mr. pearce: i thank the gentleman for yielding and for his -- mr. steve pears. mr. pearce: i thank -- mr. steve pearce. mr. pearce: i thank my good friend for yielding to me. this idea is indeed a bipartisan issue. you know, our founding fathers came here from countries that had monarchs, kings. kings that could tell a person who they were to marry, what job they could have, what level of education that they might attain. they could tell you what church you must be a member of. it was those state-ordained religions that many came to this country to get away from. they came here with an idea of a government that could only declare what your freedoms were, not limit those freedoms. it was that freedom of religion that caused many of the colonies to be organized differently, by different faiths. and some by no faith at all. it was in that backdrop that the constitution was written which caused our founding fathers great pause. the initial constitution was written and could not be ratified, it could not be ratified by enough states until more freedoms were added, more fr