MP3 audio

Alan Keyes
May 7, 2004
Provo, Utah

An address at a campaign event for gubernatorial candidate and Utah State Senator Parley Hellewell

The following speech was given on the eve of the 2004 Utah Republican State Convention, at a campaign event for Utah State Senator Parley Hellewell, who Dr. Keyes endorsed for governor.

Praise God. Thank you. Good evening.

You all can help me out here a little bit, because when I was coming here from the airport, and I was explaining to Parley [Hellewell] and Stefani [Stone] that I felt a little bit awkward--you see, I was relying on their good judgment that this visit was going to be well received, because I come from Maryland. Maryland is a state in which there is an almost exaggerated sensitivity to the notion that folks who are not from Maryland would step in and say anything about Maryland politics.

Now, you understand, our sensitivity comes because we live right next door to Washington, D.C., and because whole bunches of people from all over the country come to live in Maryland when they're working in Washington, and our whole politics would be taken over by them if we let that happen. Actually, on some days I think that might be just as well in Maryland. [laughter]

So, I feel a little bit awkward, and I kind of think that I ought to explain why it is that I would presume to come to Utah in the middle of the effort of the Republican Party to decide on its various nominees and say anything--and I will do it by way of, I hope, speaking well of one of my fellow Republicans. Now, I'm an old Reaganite, and he did believe in the rule that you didn't speak ill of your fellow Republicans. He said I [unintelligible: didn't foresee?] the fact that the rule would get harder and harder to follow, though I keep trying. Keep trying. [laughter, applause]

But in fact, I'm here less in order to in any sense try to tell folks what they should do than to make an appeal, and in order to explain what that appeal is about, I'll have to talk a little bit about where I think this country is right now.

As I go around the country, I must say it's gotten a little bit more difficult to achieve a sense of that than it was a couple of years ago--and this is sadly because a couple of years ago, we were still living in the shadow of that event which shook a lot of people out of their complacency and made them realize that we are a vulnerable country in the midst of a critical time, and that our survival is at stake. That was September 11th.

That was one of those moments when you didn't have to talk a long time about this, because everybody got it. For a moment there, it was like a veil was removed from the eyes of many people in the country, and they could see for a second that we're like a drunken person and we're right on the edge of the abyss, and we're just about to fall over into it, and we didn't see it. For a second, everybody got that feeling--and then the veil has come back over many eyes, and we're acting like it's business as usual.

This scares me to death, y'all, because the abyss hasn't gone anywhere, and in point of fact, we may very well be in freefall over that cliff. I don't know yet.

We should know this, even as a result of the events of the last several days--but I'm not sure we get it, because our media is so superficial and our leaders are so self-serving that they don't often share with us thoughts about the significance of the events that are going on.

But think about this: we are in the midst of a war against terrorism. That war against terrorism involves, what? It involves a battle in which we must distinguish between legitimate war and terroristic war, right? How do you make that distinction? Because the notion that terrorists are bad because they blow up things and kill people, we have to know that this can't consistently be true, because in fighting them, we blow up things and kill people, see? So, there must be times when blowing up things and killing people are at least less than they are in other times.

So, what distinguishes the terrorist from a regular warrior? Well, terrorism is distinguished from proper, ordinary war because, as we have come to understand it, there are actually rules that govern warfare, terrible as it is, and the most basic of those rules is that whatever it is that you're up to, whatever it is you think you have to do, you must do it in a way that respects the claims of innocent life, that does not consciously make that life your target, that does not consciously seek to use the destruction of that life to achieve your aims. You aim your blow at that aspect of the enemy's work that poses a threat and danger to you.

And of course there may be in the course of that civilian casualties. Sometimes that's unavoidable, but that's not your intention. The terrorist is one who makes the destruction of the innocent his goal, his aim--that's his purpose in life--and he means to achieve it on a massive scale in order to secure the objectives of his mission.

