Alan Keyes to America: God is Key to Understanding the U.S. Republic

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By Bradley Eli, M.Div., Ma.Th., Church Militant, October 8, 2018 

Doctor Alan Keyes is showing that the Founding Fathers fashioned the U.S. Republic as a godly nation and that God is key to understanding what America’s republic was meant to be.

Keyes is countering the militant atheists, who seek to separate God from government, by offering a series of daily reflections titled Alan Keyes to America. A former United Nations ambassador under President Ronald Reagan and a Church Militant contributor, Keyes looks at the United States through the divine lens of the Founding Fathers.

Church Militant is launching the series with some 20 episodes in which Dr. Keyes parses key phrases of the Declaration of Independence that include:

  • Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God

  • Endowed by their Creator

  • Unalienable rights

  • Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World

  • Firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence

Catholics often question what the Founding Fathers, who held a variety of views on Christianity, actually thought about God. In episode 6, Keyes notes that the Founding Fathers connect the “Laws of Nature” back to their proper source, which is “Nature’s God.” He laments the fact that many falsely believe that government gives citizens their fundamental rights and wrongly believe that government can take these rights away.

“These days, all of the folks who would like us to forget that our rights do not come from government want us to forget that they actually come from God,” Keyes said.

In the secular society of today, people give little thought to what has been commonly known as the “natural law.” They seem to believe that God is wholly unconcerned whether the actions of man corresponded with nature that He created.

These days, all of the folks who would like us to forget that our rights do not come from government want us to forget that they actually come from God.

What the Founding Fathers meant by “Nature’s God,” says Keyes, is “relatively easy to understand.” In episode 5, he recountsthat they were simply referring to, “the God who, as we will find out later in the Declaration, created nature.” We need to know that this is the God who built nature to operate in a certain way, says Keyes, because He judges man according to the manner in which he follows His divine plan.

“He, therefore,” governs us, says Keyes, “according to His rule, His laws.”

In breaking down the Declaration of Independence in his short daily reflections, some of the questions that Keyes tackles include:

  • Do man’s rights come from nature’s God?

  • Is the supreme judge interested in man’s moral actions?

  • How can a right be inalienable?

  • Does man have the right to do wrong?

  • Where does government get its authority?

  • When does man have the right to resist government?

In future episodes, Keyes, with his grasp of history, philosophy and political science, will be addressing:

  • What is meant by separation of Church and state?

  • Were the Founding Fathers so-called originalists?

  • What is meant by judicial activism?

  • Were the Founding Fathers socialists?

In his daily reflections, Keyes brings Americans back to simpler days when the common man had what’s called common sense and organized his life accordingly. Through these reflections, he hopes that man will find the keys to once again understand America as did those who founded it and, with that knowledge, reshape society so that Americans will ultimately have a more secure path to Heaven.

churchmilitant.com/news/article/dr.-alan-keyes-unlocks-the-declaration-of-independence