Alan Keyes, former ambassador to the U. N. and presidential candidate, calls Americans to consider how God will respond to their cries for security and justice.

The following is taken from remarks Dr. Keyes delivered to a Respect for Life gathering at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa., on Jan. 17. The editors wish to thank the Beaver County Charter of Pennsylvanians for human life and Geneva College for their assistance.

In the midst of people of the pro-life spirit, there is such a tremendous presence of grace that it is sometimes difficult to remember where our country really is. Yet I have to, because not all of us who are gathered here tonight might understand the true urgency of that which brings us together.

On the other hand, in light of the events of the last several months, maybe it shouldn’t be that hard for us to think of it. But even those events aren’t as present to mind as they were a litte while ago. That’s human nature. In the wake of Sept 11, there was a great upsurge in America of faith and patriotism and what looked like reverence for God. Everywhere I went in the country, I was seeing God’s name emblazoned on the billboards and the bumper stickers and so forth. It became a byword all around the country: “God Bless America!”

I didn’t know why, but as I saw that phrase everywhere, I was uneasy. And as is often the case when I’m feeling as if there is something going on I don’t quite understand, I was led to spend some time in the Scriptures. One passage kept recurring to me, and I was drawn back to it until I realized I was being compelled to read it over again for a reason. It revealed the hard and difficult truth about the circumstances of this country right now—a truth that we must face or else both our liberty and perhaps our very survival are at stake. But I’m not sure we see it.

The passage is from Isaiah and Isaiah is an often-read prophet, but the beginning of Isaialh, I think, is not usually where one concentrates. In chapter 1, God through Isaiah is talking about the travails of the people of lsrael, and He alludes to sin on the part of some of them and says, “but for a remnant, but for a saving few” they would have no hope whatsoever. When I read that part of it, I was put in mind of folks like us. In some of those moments when we look at all that’s going on and we think that, “If it weren’t for our righteousness, if it weren’t for our prayers, if it weren’t for what we’re doing, America would be just like”—as the prophet says here—”just like Sodom and Gomorrah. Unless the Lord Almighty has left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah.” The implication of that, of course, is that the folks that the prophet is referring to think they are not like Sodom and Gomorrah. There is a sense that we have a distance to go before we get there. We’re headed there, we may get there tomorrow, we may get there next year, we may get there in 10 years—and if we don’t do this and if we don’t do that and if we just keep doing the other thing we won’t get there.

What does the prophet say to these people? He begins the next verse with the following phrase: “Hear the Word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.” God sets them straight, doesn’t He? They think but for this and that they would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Men and women, don’t think you are getting there—you are there! You are the people of Sodom; you are the rulers of Gomorrah. And that means that you’re in serious trouble.

Of course, Isaiah goes on to outline this. And the words that the Lord speaks to him are words that I think should resonate with us. “The multitude of your sacrifiecs, what are they to me, says the Lord? I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams, and the fat of fattened animals. I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls, and lambs, and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you? This trampling of my courts?”

That is an interesting rhetorical question. I always think when reading the Scriptures that we must pause for a minute when God asks a rhetorical question. Like a good lawyer, God never asks a question He doesn’t know the answer to. So what does He mean there? Who has asked. “Why is He asking that question?” The “sacrifices” and the “rams” and the “fat of fattened animals”: each one refers to a specific place in Deuteronomy or Numbers or Leviticus where God has told them to make these sacrifices. So when God asks the question “Who has asked this of you?” He knows the answer. He asked it of them! He is reminding them that what they do, the actions they take, purport to be in respect of His authority. In the wake of Sept. 11, we were gathering in our national prayers and we were coming together with our political leaders and offering up prayers to God: we were calling “God Bless America.” It seemed we were invoking the name of God just like we respect His authority. That’s what these folks were doing—making sacrifices of the bulls and the lambs and the goats, walking into the temple and raising up the sacrifices, just like they respected God’s authority.