So, when you cross that line, you're a terrorist. But what constitutes the difference between the one thing and the other? Well, the distinction I just drew, my friends, is a moral distinction, and that means that even though terrorism threatens our survival, the war against terrorism is a war about a moral difference. We are engaged in war against an enemy who makes it the principle of evil to disregard the claims of innocent life, and our very survival in many ways now depends on our success in that moral struggle.

Now, I want you to think about what has happened in the course of the last several days. I don't know whether everybody's been paying attention to it, but in the last several days, we suffered the most serious and damaging blow that we have yet suffered in the war against terror--a blow more damaging than anything that was inflicted upon us by the bombs and bullets of the enemy; a blow that has us reeling all around the world, and that could very well mark the beginning of the end of our success in this struggle.

Do you realize that? Because you can't fight a moral war if you not longer have moral credibility--especially in your own armies! And that's the danger that the last few days have placed us in.

Interesting, isn't it, that here we're engaged in a war for our physical survival, and the whole thing turns on, what? On our ability to sustain in the midst of that struggle our moral conscience, our moral decency, our moral character. And in the last several days, we have been hit with a blow that has us shaken, because it was a blow struck at our moral decency, at our moral conscience, at our moral character.

Now, was this an accident, do you think? Was this just a coincidence? I don't think so, see. I don't think so.

We are engaged in a moral struggle in which our physical survival is at stake, and the heart of that moral struggle is this: a fight against those who disregard the claims of innocent human life.

Does anybody know where I'm going with this yet? Because, it's pretty clear. It's pretty clear, isn't it? I'll say it again. We are engaged in a war against an evil that has at its heart this principle: to disregard the claims of innocent human life!

OK, I'll ask the blatant question: you think we have the moral credentials to fight this war, do you? Because, even though some people have suggested we didn't encounter this evil until 2001, I've got news for you. You can walk down the street in any American state and just about any American county or city you want, and you will find a practice that disregards the claims of innocent human life! And not just any life, either. Not the life of strangers half a world away, but the life of those who are flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, and symbol of the very future of our own nation, of our own people: the lives that sleep in the womb.

It turns out that the evil that we fight is but the shadow of the evil that we do.

We need to think this through, see, because I think--and you'll have to excuse me for this; I have a reputation for this, but I don't make apologies for it, because it's all right--I reason this out also in light of my sense of what God is about. I noticed in reading the Bible that God often brings against the wicked the consequences of their own wickedness. They want to understand this as some kind of separate punishment, but it's not. Punishment is often simply the encounter of the consequences of your own wickedness. That's all punishment turns out to be. And so, you find that what is brought against you in order to do harm has at its heart the evil of the harm that you, yourself, are doing.

Now, you think it's a coincidence that on September 11th, 2001, we were struck by terrorists an evil that has at its heart the disregard of innocent human life? We who have for several decades killed not thousands but scores of millions of our own children, in disregard of the principle of innocent human life--I don't think that's a coincidence, I think that's a warning. I don't think that's a coincidence, I think that's a shot across the bow. I think that's a way of Providence telling us, "I love you all; I'd like to give you a chance. Wake up! Would you please wake up?"

And then in the midst of this war, what do we encounter but a moment in which a damaging blow is struck--not by the enemy, but, sadly, by a small minority of our own people reflecting, what? Reflecting the defects of our own character!

Rush Limbaugh and others have commented that these photos that accompanied these atrocities were pornographic. I'd have to allow as how that's true--but you think it's a coincidence now, do you? We live in a world in which we have the internet. What is the most lucrative and profitable business on the internet? Pornography. What has been pushing the envelope in our movies and our television shows for the last several decades? Pornography. What have we done on the campuses and elsewhere but encountered sex education courses and classes that push at our young people the legitimacy and normalcy of pornography?

And then we're going to profess to be shocked and surprised, are we, when one of our young women is portrayed in an outrageous moment of utter shamelessness and indecency? Yes, degrading another human being, but in the process, don't we understand, degrading herself, as well? And all of this in the eyes of the world. We still don't get it, do we?

