Alan Keyes
1999
Monterey, California

Often, when I am able to speak on behalf of a crisis pregnancy center, I like to tell people what a wonderful privilege it is for me, and what a special treat. How, in point of actual fact, it it's not something I am doing for the center, it's something I'm doing out of purely selfish motives.

Now, if I began that way this evening, in the present wonderful surroundings, I think it might be taken the wrong way. I can't imagine anyone who would turn down an opportunity to come and speak here, provided you promised them they'd get to stay for a while.

But usually, when I say that, it is with a view to the truth about my present situation, as I am spending a lot of time, as you might guess, these days, talking about some of the less encouraging aspects of American life. No, I don't just mean Bill Clinton-- but I do mean that! I go on these television programs, and go around giving speeches, talking really about what I think is a possibility, at least, that we have reached a stage, in America where if not the whole people, then, a lot of people in the country, may have passed the point of no return in terms of the surrender of that character and decent conscience, which is required to maintain our decent liberty; and if you just focus in on that, life will get awfully discouraging. Possibly, even depressing.

Now this might just be hard for you to believe, in these wonderful surroundings here in California, but that's because you don't live across from Washington D.C., and when the wind is blowing in the right direction, the stench of its corruption doesn't hit you everyday. But if you did, I think you would realize that overall, we are in times right now, that have all of the material hallmarks of prosperity and peace. I actually think this is just God's way of giving us a chance to turn around, because we are, in fact, in the midst of the greatest moral crisis the nation has ever faced. And I guess, being as how He is a true and merciful God, He kind of thought, if they were pressed with all kinds of economic difficulties and security threats on top of that, maybe they wouldn't have the time to consider the corruption of their souls. I want to remove those excuses. (unclear)

In the midst of our prosperity, it may be difficult, in fact, for us to remember that at the end of the day, the most important thing in human life is not our material relations, but our spiritual well being. But God has given us the chance to do it in America, and He has also, in His wonderful providence, sent us what I think is a mirror, held up to the face of the nation so we could see clearly, where all of the running sores and the blemishes are. And He put it somewhere, where we absolutely wouldn't miss it! He didn't put it in a closet. He didn't put it in the basement of our house, or anything. He put it right in the entryway, so when you come through the door, morning, noon and night, you have to see it. Of course it's called the Whitehouse, and we hear about it everyday on T.V., but we can't escape the message. Our corruption of personal conscience -- our corruption of personal responsibility, is threatening our ability to sustain our institutions of self-government. This has always been the case. But it is now, over and large, at the highest levels in the country.

Now, I hold that the prospect of that, and daily talking about that, would get deeply discouraging to me that I might get so depressed, I would think there was no hope. But then I leave Washington, and I come out to do something such as this, and I am able, once again, to look upon the decent face of America, and to feel the decent heart of America, and it gives me hope. And so, I say in all sincerity, that Debbie, what you do here and what you have done, I believe, not only gives me hope, it represents the cutting edge of hope for this entire country. Truth is, as I hope I will be able to talk about it a little bit, in the course of this evening, we are going to have to turn this nation's heart around; and the only question is, how do we do it? And I believe you, actually, represent the answer, as we shall see.

But before we can appreciate that, I think, we have to go a little bit more deeply, and to the nature of our problems. And so, in spite of the wonderful surroundings, I am going to have to show my gratitude for this spiritually uplifting occasion -- for the inspiration that you give me -- by spending the next half-hour or so detailing, in the most gloomy fashion possible, the truth about our current situation. And it's necessary. I don't do it just so we can all generally feel bad. I do it because sometimes if you don't understand the urgency of what you're doing, you won't deal with it in urgent fashion.

In a funny sort of way we have a good illustration of that, in this whole Y2K business that everybody's getting all excited about. If you understand anything about the Y2K problem, you know that it's a problem that had everybody started dealing with it when the text started telling us to deal with it, fifteen and twenty years ago, we wouldn't have a problem now! But so many people decided, "We'll put that off," and now we come right up against it, and if you haven't done it yet, then it's going to be a big problem to do it, now; and it's one of those things that the longer you put it off, the worse it becomes, until finally the day arrives when you have put it off for too long, and you're just going to have to suffer the damage and see how bad it gets, before you can fix it.

In a sense, I think that we are at that stage, in terms of the moral life of this country, and all of the signs are, that we are trampling toward the point of no return! There are even signs, I believe, that we have past it! Now, that being said, to be helpful, said, so that we will realize that if we are to turn around, it's probably going to require, in addition to everything else we do, a lot of prayers, so that God will help. Because even when you pass the point of no return, as many of us discover in our own lives, He can still turn you around; and, if He can do it with our hearts, He can do it with our nation. And I think He will. But where do we stand, then, as a people right now? It is impossible for me to address that, as uncomfortable as it might make us, without talking a little bit about the scandalous situation I alluded to, when I began.