What does the Lord say to them? He says this: “Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to Me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts My soul hates. They have become a burden to Me. I am weary of hearing. When you spread out your hands in prayer I will hide My eyes from you. Even when you offer many prayers I will not listen.” That’s pretty hard. Why is God being so hard on these people? In one short sentence, He tells them. “Even if you offer many prayers,” He says, “I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.” Even if you offer many prayers! Even if you put “God Bless America” on a hundred million bumper stickers. Even if you plaster it on the side of every barn; put it up in tall letters on all the billboards. If you listen carefully, God says in this passage pretty clearly that you can do all of that and if the hands that you raise to Him are dripping with blood, then He won’t hear a word you’re saying.

You might say—and you would be right—that one would be better to give those words to someone like Osama bin Laden, whose hands are dripping with the blood of our thousands of dead in New York City. Our wickedness is not responsible for Sept. 11; Osama Bin Laden’s wickedness is responsible for Sept. 11. We don’t have to take on the burden of somebody else’s evil. But, my friends, we had better face the burden of our own evil.

The evil that struck us on Sept. 11 in some ways ought to lead us to a searching of our own heart. What were the characteristics of it? What was at the heart of it? What was the essence of it? There was the stunning spectacle of huge buildings collapsing and the terrible thought of all the lives crushed under the weight of the rubble. We might think that is the evil of it. But not quite. There are times when tall buildings collapse and thousands die in the process and many of us would not be willing to judge that an evil deed was committed. For instance, when in the midst of war our bombs have felled cities into ruins, we didn’t consider those things evil actions even though people died in large numbers and buildings were destroyed in massive amounts. We have made the rubble dance in Afghanistan. You see, the mere destruction of life and property is not, in and of itself, sufficient to establish evil.

What was the evil on Sept. 11? Well, you say, what right does somebody have to come over here and kill all those innocent people? I think of it especially in terms of the folks who were on the planes that were used as weapons of destruction. Not only were their lives claimed, but the significance, the meaning of their lives was utterly disregarded. The planner of that terrorist act didn’t consider them worth a moment’s thought. They were less than the dust off a carpet. The only thing that planner thought about was the fuel and the fuselage and the jet engines that would drive those weapons of destruction into those buildings. The people meant nothing. Their innocent lives had no meaning whatsoever.

That’s the chilling part, isn’t it? The chilling truth that’s out there is that we looked into the heart of evil and we saw, not just its consequences, but its utmost principle. And what was that principle but this: A total and utter, an absolute and clear disregard for the intrinsic worth of innocent human life.

That’s it! The evil we fight against, the evil we rail against, the evil that we condemn has at its heart, this evil principle: When my fanatical faith demands it, I shall utterly disregard the God-established worth of innocent human life. Here is the problem. Here is why this Isaiah passage is so hard. We only clasp our hands and turn our backs and raise up our judicial voices and sanction the quiet taking of the most helpless, the most exposed, the most completely innocent human life there is, which is the life in the womb. That is the harshness of it, isn’t it? When the evil comes against us, we see as in a mirror the principle of that evil which we bring or tolerate against others.

That thought alone ought to frighten us—ought to make us fear the judgment of a righteous God. It is why I worry. Because when you’re in a state or condition like that—your hands dripping with innocent blood, your heart indifferent to the real nature of that evil—do you think that’s a time for you to stand out in the spotlight and say, “God, I’m over here!” I would think that might be the time when you would want to find a rock, a place to hide. You might want to get into one of those caves bin Laden was trying to hide in. But it won’t hide you from the eyes of God.

Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem like a very safe time to be calling on God for His attention: “Bless me. Bless us! Bless this place, God!” Inherent in that blessing, inherent in our call for His help, is our sense that He ought to rise up with us and help us smite the evildoers. He ought to give strength to the right arm of those who bring vengeance against those who are willing. for the sake of their agenda, to destroy innocent life.