No, I'm serious. We don't get it yet. We don't get it yet, see? We don't get it yet. God is trying in every way He can to put it in front of our faces, but we don't get it. We don't get it. We think that it's still about how many bombs we have, how much money we spend on the military, what we do with taxes and Social Security and all of this, and He's trying to tell us in every way He can that all those issues may be what they are, but if you all don't get your moral house in order, you are going to perish! And the instrument of your destruction, the shadow of it, has already fallen across your country! The thousands have already died whose lives should have warned you! But you won't listen, you won't hear, you won't understand.

So, we are in the midst of this war, and if that shouldn't wake us up, we then turn to our domestic situation, and what do we find? If I were to ask anybody here what you thought was the single most important institution in society, when it comes to building and preserving the moral character of a people, what would your answer be?

[audience: "The family."]

The family! That's it! We believe this, don't we? There are people here, there are people all over Utah, people all over this country, you'll ask them, and they'll give the same answer. "The family," they'll say. Yes, indeed.

Now, we are in the midst of a time when, right now, as I speaketh, a week from Monday, just as a potentially devastating blow was struck on the moral level in our war against terror, so a week from Monday in Massachusetts, a potentially devastating and destructive blow is going to be struck against the institution we just all acknowledged to be the most important social foundation when it comes to building and preserving the character of a people. For, on that day, Massachusetts is going to start performing same-sex marriages.

And you and I both know that there are people who are already buying the tickets to get on the planes to go to Massachusetts from right here in Utah and elsewhere in the country, and they will get the marriage done, run right back here, in order to begin the challenge that they hope will bring down the institution of marriage in every state in America.

"Oh, but Alan, that's not true! They just want to get married. They don't want to destroy marriage." OK, let's think this through again. Marriage. What is it? Why do we have it? Why does marriage exist? Well, I think while we're being told that marriage is about making people feel good about their loving relationships, do people have to get married for that? I have a lot of loving relationships in life. I have friends and people I really care about, folks that I would risk and give my life for. I'm not married to them. [laughter]

See, that's friendship! Friendship can be deep, it can be important, it can be vital. It is one of those things that's often deeply personal. Actually, most of us, when we talk about our real friendships, would you want the government dictating and regulating your friendships, deciding how the obligations would be met? Well, actually, it would ruin most friendships if that were the case. You don't establish an institution to regulate your friendships, because then you wouldn't be sure whether your friend was doing it because they loved you, or because they wanted to obey the law. That would kind of ruin the whole thing.

No, marriage doesn't exist in order to, I don't know, recognize friendships and intimacy and love and all of that. No. All of those things are part of marriage, but they're not the reason that the institution of marriage as a legal phenomenon exists. Why does it exist? Well, see, I think the answer to that is pretty clear and simple--it's been clear and simple all through human history. Marriage exists because there is a social aspect to marriage, and that social aspect to marriage doesn't come along until, what?

[audience: "Children."]

Until children! And then children require--I mean, first off, society has to know whose children they are; second, society has to respect the relationship that exists between parents and children, and children and parents. Otherwise, you get an enormous area of constant conflict, feuds and violence between families, and counterclaims over inheritance and parental rights and obligations. The list never ends.

It's actually fairly commonsensical why society, every society, institutes a pretty clear understanding beforehand of what constitutes the kind of relationship that society will recognize, and where the whole society will join in order to respect it in forced claims.

In most societies, what is the understanding of marriage based on? Well, I'll tell you, it's very clear. A matter of fact, I don't know many, until our 20th century atheistic times--but in human history, most of the time the understanding of marriage is based on the religious beliefs of the people. What's it based on in our society? The religious beliefs of our people. It's very simple.

That's why you have the kind of family that exists in America, because that was the kind of family ordained by, who? The president? The Supreme Court? No. It's the kind of thing ordained by God, according to our deep religious beliefs.

So, we are now in the midst of a time when an assault is taking place that will take from the essence of family what has been throughout our history its essential characteristic--that in principle, the institution of marriage exists in order to respect the responsibilities and obligations that arise from procreation. If you bless same-sex marriages and say they're just like other marriages, then you have taken procreation out of the picture. It has nothing to do with it anymore because, guess what? Guess who can't procreate?