Over the last year and a half, two years, we have been dealing with a nightmare, in America. It came to a head, for me, just the other day when I was on Hannity and Colmes, on Fox. There I was with Sean Hannity and Allen Colmes, and I think it was Betsy McCoy Ross, this lady from New York, and what were we talking about? I think if I had had, at some point in my life, a nightmare, and I had awakened from that nightmare remembering bits and pieces of it, and one element of it was that I saw myself on a talk show, discussing the question, "Is the President of the Untied States a rapist?" I would have awakened in a cold sweat and been absolutely certain that I was losing my mind.

But, I did have that experience the other night, and it was not a joke. It was not a nightmare. It was not some awful, horrible, dream of American depravity. It is, in fact, the time in which we live, in which we must, whether we like it or not, look at the highest levels in our land upon a spectacle of questionable integrity, shall I call it? No. Actually, I will call it moral depravity, such as we have never seen. And I know lots of folks like to dwell on the individual involved, and certainly we have had to do that at great length. But for me, the serious question isn't so much about Bill Clinton. It isn't so much about what he has or hasn't done, because I think there's no question about that, in most of our minds, anymore. The most serious question for me is, how on earth he got where he is, and why on earth he stays where he is, in spite of all we know!

We can make whatever excuses we want about that, but it says more about us, now, than it says about him! It says more about the state of our heart, and conscience, than anything else. But one can gain a little bit of insight about why we are where we are, I think, by studying some of the details of this sorted mess, in deference to the decency that one ought to try to maintain in one's thoughts. I wouldn't study it too closely, or dwell on it too long. But there were some moments, there, when I think we caught a glimpse into the heart of it. One came in particular, I believe, when I was going over the transcripts which were included in the Starr report, and at one point the -- well I guess, these days, we would have to retreat from any judgmental attitudes and call her a young lady, in this episode, and apparently she and the present occupant of the White House, have had several of these non-verbal interviews, and not a word had passed between them, on five or six occasions; and this finally started to weigh on her mind and feelings, and she addressed to this man the question, "Don't you want to know me as a person?"

If you think about that pathetic little question, you will realize what you are really looking at. What she was feeling, when she asked that question, was the truth of her situation. That she was not, in fact, involved in a human relationship, she was involved in a relationship of mutual abuse, in which on one side, and the other, we didn't have folks understanding and relating to one another as human beings, as people. We had individuals using one another as if they were things -- as if they had no more significance than they could derive from their ability to satisfy the pleasures of the moment -- the passions of the moment -- and, as she discovered thereafter, had no more worth, in one another's eyes than could be erased, by the requirements and ambitions, once this sorted business started to get in the way. And the truth of it is, that attitude, in which we look upon another human being, or human beings, in a way devoid of human significance, in a way that deprives them of their human worth and dignity, in a way that sees them only in terms of what we get out of them, what we can do with them, what they can do for us, how they can be in our way, or serve our purposes, -- that attitude, which looks upon other human beings in that way, is actually the simple principle of most of the awesome evil, that has occurred in the course of our human history, and especially in the course of this most terrible of all centuries, the Twentieth Century.

We can look around the world at mountains of dead. We can look around the world at whole populations deprived of life and dignity. We can look at the Holocaust, and we can look at the purges, and we can look at the wars in which, so often, people tried to wipe one another from the face of the earth without regard at all, for the least shred of humanity, all of it rooted in that attitude, which looks upon other human beings and sees not humanity, but simple material things to be used and abused, as we please!

If that, in fact, is the attitude that was at the heart of this whole sorted mess, then it can help us to understand what we are really looking at. Because, you and I both know that if that was the attitude, it wasn't an attitude that began with some sex scandal. It was an attitude that was right there, in this particular administration, on the day before Bill Clinton took office, when he signed away the Reagan era of protections for the lives of the unborn, against executive branch action and abuse. It was there when he lifted the same pen to veto the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, and allow the continuance of that heinous form of infanticide, in this country. And if that is the case, then it was also there long before his administration began. Because those actions reflected a judgment, and a decision, made ten and fifteen and twenty and twenty-five years before anybody ever heard of Bill Clinton. Made in the Supreme Court of the United States when they told us the lie, that women had the right to treat the life in their womb as if it was no more than a wretched thing to be cherished if you felt like it, if it fit in your life, met your convenience, satisfied your whim. But if not, to be scraped out and thrown away. It is the same attitude. It is the same evil. And if that is the case, then we haven't been watching the crisis of Bill Clinton's character. We have been witnessing the consequences of the corruption of our character, as a people.

What all of this suggests is what some of us have been saying for a long time -- that if we keep going down this road of abortion, where we turn our backs on the most fundamental moral ideals and principles, of our way of life, we will no longer be able to sustain that way of life. We will no longer be able to make the institutions of self-government work. We will no longer be able to keep the legislature and the presidency, and all of this, going. And there could have been no more perfect proof and illustration of that fact, then the mess we have seen in the last year and a half. The crisis in its consequences is already upon us. It is already eating away at the very pinnacle of our common life; and it will go on doing so.

