Speech
Call to Righteousness press conference
Alan KeyesAugust 28, 2004
The Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (CURE)
Thank you very much.
As we stand here on a day that commemorates Martin Luther King's hopeful dream for America and for black people in America, I think all of us understand that sad elements of that dream have been damaged and destroyed in ways that have turned the lives of many black Americans not into a hopeful dream of aspiration, but into a terrifying nightmare.
The root of that nightmare, unlike the rhetoric of many folks who address these issues, is not in fact in money and material causes. The root of that nightmare is in the collapse of the family structure, in the destruction of the marriage-based family in the black community, in the birth of black children into homes where they will not find a mother and a father- -into the reality that the father has been driven out of the home and mothers left to fend for themselves without the economic partnership between father and mother that is in fact known to be the root of economic success for a family and a community.
The causes of this destruction of the marriage-based family in the black community are many, including, sadly, the contribution made by government programs whose regulations and rules have in fact aided, abetted, and caused the destruction of the marriage-based family for black Americans.
But sadly, there are also moral causes. The promotion of a hedonistic understanding of human sexual relations in film and in music that has been especially directed at young black teenagers and the black population, the culmination of this effort to impose upon the minds of our young a degraded, hedonistic understanding of human sexual relations- -the culmination of this movement is in fact the promotion of homosexuality as the paradigm of human sexual relationship.
That promotion actually substitutes for true human sexuality an understanding that is based entirely upon selfish gratification and self-fulfillment. Heterosexual sexual relations are, by their very nature, haunted by the existence of the child, by the truth that sexual relations involve a transcendent obligation, something that goes beyond the passions and self-gratification of the parties involved; something that points to a lifelong obligation to respect that vocation which is parenting, and which signifies in the truest sense of human community our dedication to the future, not just to ourselves.
When we look at the marriage issue, therefore, we should understand that in the general context, it involves the destruction of the very essential meaning of marriage- -marriage as an institution that at its heart and in principle involves procreation, the commitment to childbearing and childrearing, and to the foundation of family life that will actually create in the persons of future generations the future for which we long and hope.
We should also understand that in the light of the terrible misery and economic degradation that has resulted from the destruction of the family in the black community, the promotion of this hedonistic paradigm of sexual relations points to a special harm for black Americans. It points to a special harm for the black people of this country.
That is why I am not only proud, but I feel a moral obligation to stand here today, with black pastors and concerned black citizens, to repel and refute the notion that somehow or another the homosexual assault on traditional marriage in the name of gay marriage represents something that is in the tradition of the Civil Rights Movement. It is not in that tradition.
Civil rights were in fact about the assertion of the truth that black Americans simply wanted the same chance to act as responsible, decent citizens that others in America had. It did not mean that they were asserting a desire for libertinism, for self-indulgence, and for some refuge from their decent responsibilities to the future.
We are here to assert the truth that by our faith, by our civic principles, by our heritage as black Americans, we must stand firmly against those who wish to destroy the true faith and spiritual basis of the marriage institution- -and that we do so precisely in order to defend the true and essential spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, precisely in order to stand as champions of the hope that Martin Luther King represented, against those who now would aim at the very heart of black aspiration the final death blow of all black hopes.
And that means that this is an issue that ought to engage not only every decent conscience and every decent American concerned about the future of our country. It must especially engage black Americans concerned about the future of their community.
I want to thank Star Parker and C.U.R.E. and all the wonderful, courageous hearts that are assembled here today. We know there are those in the media and elsewhere who will lyingly portray what we do as somehow standing apart from the mainstream, but we also know that in black churches and in black communities throughout our history and across this land, there are hearts and minds and spirits who will stand with us against the advent of this new persecution.
And as our forebears marched against the Bull Connors, against the dogs, against those who would lynch and kill us for asserting our rights, so we will stand now with courage in defense of that marriage institution based on the love of man and woman and the dedication to childbearing that is the great hope of the black future, that is the great hope of America's future, that in fact is essential to the destiny of all of humankind.
As we stand here on a day that commemorates Martin Luther King's hopeful dream for America and for black people in America, I think all of us understand that sad elements of that dream have been damaged and destroyed in ways that have turned the lives of many black Americans not into a hopeful dream of aspiration, but into a terrifying nightmare.
The root of that nightmare, unlike the rhetoric of many folks who address these issues, is not in fact in money and material causes. The root of that nightmare is in the collapse of the family structure, in the destruction of the marriage-based family in the black community, in the birth of black children into homes where they will not find a mother and a father
The causes of this destruction of the marriage-based family in the black community are many, including, sadly, the contribution made by government programs whose regulations and rules have in fact aided, abetted, and caused the destruction of the marriage-based family for black Americans.
But sadly, there are also moral causes. The promotion of a hedonistic understanding of human sexual relations in film and in music that has been especially directed at young black teenagers and the black population, the culmination of this effort to impose upon the minds of our young a degraded, hedonistic understanding of human sexual relations
That promotion actually substitutes for true human sexuality an understanding that is based entirely upon selfish gratification and self-fulfillment. Heterosexual sexual relations are, by their very nature, haunted by the existence of the child, by the truth that sexual relations involve a transcendent obligation, something that goes beyond the passions and self-gratification of the parties involved; something that points to a lifelong obligation to respect that vocation which is parenting, and which signifies in the truest sense of human community our dedication to the future, not just to ourselves.
When we look at the marriage issue, therefore, we should understand that in the general context, it involves the destruction of the very essential meaning of marriage
We should also understand that in the light of the terrible misery and economic degradation that has resulted from the destruction of the family in the black community, the promotion of this hedonistic paradigm of sexual relations points to a special harm for black Americans. It points to a special harm for the black people of this country.
That is why I am not only proud, but I feel a moral obligation to stand here today, with black pastors and concerned black citizens, to repel and refute the notion that somehow or another the homosexual assault on traditional marriage in the name of gay marriage represents something that is in the tradition of the Civil Rights Movement. It is not in that tradition.
Civil rights were in fact about the assertion of the truth that black Americans simply wanted the same chance to act as responsible, decent citizens that others in America had. It did not mean that they were asserting a desire for libertinism, for self-indulgence, and for some refuge from their decent responsibilities to the future.
We are here to assert the truth that by our faith, by our civic principles, by our heritage as black Americans, we must stand firmly against those who wish to destroy the true faith and spiritual basis of the marriage institution
And that means that this is an issue that ought to engage not only every decent conscience and every decent American concerned about the future of our country. It must especially engage black Americans concerned about the future of their community.
I want to thank Star Parker and C.U.R.E. and all the wonderful, courageous hearts that are assembled here today. We know there are those in the media and elsewhere who will lyingly portray what we do as somehow standing apart from the mainstream, but we also know that in black churches and in black communities throughout our history and across this land, there are hearts and minds and spirits who will stand with us against the advent of this new persecution.
And as our forebears marched against the Bull Connors, against the dogs, against those who would lynch and kill us for asserting our rights, so we will stand now with courage in defense of that marriage institution based on the love of man and woman and the dedication to childbearing that is the great hope of the black future, that is the great hope of America's future, that in fact is essential to the destiny of all of humankind.