Christ was right. The heart of marriage is about the two becoming one flesh. When does that happen? It doesn't happen in the church, and it doesn't happen at the reception, and it doesn't even happen in the marriage bed. Those two bodies are two in the beginning, two in the midst of it, and two when it's all over with. When do the two become one flesh? In the child!

And this is what I keep telling people. They keep saying, "Whoa, you don't have the right to say homosexuals can't get married." I'm not saying homosexuals can't get married. Since marriage is about procreation, and they can't procreate, it is a logical requirement that they can't get married. I'm just recognizing what's the case.

But we're abandoning common sense and logic in this society. We're acting as if "reason need not apply anymore," and we'll just call it marriage because we feel like it. But if you call that marriage, then that which involves procreation is no longer respected as what it truly is. And as in Sweden, so here it will result in the death of marriage. Swedes have embraced same-sex marriage, and now fewer, and fewer, and fewer people get married, until soon the institution will have disappeared from the nation's life. And we think we'll avoid this consequence, but we won't.

So, I say it again: here we sit, in the midst of a war in which the whole thing hinges on our moral character. Here we sit, in the midst of a time when an assault is being made on the institution we say is the foundation of our ability to preserve and perpetuate the decent moral character of our people, and finally, here we sit at a time when, throughout the country, in every state, in every courthouse, in every place in America, folks have been coming in and telling us that we do not have the right to acknowledge God Almighty, we must tear His name out of our school and take it out of the mouths of our children in their classroom. We must take the Ten Commandments out of our courthouses, and out of display of our public places. We must do and say nothing that acknowledges reverence for the authority of God--and we're just sitting here thinking, "Well, that's another one of those legal issues."

Excuse me, y'all. Let me go through this simple, clear logic. America was founded on this belief that you've got to have representative government. That means elections, due process, and so forth. Why? You understand that in most of human history, that's not how governments were. We remember this, right? Government was mostly based on who had the strongest army, and when it wasn't based on who had the strongest army, it might be based on who had the most money to buy the strongest army, and when it wasn't based on who had the most money to buy the strongest army, then it was based on who had the most brutal character and was willing quietly to poison and kill as many people as was needed to intimidate all the rest. Fear and violence and military might and ignorance and manipulation, that was the basis of government until our country was founded on the belief that people had rights and they should be able to choose their representatives, and their laws should reflect their consent--and shouldn't just be imposed by force.

How'd that come about? Well, it came about because of a war that was fought in the name of, what? This belief that all of us have rights. Where did we get it from? Well, according to our doctrine, we get them from the Creator. "All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." That's where they come.

And, by the way, I've said this for a long time, as I often tell people: I haven't found anything anybody's ever said or written that substitutes for that simple logic. And that means, my friends, that if there is no Creator, then we have no claim to rights. You do understand this, don't you? I think a lot of Americans don't understand this, but it's the truth. There you have it.

Now, explain to me this, then. The judges have come along, these federal judges and others, and they make this silly argument that the Constitution requires so-called separation of church and state. Entirely a lie--but in pursuance of this lie, they have now told us that as a people, as citizens, as public officials, as legislators, as people in our states and society, we can no longer refer to or invoke the name and authority of God.

Let's see. Let me think.

Our rights come to us from God.

We can no longer appeal to God.

Oh! Therefore, we can no longer claim our rights.

That is logical, isn't it?

That's the country we're living in, y'all. And we don't get it yet, do we? This isn't about some legalism. It's not about some lawyers getting together with words about the Constitution. It's about whether the people of this country can still appeal as a people to the Lord God from Whom they claim their rights! And when those rights are taken, and when they are trampled, can we raise His name as the banner of our rallying point when we fight back against those who abuse and oppress us?

They are telling us no--and if that's true, then we have already lost our freedom, because if you don't have the courage to fight for it, you're not going to keep it, and if faith is not allowed to give you courage, don't expect your courage to last.

