Alan Keyes Too Liberal?

Reading the writings of Christian reconstructionists can be an unsettling activity. Try this on for scary. Would you believe, someone who thinks that Alan Keyes, of all people, doesn't want to impose his religious faith on people enough? Yep, I found one - Andrew Sandlin, director of the National Reform Association, the Center for Cultural Leadership, and sometimes columnist for the Worldnutdaily. I've written about Sandlin before, as he is quite an interesting case. The man is capable, on the one hand, of writing a column saying that John Kerry should be ashamed of himself for his "despicable politics" in mentioning that Mary Cheney is a lesbian while, at the same time, advocating that homosexuals be put to death by stoning. You can't write irony any better than that.

So here he is in this article criticizing Alan Keyes, who is about as theocratic-minded as a sane person would think it is possible to be, isn't theocratic enough:

I suppose no member of the National Reform Association is unappreciative of Alan Keyes's repeated articulation of the necessity of the return to moral truth in the United States, nor his unremitting theme of the centrality of the family in that return, rather than, say economics or foreign affairs. Keyes has introduced this refreshing note into the Republicans' campaigns for President, a note most of his colleagues would do well to imitate. To his credit, Keyes is unafraid to declare his public dedication to the Christian Faith.

It would be grave error, however, to suppose that Keyes's campaign includes any assertion of the claims of Jesus Christ and his law-word in the political sphere. All to the contrary: Keyes opposed Patrick Buchanan precisely on the grounds that the pugnacious politician states or implies that politics is fundamentally a religious enterprise.

One thing is certain: Alan Keyes wants nothing to do with Christ's Lordship over the Nations. He wants nothing to do with a "cultural war." He wants nothing to do with what the National Reform Association wants to do. He states summarily, ". . . I believe that we cannot present our moral conservative convictions under a guise that divides the country. . . . We cannot do it in a way that suggests that we aim for religious domination, because none of us do. . . ." (Alan Keyes, "'The Heart of Healing,'" World, March 2, 1996, 24, 25)

Wow. If you're the kind of person who thinks that Alan Freaking Keyes is too much of a lukewarm liberal, you've entered that bizarro world occupied only by the likes of Torquemada and Osama Bin Laden. And these people not only live in the US, they are influential in some circles on the right. Frightening. Want more? Okay, look at this:

The secular press and politicians are professedly scared of a right-wing "takeover" of the United States and its cherished institutions. The "conservatives" are-horror of horrors!-becoming "political activists," perniciously imposing their "private" religion on the public arena. If the "rational moderates" do not energetically counter this "takeover" attempt, the coup will soon be complete.

These secular critics need to wake up and smell the coffee. The "takeover" was consummated 2000 years ago by Jesus Christ, our King of kings and Lord of lords. He assures us in his word that God has committed to him all authority in heaven and on earth, on the basis of which his followers are called to disciple the nations.

This, in fact, is what the NRA has been doing for 130 years. It is, in fact, what we will continue to do, by God's grace, until our victorious Lord returns in glory. It is, in fact, what may be expected to upset secularist pagans at war with God and his infallible word. They have had hegemony for a few decades, and they are afraid of losing their monopolistic stranglehold.

They should be afraid. They should be afraid specifically of the NRA. No, you can be sure we are not planning any armed revolutions. We rely on a more potent weaponry-the very inspired and infallible word of God; the inexorable operation of the Spirit of God; and the imperial reign of the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We are pressing for the revival of the recognition of the claims of the crown rights of King Jesus and of the eternal validity of his law-word. We are pressing for the re-involvement of Christians in the task of applying the word of God to all areas of life-especially the socio-political. In short, we are pressing for the return to Christian civilization.

A number of ostensibly Christian organizations are saying, "We just want to be heard. We don't want to impose our views on anybody. We just want a place at the table."

To which we NRA theocrats boldly respond, "In the name of King Jesus, we demand He be obeyed. We demand that His 'views' be imposed on everybody. We demand He owns the table."

We are confident that amid the modern din of Satanic secularism on the one hand, and compromising Christianity on the other, we must issue anew the clarion call of our NRA forefathers, that

The necessary aims of national life compel the nation, in its own proper sphere, as distinct from that of the church, to have regard to the moral laws of the Christian religion, and to base its action upon these or set itself against them. (David McAllister, Christian Civil Government [Pittsburgh: National Reform Association, sixth ed., 1927, p. 151.)

There can be no ambivalence. As a nation we must serve Christ and his law-word of divine authority or Satan and his competing word of human autonomy.

When you make the likes of Alan Keyes and Jerry Falwell look like secularists by comparison, you are just plain scary. You are the Christian equivalent of the Muslim radicals we are fighting overseas. And you must be stopped.