Posted on 12/07/2004 3:29:26 AM PST by Jim Robinson
On Dec. 5, Alan Keyes spoke at the Grace Baptist Church in Decatur, Illinois, and made the following remarks about the place of the Declaration of Independence in America's schools.
Keyes was responding to the recent controversy surrounding a California teacher's use of the Declaration in his American history class.
ALAN KEYES: Someone was mentioning to me that there is a school district now in America where they will no longer teach the Declaration of Independence to the students. Why? Because it mentions God.
This notion that there must be separation of church and state--you can’t pray, you can’t mention God, you can’t do this, you can’t do that--that means you cannot teach the Declaration anymore, because the Declaration is a document of our history, the founding document, a statement of our principles as a people, and embarrassing, by the way, to a great many people in the country who would just as soon that we forgot this and succumbed instead to their lies.
It states the first principle of American life, the principle on the basis of which everything that we know as liberty, our elections, our court system, our due process, everything is based. And that principle is stated clearly, directly, simply, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
That is a statement of American principle that at one time, indeed at most times, in the history of our country would have been entirely uncontroversial, and we would simply have taken it [with a] “Oh yes!” and our hearts would have beat a little higher as we heard the words that ring down through history, stating the wonderful principle of justice which extends to all our humanity the dignity that God intended for each and every human being.
But now we’re being told that on account of some doctrine that has been promulgated by the courts, it is now unconstitutional to teach our children about the Declaration.
Years ago, when I was talking about this, I predicted to folks that we would reach this day; that a time would come when we would no longer be able to teach our children in the public schools about the Declaration of Independence because it mentions God. And people probably thought I was exaggerating or something, but it has happened, rather faster than I thought, and it is inevitable.
Now, what does it mean when we can no longer teach the Declaration to American children? It means that they will no longer understand the basis of their rights and liberties. It will mean that we can no longer fix into their minds and hearts the reasoned conviction which they can then act from and defend in the course of preserving our institutions of self-government. It means that they will end, and that we have already entered upon the preparation of the generation that will accept their demise without a struggle.
Doesn’t that bother anybody? It bothers me greatly, I’ve gotta tell you.
And it bothers me even more when I realize the implications of a lot of the issues that we are now dealing with, and particularly some of the key ones--implications that people don’t want to look at. We want to pretend that we’re just talking about one issue among many when we talk about something like abortion; it’s just “another issue” like healthcare or how we’re going to fix O’Hare [International Airport], and all this nonsense.
But it’s not. Not at all; it’s fundamental.
We began claiming our rights on the basis of the principle that they come from God. We now have promulgated from our courts in Roe vs. Wade the notion that that babe in the womb--and remember, we were all babes in the womb, weren’t we? I mean, I don’t know if we remember it, but we ought to recognize that we all started there. And if we’re going to deny to the babe in the womb a fundamental principle of right, then it is denied all of us.
And that fundamental principle is simple. It is stated right there in the Declaration, rights come from God, beginning with the right to life.
But the court restated it and said, “No. You have no right to life until your mother chooses.” And that means that the right to life is not God’s choice, it is the mother’s choice; the right to life is not God’s choice, it is human choice.
That means that the implication of the abortion issue, if we embrace the position that the court has imposed upon us, is that our rights do not come from God, they come from human choice. And then you have to ask yourself, “What if the choice goes against me? And what if that choice is made in such a way that I or people like me are no longer to be accorded respect for our rights?”
There would have been a time when the champions of human dignity could stand up and say, “No! That’s an unjust law, that’s an unjust decision, that’s an unjust determination!” because our rights do not come from human choice, they come from the will of God. And if [laws] are not consistent with what God has done, then we have the right to challenge that injustice.
But once we have decided that it is not God’s choice, but human choice that determines that justice, well, if the choice goes against us, we are stuck; we have deprived ourselves of the higher law, of the higher tribunal, which could be used to rally heart and conscience in defense of true liberty.
As a result, we have demoralized and undermined that spirit of courage which is needed in order to defend liberty--and without that spirit, it must perish.
This is not something that is going to happen, is it something that has already happened.
BTTT
Also, the fact that our opponents get so hysterical about religion and abortion means, to me, that they must realize (at least at an intuitive level) how wrong they are and how powerless they will soon be about these very subjects.
I like Alan Keyes. Did do too well this go round, but someone of his caliber can't be kept down.
...only if their movement to rid the US of A of God's spirit, hastened by Leftist judges and built on their rickety decisions, can swiftly be overturned and expunged from the judicial records. Let us be the instruments to make it happen!
Dr. Keyes is a national treasure, and in his loss for Illinois US Senator has found an incredibly important "job" in traveling the state while educating the rank-and-file, God-fearing citizenry to awaken to the deeply-running, out-of-control undercurrents which are already robbing us of our inalienable rights. These are far more heinous than anything the ACLU is attacking.
The Leftist elite truly mean to leave citizens with no defenses or recourse, with them in charge, free to rape and pillage. (Think $21B+ UN scandal.)
Yes, they're nuts--or rather, crazy like a fox.
HF
"As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world ,so they must be in this. By inevitable chain of causes and effects Providence punishes national sins with
national calamities."George Mason Aug.22,1787 Constitutional Convention George Mason and Luther Martin
(who affirmed this in Jan.1788 ) predicted this time when
we began.
Alan Keyes is the greatest living American orator!
Are you for real?
Only if you agree that Janet Reno had the right idea on April 19th, 1993.
Make up your mind, coward.
May God bless Dr. Keyes, and long may his eloquent and righteous voice ring out!
Yes, thank you for the creative editing.
The MSM has taught you well.
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