That's the sad truth. Now, why do I go through all of this? I go through all this to make a point. We are right now in the midst--I accept for many years that we're in a moral crisis. That's kind of an old story. We're no longer in the midst of a moral crisis. We are at the climatic moment of that moral crisis. We are now confronting the situations in which our action will determine the life or death of the moral foundations of our country, and our freedom, and our whole way of life.

When the smoke clears, the decision as to what is marriage will uphold or destroy the family. When the smoke clears, the decision as to whether or not we can invoke the name of God will uphold and preserve or destroy the doctrine on which we base our rights. When the smoke clears, the sense that we must give reverence to God--whether we're alone or with others, whether we hold the might of all the world's power in our hands, or are helpless before the power of our enemies--that will determine whether we preserve in the midst of this terrible war against evil our own conscience, our own integrity, our own decency, even as it would have determined the decency of those soldiers who stepped across the line because one young lady said she was in the "wrong place at the wrong time."

That's what she told her mom. And my heart broke--do you know why? Because if you remember God, and you remember that He is everywhere you are, then you are never in the wrong place, and you will never do the wrong thing just because somebody tells you to. That's the sadness of it.

Final point here. See, I went through all of this because we are at the moment when all these things will be decided. Now, I want to ask you a simple question, because it's not business as usual anymore. Can we afford leadership that acts as if it is? That's my question.

There are going to be leaders, and we'll go out, and some people will say, "Vote for these leaders. They're talking about Social Security and economics and taxation, and all the usual stuff." But when the crunch comes--and you're going face it here in Utah, by the way, just like every other state--and the battle's going on over same-sex marriage, what's going to happen to a leader who's mostly preoccupied with taxes and this or that economic thing, having forgotten, by the way, the root of economics?

What's the root of economics? I was just telling Parley about this at the table. It's often what I do when I talk to business groups at the end. "Economics" comes from the Greek "oikonomos." The word oiko meant household, and nomos meant the rules or regulations governing the household. Economics was the study of that which was required in order successfully to manage a household. Economics is founded upon the family.

When somebody's telling you they're going to take care of economics, while they stand by and let your family be destroyed at its very heart, in its very principle, they couldn't possibly be telling you the truth.

But we don't get it. We think economics is about money. No, it's not. If you really understood it, you'd realize money is not economics. It's about whether or not you have sustained the strength and integrity of your household, of your family relations, of all the strengths that can come when that network works the way it's supposed to. Have you noticed how people prosper when that's true, and how hard life gets for them when it's not? There's a reason for that.

But I ask you again, what kind of leaders do you need? Well, I'm here today to make an appeal, because I deeply believe that the kind of leaders America needs right now--it's pretty clear. We don't need leaders who will talk a good game! We don't need leaders who will look at where the voters are going in Utah or anywhere else and say, "Well, I better talk about the family, I better say something about abortion, I better make it clear in private where I stand on this." That's not what we need.

We don't need leaders who are going to put it on the agenda because they think they're going to get the vote; who are going to put it on the list of things to do because they think they'll get somebody's money and somebody's support. You know what we need right now? We need the leaders who remember that God is God, whether it meant victory or defeat; the leaders who remember that family should be preserved at its heart, whether it won victory or defeat; the leaders who remembered that you cannot take the life of an innocent child, whether it meant victory or defeat! When the strong winds blew, and they knew they would go down, yet they stood in the face of it--not for the sake of money, not for the sake of power, just for the sake of God.

You find such leaders, and you may find the leadership this country needs. You fail to follow them, and you will follow others to destruction.

I think that's pretty clear--and I don't say that academically. That's not a piece of rhetoric. See, I wouldn't stay up at night thinking about a piece of rhetoric. I do stay up at night thinking about what's going to happen to America. I do stay up at night with a vision of our people in conflict, of our cities in flames, of our economy in ruins. We think it can't happen here, but God has already given us a day of warning that it can and it will, and if we fail to understand what it required of us, then it will destroy us.