So many people are saying, "We ought to move on!" If it's just a matter of one man, we might be able to move on. If it's a matter of the conscience of this whole people, then we are not going to move on from this crisis, we are not going to resolve this scandal, we are not going to get beyond this sorted mess, until we have reversed the lie that was laid down in Roe v. Wade, until we have wiped away the false doctrine of abortion, and put it back in its place the truth that all men are created equal, and endowed not by their mother's choice, but by God Almighty, with their right to life!

I pretty well knew, when I came in today, that it was very unlikely that the folks who gathered in support of the CPC, would have anything but fond liking for what I just said. That wasn't difficult, even for me, to figure out. But now we get to the hard part. What are we going to do about it? That's a question I've been getting all over the place; and, in one respect, it has to do with the old immediate crisis, and so forth; and these days I'm just kind of throwing my hands up at that, because it's obvious that the corruption of our heart and conscience, is now making cowards of all of our political elites, and they are turning their backs even on the very hard questions, that are being presented to them, by our present circumstances; and that means that the challenge is before us; but, how do we address it?

One of the things that has more and more forcibly struck me, and really been confirmed by the events of the last few months, in my mind, is this: If we are going to get back on the right path, if there is going to be, in fact, a renewal of American heart and conscience and principle, if we are going to get away from these lies and go back to those fundamental moral truths which ought to be, and are, in fact and in truth, at the heart of our identity as a free and decent people, it's not going to be because our leaders do something. I think we can tell from what we've been watching for the last several months, that they don't have the wisdom, and they don't have the courage, and they don't have the integrity to do what it takes! They're not going to do it! We look to them! We look for something to come out of the legislature! We look for some big turn around, because they appoint the right judges and justices. We look for some piece of legislation to come out of the Congress. I don't think it's going to happen! I will go on fighting, to try to make it happen; but I don't believe that we can put our hope in such people. For if we do, we will be disappointed, and I think we'll, in a way, deserve to be. Because if we put our faith in some leaders, it will be because we have forgotten the true nature of our way of life; which is, at the end of the day, that we can have no leaders who have greater integrity than we have. We can have no leaders who will show greater courage, than we are willing to show.

That was the meaning, I think, of that famous phrase of Lincoln's, but we don't think of it that way, you see? A government of the people, by the people, for the people. Sometimes I think when you say government of the people, people think it means, over them. I actually don't. I think it meant government that came from their midst. Government that was recruited from their strength. Government that was recruited from their wisdom. Government that was recruited from their integrity. And if that's true about our present situations, then the fate of our moral conscience and principles isn't going to be decided in Washington D.C.. It's not going to be decided in the legislature in Sacramento. It's not going to be decided by representatives who have stood on podiums and declaimed, in their speeches, one thing and other, and gotten elected, at the polls. It's actually going to be decided, and is being decided right now, somewhere in this community, by a woman whose life has been touched by the glory of God.

We don't think of it that way, anymore, do we? We call it sex -- and all of this other stuff that takes away its luster. But the truth of the matter is, that this great and mysterious reality takes us, in our little, puny, human lives, back to the very moment when God Himself said, "Let us make man." And He could have taken all of that wonderful experience and kept it to Himself. But in no respect does our Creator show Himself to be that selfish and unloving. Instead, what did He do? He could have made us beings who could not, in any way, participate in the wondrous glory of remaking ourselves, but He didn't. And so he matched His creation, in our little being, with our ability to recreate and procreate, and pass the gift of life along. It's a wonderful thing.

Somewhere, in this community right now, the finger of God has reached out, and that little light of life begins to grow in a womb, and a woman in this community is pondering, we know not in what state of mind -- in what state of grief, or joy, or desperation, she ponders what she shall do. Will she rejoice and accept that gift in the spirit in which it is given? Or will she take that life, and surrendering to the darkness of our time, the darkness of confusion and falsity, and of death -- will she snuff it out? In her decision, in fact, we may read the fate of our nation's conscience. In her decision, we may read the moral future of our land. If she accepts the gift, and in that acceptance affirms, again, her belief that yes, the will of God has determined the worth of that life, then she will affirm. in her heart and in her choice, those principles which are the solid ground of our identity, as a people! But if she rejects it, then she will turn her back on those principles. And she will adopt, instead, the view that is being pushed by the pro-abortion movement, that might makes right. That in the end if you have a vulnerable helpless life, wholly in your power, then it is your right to snuff it out. It's not going to be all those folks who think they're so important, who decide the future. It will be decided in this legislature of the heart.

Now, as far as I can see, and I can't claim to be all that proficient in this politics thing -- I'm sure some of you have noticed that -- but, it does seem to me that we have become kind of efficient, as a people, at influencing these other legislatures. We put together the political action committees, and we put together the lobby groups. We put together all of the citizen action and information groups, and we send folks to Sacramento, and we send them to Washington, and they stride up and down the halls, talking to this one and button-holing that one, and making sure that we get what we want, in the way of equal rights, and civil rights, and water rights, and every other kind of thing, you can think of. We are very affective at that. We spend tons of money on it. We have perfected the technique! We know how to get the initiatives on the ballot, and the people into the voting booth! We're really good at that. But tell me something. For all that, who shall we find? What lobbyist shall we send? What wonderful apparatus shall we put together, to walk the corridors of that legislature of the heart? How shall we influence that decision on which, as it turns out, our nation more depends, than all decisions that shall be made by all the legislatures in our land?

