Congressman CHRIS SMITH of New Jersey. for his leadership and for authorizing this bill. Mr. Speaker. freedom of religion has been a bedrock principle of open and democratic societies for centuries. Some of the first immigrants to settle on American shores sailed here because they were fleeing religious persecution at home. This liberty is enshrined in our own founding documents. in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. and in the charters of democracies all over the world. The freedom to worship as a person chooses or not to worship at all should be settled business and nobodys business but the person themselves.
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