WHEREAS, The Liberty Bell was named for the Biblical
inscription from Leviticus 25:10, which passage of scripture is
emblazoned around it: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land, to
all the inhabitants thereof"; and
WHEREAS, In 1782, Congress pursued a plan to print a Bible
that would be "a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use
of schools" and therefore approved the production of the first
English language Bible printed in America that contained the
congressional endorsement that "the United States in Congress
assembled ... recommend this edition of the Bible to the
inhabitants of the United States"; and
WHEREAS, In 1787, at the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin declared, "God governs in the
affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground
without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise
without His aid? ... Without His concurring aid, we shall
succeed in this political building no better than the builders
of Babel"; and
WHEREAS, In 1853, the United States Senate declared that the
Founding Fathers "had no fear or jealousy of religion itself,
nor did they wish to see us an irreligious people ... they did
not intend to spread over all the public authorities and the
whole public action of the nation the dead and revolting
spectacle of atheistical apathy"; and
WHEREAS, Beginning in 1904 and continuing for the next half-
century, the Federal Government printed and distributed The Life
and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth for the use of Members of
Congress because of the important teachings it contained; and
WHEREAS, The constitutions of each of the 50 states, either
in the preamble or body, explicitly recognize or express
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