That's what brings us here, tonight. Because we are gathered to support, what I think is, the most affective effort that is going on everyday, in this country, to influence that legislature of the heart. To send into it's midst lobbyists, who will speak on behalf of God's great gift, of his great love, and of our true principles of justice, not speaking as some politician who claims, from the floor of the legislature, no, these are different emissaries, because they speak in a different way -- they will speak the voice of understanding fear, and understanding grief. They will speak from hearts that have walked the path. and thought the thoughts, and felt the pain. And they will speak from a conviction that goes beyond all abstract principles, and boils down to this one simple truth, I am here to prove that you are not alone. That no, this world has not turned its back upon you. And for all of the pressures that push you toward the brink of that desperate act, there is a hand that will be in your hand. There is a voice that will call you back to the path of life. And there is a heart that will understand your heart, so that together you may turn form darkness to light, and back to the truth of God's mercy and love. That is what the work of the Crisis Pregnancy Center is all about. It is, in fact, the true embodiment of the whole spirit of what we call, the pro-life cause.

Some people out there, in the media, think, "O, they're the people who are against abortion!" I beg to differ with them! For there is a spirit, there is a truth, there is a love, there is a mercy, there is an understanding at the heart of this pro-life cause, that even if abortion disappears tomorrow, we will still have to hold out our hands to the women in need! We will still have to offer our love! We will still have to offer our hope, so that they will bring that life into this world, and we can offer it our help in building toward the future. And that's the true spirit that we're here to represent; but also, I hope, to more deeply and fully discover, in ourselves. Because I have the feeling that those of you who are here, are certainly people who have, at sometime or another, and possibly quite frequently, given what's going on, been driven to your knees to ask God to please, help this country. And you wonder whether He's listening; but, we know, we've been assured that He is, because He tells us that's all we have to do. We turn from our wicked ways. We go down on our knees and we beg for His mercy, and forgiveness, and He will hear our prayers, He tells us, and He will heal our land! He promises that all we've got to do is ask, and it will be given unto us; and He does not lie! And so as we have prayed, so has He answered our prayers. But, you know what I think we sometimes don't realize? We sometimes don't realize that, when we go down on our knees to pray, we should have hearts committed to rise up from our prayers, to be the answer to the prayers. And I deeply believe that's what's called us here, tonight.

Now, I'm sure, there was the prospect of a nice warm gathering; something that would help to renew our spirits. Some of you sadly came thinking you were going to hear a good speech! I can't do much to remedy that, I must say. But you know, all those reasons that might have brought us here, are not the real ones. The real truth is, of course, that God brought us here. And He brought us here because He's calling to us, as we have called to Him. We have said, "Heal the land." And He has said, "You be my hand, that is the hand of healing. You be My heart, that is the heart of love. You be the voice that, with my voice of mercy, will speak new hope and life to someone who, right now, walks in darkness, thinking that I have forgotten them."

And I don't know what may be the case with any of you, but I suspect that somewhere in this room, there is a woman, and somewhere out there in the community there is another, and the one who is thinking about that life in her womb needs a word that could quite possibly be spoken by one of you, from the heart of your love, from the depths of your experience, from the knowledge that you may have gained, somehow, some way, that life is never so dark, that we are ever so lost, that He cannot find them. You could bring hope to another. And you were brought here this evening to answer the question! You have the key! You can speak the word! Will you come forward now! and be the answer to our prayers? And somewhere, too, in this room there's a man! Because you know the role the men play in pushing people over the brink, or holding them back from it, when it comes to making these decisions, can't be underestimated; and somewhere there is that idea of true manhood and responsibility and love that could be, somehow, brought into the heart of someone who could help to shape a decision for life. And you have it in you. In your understanding, in your experience, in some joy, some grief, some pain that you have known or shared, that's just the word that's needed to make someone understand.

As our God has told us, as well, the fool lays up treasures that the wise man will, then, take advantage of. When we read that passage, I sometimes wonder if we realize that, I think, God actually is speaking on both sides of that equation. He's trying to tell us that the folly of our sometimes too great preoccupation with the material world, can be turned into wisdom, if we are willing to use the fruits of that folly, according to the wisdom of our God. And that's what we can do, this evening. For if we cannot, for whatever reason, be right there -- that's why you have ambassadors, that's why you send representatives -- because they can be your heart, and your hand, and your voice, doing what you would do, doing what you know needs to be done; so long as you are willing to reach into your life, to reach into the fruits of your work, and give them the support that they need. And that's why you are here, tonight.

