WASHINGTON (AP) _ A Republican congressman has reminded his colleagues of the religious engraving at the top of the Washington Monument.
In a speech Tuesday on the House floor, Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert noted that one side of the monument’s pyramidal point contains the words “Laus Deo” — Latin for “Praise be to God.”
Gohmert said those engraved words are on the east side of the
555-foot monument, so that they’re the first thing in the nation’s capitol to be illuminated each morning when the sun rises.
He added that people can decide for themselves whether they agree with President Barack Obama’s statement in April that “America is not a Christian nation.”