union–in order to form a more perfect union. There’s an old saying in the horse business: the way a horse leaves the gate is the way he’s going to run.
Our Founders, the Preamble, is the document that established our laws, stated that they were humble men, imperfect men, acknowledged the fact that we’re human, we’ve failed and fallen since Adam. We seek to understand what Paul meant when he told us in Corinthians to place not your faith in the wisdom of man, but in the spirit and power of God. This is the chamber where we carry the responsibility to merge the wisdom of man within and beneath the spirit and power of God.
We all have a story, do we not, Mr. Speaker, of how our families came to be here. Many years ago, 200 years ago, a young Irishman born into indentured servitude, far away, heard whispers of a nation born where a man could own the land that he worked. This was unheard of for a common Irish lad, so he risked everything, all he had, left the land of his heritage and boarded a boat that was converted from carrying commercial goods to carrying human beings. According to a letter unearthed by my mother and my aunt many, many generations later, his sleeping berth measured 2 by 2 by 5. Literally, by the way, the winds blew, Mr. Speaker, that boat landed in the Port of New Orleans. And that young Irishman was the beginning of my family. He came here seeking freedom. He knew that he would deliver work, ethics, and principles and Christian faith, determination, and courage, but he knew he stood beneath God, and he landed in a nation that was going to give him the opportunity to build something for the next generation. And indeed, he did.
I ask, Mr. Speaker, are we worthy of the things that we’ve described tonight, all of us on both sides of the aisle, the citizenry we serve that sit in the gallery? Are we worthy of what it is to be an American citizen and a child of God? We seek to prove that worth every day, and yet we fall short of the glory of God, and we arise again from bended knee and struggle to be worthy of this service to our fellow Man. Let me close by saying, Mr. Speaker, that we shan’t be judged by how we fall. A man’s character should not be measured by how he falls, but it should be measured by how he stands back up and as a nation, this is where we are. Our children’s children will not measure us by the fact that our nation has stumbled to the extent that it has, but this generation will be measured by how we stand back up. And let me humbly deliver this message to the American people: Stand back up in the glory of God! Remember the words of Paul. Place not your faith in the wisdom of man, but in the spirit and power of God. Let us stand as a nation, as brothers and sisters, as children of God, beneath the glory of the flag that waves above us.