I can't tell you, with any certainty, that if you answer that call, if you are willing to give of your time, if you're willing to give of your money, if your willing to give, most importantly of all, of your prayers and y our love and your life, I can't promise you, nobody can promise you, that in the midst of all this trouble, in the midst of all this dark, deep, storm of moral depravity and danger, that our nation is passing through, that we will turn it all around! But I think I can promise you that somewhere out there, right now, there is a hope for life, that will turn into a living child, that will bring to this world songs, and poems, and thought, and love, that we know nothing about, and may never see, because you make the decision, tonight, that you want to make that difference. And just as I'm sure none of us would want to try to put a value on what we may think has been the meaning of our own or of our children's lives, what value can we place on that one life, somewhere in this community, that you can save? And by saving it, and by helping to take that one mother's heart and put it back in touch with the truth and the love and mercy of God, you will also be helping, in one small step, to save our land -- to bring it back to sanity. To call it back to truth, in the way that I believe will, at the end of all of this struggle, be most significant of all, one life, one heart, at a time. This is how we shall build our future hope.

And I think you were called tonight, here because. if you look carefully at the moment we're in, it has been true for all the years that you've been working, Debbie, that this is a critical call. But please, I think you're kidding yourself if you don't think that we have now reached the most critical moment of all. Sometime, in the course of these next few months and years, we shall, once and for all, decide the fate of our nation. And I don't know what cosmic significance that has, because nations rise and fall, but God is on His throne. But I suspect that, like me, you have a love in your heart for this nation. And you would rather that we rose in God's grace, than that we fall because of his disfavor. And you can make that difference here, tonight. If you will understand, if you will rise to be the answer to that prayer we send to Him, on behalf of our nation's hope.

In doing that, though we cannot be sure of success, I think we can yet be sure of something that matters more. I've been thinking about that for the last little while, because these have been difficult times for a lot people that I know. People who have been working really hard, in what I think of as the moral vineyard of American life. And they've been reading papers that suggest that maybe the heart of America is a heart that won't listen to them anymore; or care about the things that they care about. And some people I greatly respect have even been out there in the public, preaching words of surrender, and so forth. And I've wondered about this. And then I've realized that, in a way, that feeling that times are so bad, that we ought to surrender. It's true. It's true. Times are so bad, that right this minute, as you sit here thinking about it, if you really understand the danger we're in, you ought to just give up! Surrender! But understand it rightly! Understand that God, the Father of us all, has not brought us to this point where we can, perhaps, begin to appreciate our real danger, so that we can surrender to the enemy! He doesn't want that! He wants us to surrender to Him! To surrender to His will! To surrender to His hope! To surrender to His providence, and make our lives the instrument of His salvation, for each and every one of us, and for our nation. And in that surrender, here and now, tonight, to doing what we have to do, we will find the victory that is greater than success, because it merit's the One approval that matters most of all, when God our Father, and our judge, and our hope, welcomes us into His kingdom, with the words we so long to hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. Welcome to the kingdom of your God."

* Question & Answers *

Question: Dr. Keyes, some of my lunch-bunch buddies, who are on the other side, are forever saying that if I'm to be truly pro-life, I need to be able to demonstrate that our side has stressed adoption, for tough cases. The crack babies, the one's whose sonograms show Down Syndrome; the tough kids. Do you have some kind of anecdotal evidence or statistics to show that that's in fact what we are doing?

Dr. Keyes: I don't know that I have statistics; but, I have a lot of anecdotal evidence, because every time I speak at a Crisis Pregnancy Center, I am both hearing and seeing the fruits of our efforts, in that regard. In fact, I just gave a speech, not long ago, where there were two Down Syndrome babies, with family, in attendance, whose mother's came up afterwards and were telling me their stories, of how they had been touched. One of them by a pro-life message, that she had heard. She told me, in particular, because it had been mine, and the other by the Crisis Pregnancy Center I was there to speak on behalf of. I've got to tell you that nothing gives you a better feeling. It's happened to me a few times. And those few times are enough to convince me, that everything I have done is worth it. Because if I have said even one word, that saved even one life, it's more than I could have hoped to accomplish in my lifetime, I think.

So, yes. I see the evidence of what the CPC's are doing. And when folks raise that question, this is where you need to send them, so that they can speak to the people who, in my opinion, are on the front lines, now; and who are not just understanding. in some abstract way, the principle, but who are putting it into effect. They are the people who actually, through what they do, lead people to respect life, in the true sense. And they do it in those tough cases because, I'll tell you, I think that one of the virtues of a lot of the CPC's is that they are, in fact, motivated not only by pro-life convictions, but by faith; and the tough cases aren't too tough for God. And so it is precisely the people who are willing not only to think and to declaim, but to pray, in order to help people to see the truth, who can put people back in touch with that spirit which is always within them, if they are only willing to accept it. So yes, I see this movement as the proof of that. It is one of the reasons, I guess, why I spend a lot of time supporting it, too. Because I deeply believe that we cannot claim to be pro-life if we're not doing this work.