And that's not tomorrow or the next day, it's not five or ten years from now, it's not in the next generation. No, see, I think it's now. We are deciding now, and we are in the midst now of that shadow which can already bring upon us the consequences of our decision.

That means that we need these leaders now. And we need them not because they can articulate things that wonderfully or not. We need them because at the end of the day, having done all else, they will stand. That's all we need.

I've been telling folks that in the governor's race here in Utah--do you know what kind of governor you need now? You don't need a governor who can say everything about everything else. That would be good though. It's helpful if you have somebody who understands what the Utah Republican Party's platform means about free enterprise and limited government. All that's beautiful. It's good to have such a person--but a lot of verbiage and language about that isn't very important. I think that what one really needs right now in America is just to find one person who has the conviction and the principle and the wisdom to be able to stand there, and when the moment is right and needed for it, to say one single word that a free people must remember how to say. What is that word?

NO!!

When they tell us we cannot pray, say no! When they tell us we cannot honor God, say no! When they tell us that we must cast away our understanding of sin and be dictated to by judges masquerading now as our high priests, say no!

And if we have forgotten how to do that, then we're not going to be free anymore, it's very simple. But if we remember and we can put in place leaders with a background, the experience, the courage, the faith, the heart, the proven conviction to do it no matter what, then I think we will stand, and our liberty will stand, and our freedom will stand, and our hope will stand, and our children will stand--stand in freedom--because they still have the right as citizens to go down on their knees in prayer. That's what we need.

The conclusion's obvious, isn't it, because I'm standing here at a gathering, and well, I believe that my presence says all that it must. I think, in my personal view, that you all have before you such a man. I think in Parley Hellewell you have what this country needs.

And that means--[applause]--wait, wait. That means that you're not only doing something. That's why I'm here, see, is because, yes--somebody from Utah is needed to tell you what Utah needs. I'm just here to plead with you on behalf of what America needs. You see, America needs something that I believe that Utah is in an especial position to provide, and I'm not entirely sure anymore where else we can get it, because you don't get leaders with heart and faith and conviction except they are chosen by people with heart and faith and conviction; people with the courage to take a stand, people with the courage to cast their vote for right.

I have to say one of the reasons that I always feel like I'm coming home in Utah is that I find so many people with that heart here, with the faith here, with the belief here--and then I look at the councils of our country, and you know what I'm asking myself? In these great debates we're having, the great debates over abortion and same-sex marriage and the conscience of the country in war, where is Utah?

I don't mean to say a disparaging word about anybody--because I don't speak ill of fellow Republicans--but I'll ask you, where is Utah?

Where is your heart?! Where is your voice?! Where is your conscience?! America needs you now!! America cannot survive on your silence, on your procrastination, on your thought to take care of yourselves today and let the country pay for your silence tomorrow!!

God has put you here for a reason! And I believe that that reason is now. He has preserved your heart for a reason! And I believe that reason is here. He has kept your faith for a reason! And I think the moment has come.

The question is, what will Utah do, while others are throwing out the leaders who will temporize, who will seek to compromise away all that we are. Where will we hear the voice that sounds like the trumpet call to truth, if it does not come from the clear heart and conviction of this state?

And I think you have an opportunity before you: to place in the governor's seat a voice that can be that trumpet, a heart that can be that wall standing in the wind that would destroy us, and that could with its sound and its example give heart and courage to people of faith everywhere in this land, that they will learn by your example, that we can stand in freedom.

That's why I'm here, because, you see, we can't do this from Maryland, we can't do it anywhere else. Sometimes God in His way picks the places and He picks the people, and then it's up to them. His call is here; His warning is before us. This nation stands in need now of your conviction. Let your heart speak--not just for yourselves, but for the heart and survival of America.

And I believe that it is a big enough heart and a big enough voice that by its conviction, it can ignite the fires of truth that are needed to light this country's way away from this abyss of destruction toward that path that still God yearns here for us--a path that offers hope to all humanity, that we can still live as He would have us live in the light of His law, in the light of His love, in the dignity of that freedom that He, Himself, marked out for us as the fruit of His creation of our humanity.

God bless you.