Here’s my problem. I know that we human beings, we can’t help but be inconsistent. But the problem is, God is not. He’s not. So in the wake of Sept. 11, if we ask God to help us smite those who show an utter disregard for innocent lives, when we raise up our prayer and ask Him, we might forget where this country stands. But when He looks to answer, He will remember. And in that remembering there will be judgment for us. In the spiritual order of things, this is an absolute certainty. God does not contradict Himself. If you stand in a place where you are under His judgment and you do not turn around from that place, the judgment must fall on you! I know there are those that say, “No, God is a God of forgiveness; Jesus came to save us.” Yes He did. But He didn’t lie to us about it. He didn’t say, “You can come into My courts, your hands dripping with blood, and claim the salvation of My cross while loving evil in your hearts and doing evil with your hands.” He said quite clearly that if you want God’s blessing and praise, then first thing you have to do is repent. For a while, folks were going back to church and raising up their voices to God. We were hit so hard by that blow of Sept. 11, that reminder of our own inability, that “God Bless America” was not just a prayer anymore, but a statement of our national security policy. Successfully drive a plane into the Pentagon and it reminds you that your many billions spent on Imman defense doesn’t necessarily amount to much. Then you are ready for God’s help. But the question we don’t want to ask is this: God is always ready to give His help; is America ready to receive it? We are here in memorial for all those millions who have died on account of what? On account of our abandonment of truth that God in His wisdom has not only shared with us but made the very foundation of our existence in freedom. We try to pretend that this is about babes in the womb and what happens to the baby and what happens to the mother, and that’s very true. But I’m told by the Scriptures that there isn’t a word comes out of God’s mouth that falls to the ground.

The deepest wound that this nation has ever suffered wasn’t struck against us on Sept. 11. As we should have been reminded on that day, this nation isn’t about its buildings—isn’t even about the physical life of the individuals who inhabit it. Some, sad to say, in tragedy died that day. We shall each and every one of us bite the dust someday. There is more to us, there is more to the communities we form, than the buildings and the concrete and the steel and even the flesh and the bone. There is the spirit of our country. There is its faith. There is the heart we cannot see but which touches us when need be. And that has always been there for us. You think by our own will? No. I think rather because when this country began, where did it begin? It began with the enunciation of some truths. Our founders said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Truth was important then. And what were the truths? Somebody will say, “Oh, the truth is, we have rights. The truth is that we’re equal, and we should demand and clamor for our equality, under law, in economics, in every way.”

Why is it that we are so prone to forget the context in which all those truths were presented? Because the founders didn’t just say, “All people are equal and they have rights.” They didn’t say that at all. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” The bedrock principle of our way of life—from whence the Constitution came, from whence our sense of law and due process, and justice, and equality, and all these things we fought over and fought for—they all come from that principle. And where does that principle rest but on an acknowledgement of the authority of Almighty God?

We began by acknowledg­ing the truth, and on the basis of that acknowledgement we have built up a great country. We have fought great battles against the evil that beset that country’s life. We have struck the chains of slavery off the slave. We have brought into the circle of equality the women and the children. We have welcomed to our shores people of every race and color and kind, with the promise that there would be justice for all. This was because, some­where in our conscience, we could some­times, with struggle, be touched by the truth of this principle, that God made us one and all. and we are entitled to be respected in the seed of that divinity which He has left in each and every one of us.

The sad thing is that when Roe vs. Wade was decided, we tossed that truth aside. And in the place of God’s choice and God’s will as the foundation stone of this nation’s existence, we put another choice. That was the holy human choice. That is the choice they champion in the so-called pro-choice movement—the choice of human beings to wipe out of the circle of humanity what­ever human lives they please.

That began in 1973 and was supposedly just to apply to the children in the womb. But some of us knew, didn’t we? I can remember the discussions, even back then. It wouldn’t stop there. Faster than I ever thought, faster than many of us ever imag­ined, we have come into the midst of those issues that prove that it won’t stop there. Now it is not enough that we should choose to kill the children in the womb. We can choose to kill the elderly. We can choose to kill the sick. We can choose to kill the embryonic life in petri dishes and call it non-human. Soon I suppose we’ll choose to kill the clones for their legs and their eyes and their hearts, until we have nothing left but murderous monsters ex­tending our lives with the deaths of other human beings.