A litmus test is a test that you conduct in order to help figure out the presence or absence of some particular thing, right? Now let's say that you were conducting a test -- you can call it a litmus test, or a chemical test -- whatever you like -- for the presence of a deadly poison, and somebody came along and says, "What are you doing, doing litmus tests of my milk?" Wouldn't that be kind of foolish? Because if it's poison, you would want to know it's there and get rid of it, right? One of the things that I think we're failing to understand, but that was actually well illustrated in just the past few weeks -- I am speaking of course of a vote that was just taken in the Senate of the United States -- I bet you can't figure out which one! Now, there were, in that vote, the way I saw it, there were forty-five folks from the Democrat side, who declared before they took the oath, that they falsely swore to decide impartially, that they had already made up their minds, and that they weren't even going to look at the evidence. And then, along with them, on both articles, there were only five Republicans who voted, on both articles, to join this perjured group of Democrat Senators. I use the word perjured, literally. They swore falsely. And there were only five Republicans -- count them; five, who joined them. And do you know who they were? The five hardcore, pro-abortion, senators, in the Senate of the United States, who wear the Republican label; that's who they were.

Now, I wonder about that. And I say to myself, you know, as it turns out, your attitude toward abortion is a pretty good litmus test of your moral integrity on issues that go way beyond abortion! Do you know why that's true? Abortion, as I have just tried to show, is not just about abortion. Abortion is about whether or not we embrace principles of justice and moral integrity, on which this nation is founded. And if you're willing to turn your back on those principles, when it comes to abortion, why shouldn't you be willing, when it comes to the Constitution and respect for law? And I think we just saw it proven! So am I in favor of litmus tests? Why not? If it will help me detect this poison, I will certainly pay attention to it; because the embrace of the abortion's doctrine is poison for the soul, in this free society, and we need not drink it anymore, or we shall die. And I think yes, I have already declared, by the way, personally, along with some other people I know, like, Jim Dobson, I will never, ever again, cast my individual vote for a pro-abortion candidate for any office, anywhere, ever!

Question: Hello. My name is Eric Davidson. We have four children. Two birth children, and two adopted children. I'm a witness to the fact that they're a tremendous blessing. They fill holes in our hearts that we never knew were there. But, my question is -- well, first of all, my liberal friends consider me conservative. My conservative friends consider me liberal. I guess I consider myself, maybe, a bleeding-heart Republican; but, even I'm starting to get discouraged, now, I think. I don't want to surrender; but maybe we are in occupied territory, now. Maybe we have been invaded. Maybe it's time we -- we're not a defending army, but maybe we need to take up tactics of resistance force. Has the tide changed? Do we need to change our strategy?

Dr. Keyes: Well it depends on what you mean. I actually -- now, I may be totally wrong about this, but for the last few months -- and there have been a few days of exception to this, but, overall, I've actually felt like, when you get beyond the surface of what is going on, there is, in fact, a tremendous, positive movement developing, in this country. Sometimes, things have to get bad in perception, before people will wake up enough to correct them! I see the polls, and all these lies everybody's telling, and I think to myself, 'There's a big surprise coming here!' You can't make me believe that the people of this country have been watching this whole sorted spectacle; and I don't just mean Clinton! I also mean the cowardess, and the gutlessness, and lack of principle, and integrity, of all those people who were dealing with, and responding to, this crisis! Our whole political elite, has shown itself to be a bunch of corrupt cowards! I can't stand it! And I don't believe I'm the only person in America who's seen it! And what does that mean? We see it! We understand it! And that means that we're sitting here thinking, what can I do! At the very first chance we get, we're going to do something. And the wonderful thing about our system is that, because of the elections and the process, that chance is going to come. You watch. And somewhere, somehow, Americans are going to administer to that whole political elite a stunning rebuke, that will tell them, "We watched what you did, and we didn't like it! Get out of our sight now!" They will do this! I believe it!

And so, yes, I think a change is coming. I think, though, that it requires one change in our understanding, which I have been trying to get across to people in every way I can. We are not, as I said in my speech, going to get anything out of the leaders that we don't show, in some sense, ourselves. We want leaders who will stand with integrity, who will stand with principle, who will stand for truth, and when the crunch comes, who will do what is right. Leaders who will put the interest of the country above their own selfish interest and expediency. We want this. We say it. I hear it from people, all of the time. But in order to achieve that, the one revolution we're going to have to work, is the revolution in our own political habits. We've gotten too lazy about going along, to get along. We've gotten to lazy about being (unclear).

I actually hear people, all of the time, telling me that if they vote for what they believe in, they're wasting their vote. I believed all my life. I voted for a fair number of losers in my time. As a matter of fact, if you're a Republican in the state of Maryland, you'll be voting for losers a lot of the time! Sad to say, I've even been one of those losers, from time to time. But you know something? I have also seen the time when one of those losers, Ronald Reagan, became the winner! And the country won, as a result. Do you know why it won? It won, because he wasn't willing to change what he stood for, change what he believed was right for this country, turn his back on what he knew to be the right course of fighting Communism and standing for free enterprise and liberty. He wasn't willing to turn his back on that when the going got rough, and the country went the other way! He picked himself up off the ground, walked the same walk and talked the same talk, until the people of this country came to their senses! And that's what we have to do now! It doesn't matter what it looks like! God never turns His back on truth, and neither should we! Because if we don't, we'll be standing with Him! But that means, we are just going to have to start acting like people who are willing to go with our hearts, find what you believe to be the most clear articulation and commitment to what you believe to be right, and stand there. Stand there, through every storm, and you'll find that when it all clears, there are a lot more people standing with you than you think. And we're going to have to start acting in the faith, ignoring all the polls and the pundants and the false prophets of doom, gloom, and political prognostication, and just do what's right.

