U.S. Congressman Charles B. Rangel
Guest Speaker at the Grand Opening of the Church of Scientology New York (cont.)

And of course, the true ambassador, not only for Scientology, but for the United States of America is my long–time friend, Isaac Hayes — wherever he goes, there’s a fight for justice and democracy.

But truly, it is not us who are privileged to represent people, it is you that’s privileged to represent how we can best help humankind. And I thank, I thank us, thank you so much for not only for blessing Times Square with your beautiful church, but in coming up to northern Manhattan and Harlem and east Harlem, where the action is, where your new church will be, and I welcome you to come there to continue your fine work.

Lastly, let me tell you why I love New York city so much. Because, as other speakers have said, it’s a city where people have known racism, known anti–Semitism, known prejudice and bigotry, but they’ve come here because we have a tolerance and understanding that none of us can possibly achieve our goals unless we work together in a common cause. To fight crime and addiction, you have to have an understanding, you have to have a love, you have to reach out to our young people.

Your group has known prejudice. Isaac Hayes has fought it in Germany, the same way he’s fought it in Memphis, and he fights it in Harlem. But the true people that stand up for what they believe in make it possible for other people to have the courage to believe in. The Church Of Scientology has known what religious prejudice is. And you’ve stood up and you fought it and you’re growing, and being respected, not only in the United States, but throughout the world for sticking by your beliefs.

And now, our great nation is being tested, because no war that is started without your people being threatened can be called moral. When you attack a country that has not attacked you, when you kill people that have been no threat to your family, when you take young men and women from backgrounds that have — don’t have — economic opportunity and place them in harm’s way, when you start a war that you don’t know how to finish, when you’re fighting against terror, but you don’t know the people, it takes courage to stand up for these things and to be able to say that our country is not a symbol of freedom and democracy if we expect to get it at the end of a rifle. You have to be able to do it to really understand the hearts and minds of people if we’re going to have peace in this world.

The Church of Scientology has among the things that they reach out for with people is being for peace and not war. And believe me, the patriotic thing is not being quiet. The patriotic thing is to stand up for peace.

We welcome you not only in New York, not only in Times Square, not only in east Harlem, my district, but may your word spread throughout the world, so that when someone would ask, "What were you doing during this time of international crisis?" when your children and your grandchildren ask, "What were you doing?" you will be able to say that you kept the faith and you fought the fight for freedom and democracy. May God bless all of you.