That, sadly, is the future. We stand in the midst of it; we’re not even at the threshold anymore. We’ve crossed already. And it all comes from the same principle. We have turned our back on that simple truth with which we began—that the dig­nity and the worth and the sanctity and the sacredness of human life is not our choice. It has been the choice of God. In the midst of the shadows that we face, the evils we see coming against us, that is still true, isn’t it? Those evils that come from abroad or from terrorism—if we’re brought down as a nation it’s not going to be from anything like that.

Abraham Lincoln was absolutely right in 1835–1836 when he said that America wasn’t going to lose itself from any exter­nal threat. No, it would be when we ceased to respect the need for law and decency, the need to respect those truths with which our nation began. That means that the most serious blow that has ever been struck against the survival of America was not struck by the foreign hand of Osama bin Laden. It was struck by the domestic hand of our own Supreme Court and all those who aid and abet the lie that we can reject out of our midst the sacredness of inno­cent life in the womb and still claim to be Americans. We have not only lost all the poets and all the philosophers and all the singers and all the scientists in the midst of all the millions we have slaughtered. We have lost ourselves. We have lost that which is the essence of who we are.

Somewhere in the wake of Sept. 11, for a fleeting moment, I think we started to understand that. Yes indeed, we are one people. But you’ve noticed. and so have I, that the church attendance has gone back down, that the tide of partisanship in Washington is rising. It will soon be busi­ness as usual in America. We can’t even remember that in New York, on the day when those firefighters raised the Ameri­can flag, nobody cared whether they were Italian or Irish or black or white or any­thing else. They were just American. We knew that then, but we are forgetting it already. I think I know why. Because you can’t remember that you are an American if you forget that justice is based on the will of God. You can’t remember that you’re American if you forget that that justice demands respect for the intrinsic worth of every innocent life. We not only lose the lives of all those children, we not only risk the lives of all those mothers, we risk the soul and life of America itself. We have cried out to God, cried out for His blessing and His aid. We have felt in our heart the grief and the pain. We have felt that sense, which sometimes in the midst of all our doings we forget, that we do love this country. But now it is time to remem­ber what that love must really mean. It is not just a feeling, it is not just an emo­tion—it has got to be a willingness to remember the truths by which we stand and to commit to live by them so that the country and its true foundations can rise up from the ashes of those lies that we have bought, into the life of that truth that makes us great, I think that is what brings us together. As we come together, it is not just to commemorate death. It is not even just to declare our will against evil. It ought to be to reconfirm our com­mitment to those truths, those sacred truths that allow us to stand in spite of all our differences, on the common ground of our belief in justice and right and the transcendent basis of all and the powerful will of our God.

I think we have a mission to bring that back to America now. And then this pas­sage from Isaiah will offer us some hope. God never leaves you without hope. It is a wondrous thing about Him. He tells us what to do. “I will not listen,” He says. “Your hands are full of blood.” But then He says, “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of My sight. Stop doing wrong; learn to do right. Seek jus­tice, encourage the oppressed; defend the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet they will be as white as snow.”

This country can stand there. We have been through all these decades following a twisted path of lies. But I would pray to God that we shall renew in faith our dedi­cation. For that is the cause whereby I believe this nation can be called again into the light, back onto the straight road that leads to the fulfillment of its better des­tiny. We are each and every one of us called to join in that cause. I think that’s why we were brought together tonight. We can go forth knowing that if we want God to bless America, then we shall be acting for justice and defense of innocent life and a willingness in our families and in our schools and in our communities and in our legislature and in our politics and in our media to stand everywhere—­no matter what the cost—for that truth which shall alone bring this nation truly back to life. That truth alone shall call our country out of the darkness that leads to judgment and into the light that shall lead us home.