That's the resistance we need. Resistance in our hearts to all of the lies we are being told, aimed at undermining our commitment to truth. If we can resist that, that's all the resistance it will take in America; because, thank God, we still live in a country, for the moment, in which if we can show that kind of resistance and step into the voting booth, and if which a few people in our life can show enough resistance to offer us a true alternative, all we've got to do is vote for it, and the day after the change happens.

Now I know you're all saying, "Yeah, Alan, we thought that. And then we elected some of these folks, and look at what happened." I know. I'm there, myself, with a lot of them. And I'm not talking about Trent Lott. No. Actually I am. But, among others. He's a good example, though. But there, I think, you need some discernment, right? It's why I'm telling people, these days, for instance, that on a lot of these moral issues, don't just look for what somebody says is their stand on the issues. Ask yourself where the issue stands on their agenda. And if right now the issues of our moral heart and conscience, the issues like abortion, the issues like the integrity of sexual behavior that supports the family, the issue like the respect we show for parental authority, in maintaining and raising our children, if they're not putting those issues at the top of their agenda, I believe they're not right for America, right now. Things like that we have to begin to look at, because they're also good at telling us what they think we want to hear. But in some ways their priorities come through in what they do, and we need to vote for those who have their priorities straight, not just those who have found ways to put some words together that sound good.

Question: Mr. Keyes, my wife and I thank you for being here, this evening. And it's a joy to be here, for something other than an economic forecast meeting. But I'd like to know, could you tell us please, Sir, who most in your life has fueled or stoked the fires of your passion, acknowledging the hand of God Almighty. Was it a mother, a father, a grandparent, teacher, or Harvard professor?

Dr. Keyes: (Laughter) Well, you all are laughing! I think that if I were going to put a list together, at the top of the list would be my parents, because I think that faith and integrity were exemplified by them in ways that I didn't always understand, when I was growing up. The integrity that is required for folks to just put one foot in front of the other, everyday, and do what is required to make the family work, to be faithful to one another, to keep their kids in line and on track, and their eyes on some kind of decent goal. When you're growing up, you don't appreciate how hard those simple tasks are. Boy, do I ever appreciate them now! And the fact that my parents did them with such faithfulness, more and more grows, everyday, in my estimation, as does my appreciation for the simple faith that my mother inculcated in us, just by living, because she was one of those folks who got up in the morning asking for God's help, and went to bed at night thanking him for His help. And, in some ways, that constant sense of reliance and prayer, is the best prayer of all. And we saw it at work, and in life, in our home; and it was critical to my own life.

I did have good teachers, though, at some points along the way. And oddly enough one of them was a professor, I think, who helped me to appreciate the importance to all political life, of the moral foundations for politics. And that was a professor named Allen Bloom, who died not too long ago, who was friend, mentor, in an intellectual sense, and who helped me to understand some things about the fundamental nature of the moral foundations of every society, but most especially our own. Now I don't' think its speaking ill of the deceased to say that the other truth about Allen Bloom was that I was always careful to do the opposite of what he said, in politics. But I, nevertheless, had great respect for his intellectual judgment.

There are some professors like that you know; great at some things, and not so great at others. So there was a professor, and I mention him in this context because, for me, the alliance of faith and reason, is vital to our lives. And it is an alliance in our country, because we had founders who understood that the premises, in a moral terms, that reason uses and applies for justice, must, in the end, be grounded in the truth, that is confirmed for us by faith, which is the truth of God's existence, of his authority, and of his merciful attention to our lives. And I believe that that was all summed up in the Declaration of Independence, which is why I always talk about it; because it has applied that truth to our lives. And it was this teacher who helped me, in the first instance, to appreciate how important that document was in American life. So I owe a great debt, there. So like everybody else, I do have individuals to whom, along the way, I owe a great deal. Some of whom I have never met. Well, I will never say never, because you don't know what's in store, when you do get home. Abraham Lincoln is one. I've never met him personally; but I have sure met him in other ways. And, I've learned a lot. And I'm still learning a lot from him about the real meaning of statesmanship, in American life. Because I think he was the president who, in some ways, most embodied him, in a difficult crisis that could have been the end of American society, in the true sense of the term But he understood where our soul was. He understood the truth that constituted the very heart and soul of our national identity were there, in the Declaration, and had to be held on to. He couldn't just hold on to the Union. He had to hold on to the soul of the Union, because he understood that in the end, the unity of the body comes from the Spirit of God breathed into us, that gave us life. And that, in political terms, translates into the truth that it is the moral principles that are our grounds for unity, as a people, that constitute our identity. So I learned a lot from him. There are certainly others, but I guess that would be a few of the highlights.

Question: My name is Carol Vetter, and I'm a friend of Eric Davidson's, and I can't believe anybody could call you a Liberal. But I want to know what you think has happened to the Republican Party. I have become more and more disillusioned with the leaders that I have depended on to stand for pro-life, to stand for moral decisions, and they are dropping like flies. I feel like my vote is the kiss of death for anybody; and it is very discouraging. I don't know who to trust anymore. I look at them all and think, they just want to keep their jobs; they just want to keep their pensions. I just want to know what you think is going on in the Republican Party.

Dr. Keyes: I think the term for it, in the economics sphere, is "shake out." I think that's what's happening in the Republican Party. We are going through a time of testing, and some people who are real are being separated from some people who are phony. In the process, though, I hope that we are refining our judgment about what is real. And that's not just on the Republican side, but overall.

What I've been trying to get across to people, recently, for instance, is that you can mouth all the words you want about policies, right? But what you've got to look for is where does the policy come from, in terms of its principle. Take for instance -- I'll give one example -- taxes. Republicans stand forward and say, "We want to lower your taxes." Reagan came forward and he cut taxes, across the board, and all this. Now we have folks who come forward and they offer tax cuts, but then they turn around after offering broad based tax cuts, and they offer targeted tax cuts, as a substitute. If you think it through, these are not the same thing. A broad based tax cut is a tax cut that says, "You earn the money, you should have control of it, and we're going to push to get more and more of your money back to you." Right? A targeted tax cut says, "You earn the money, we'll keep control of it, and we'll give you a little back so long as you accept our control." This is an entirely different approach! Don't accept the one because it's not based on true principle.

In a moral realm, you have Republicans out there, they argue for, say, education, right? "We want control of schools." Why? "We want people to control more of their own money!" Why? Because we think they will make better decisions, isn't that right? Well tell me something. I was trying to get this point across, earlier today, to a group I was speaking to in Sacramento, which happened to be the state meeting of the Republican Party. I asked a question, "If you were convinced that the American people were people who were morally depraved, and incapable of doing what was right, would you really want to give them back control of the money? Would you really want to give them the decisions as to how children should be raised? Would you really want to give them decisions about how the elderly should be cared for? You see, one of the truths is that, if you really believe in freedom, if you really believe that people should be given choices, an so forth, there's one basic premise you actually are assuming -- you are assuming that they are decent people! You're assuming they have conscience! You are assuming that given the choices they will do the right thing, by and large, because otherwise, the streets will fill up with the broken lives, the crushed hopes, the death, that results from their failure to acknowledge their obligations. If the parents don't acknowledge the obligations to their children, then their children won't be cared for. If we don't acknowledge our obligations to one another, then the poor will suffer, and that is, according to our heart and belief, wrong!

So what a lot of these guys don't appreciate is that when they stand up to preach all this doctrine of liberty and free enterprise, and stuff, is that they are depending on moral truth. They are depending on our competency and moral character, of America. Do you realize that? But that means that the stand we take on these moral issues is not just about abortion, in some narrow little world that's of interest only to that hard religious right, and so forth and so on. Everything we might want to accomplish for liberty, in this country, depends upon our moral self confidence. It depends on our belief in our decent character in America. If we don't have that decent character, if we surrender to the lies of the abortion and sexual irresponsibility, and a callous attitude toward our children that treats them as our toys rather than our responsibility, then we are not fit to exercise these rights! We're not fit for liberty! We can't be trusted! Not with money, not with power, not with anything! And that means that the moral agenda today is central. It's not peripheral. It's not one issue among many. It is the foundation of our house and we cannot let it crumble.

The problem with a lot of the Republican leaders? They don't believe what I just said. They don't see it that way. And as a result, when they are challenged on the moral front, they cave. They recede. They give in. They don't understand the central importance to everything they're trying to accomplish, of the commitment to the moral idea of American life and conscience and self-government. And that's what I think is happening right now. These folks who don't have that kind of depth in their understanding of their political creed, are falling like flies, under the weight of challenges that can only be answered if you are willing to deal with the moral crisis of the country. They are not willing to deal with the moral crisis of the country, and therefore they will not succeed. And that's as simple as that. And that's part of the reason that, in that particular world, I am pushing very hard to deal with it. I think it's the only thing that's going to help America. I think it's the only thing, at the end of the day, is going to give us the right choice and it's the only thing that will produce political leaders who will have the courage that we need to offer the right choices. But I think that's what's happening to these political folks. I'm trying to correct it, by getting them to appreciate the central importance of these moral concerns. Some of them will. Many of them won't. At the end of the day, what happens to the ones who won't, is up to you. You can go on buying into their drivel and their phoniness, or you can stop, and start looking for people who will be true, because they have a true understanding, not just because they are saying a few words that not just because they are saying a few words that sound good. Am I making sense?