C_SPAN Announcement

08:01 pm

2:03

(est.) Debate

Organized Religion Debate

Franklin & Marshall College

Alan Keyes, Declaration Foundation

Alan Dershowitz, Harvard University

Debate

Organized Religion Debate

Franklin & Marshall College

Lancaster, Pennsylvania (United States)

ID: 159474 - 09/27/2000 - 2:03 - $24.95

Keyes, Alan, Founding Chair, Declaration Foundation (1998-)

Dershowitz, Alan, Professor, Harvard University, Law School (1988-)

Kneedler, Richard, President, Franklin & Marshall College (2000-)

Michalak, Stanley, Professor, Franklin & Marshall College (2000-)

In a structured debate, which featured opening statements, rebuttal, closing statements, and questions from the audience, Ambassador Keyes and Professor Dershowitz debated the question, "Does Organized Religion Have the Answers to 21st Century Problems?" Among the points of contention were the influence of religion on the founding fathers, the relation between religion and morality, the Bible as a source of moral guidance, and the role of religion in public discourse and politics. In often-heated debate in response to audience questions, participants addressed issues such as sexual orientation, civil rights, Christianity, and the role of government in making social policy.

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Commentary on the announced C_SPAN debate by Gary L. Morella

The above debate between Alan Keyes and Alan Dershowitz that occurred at Franklin & Marshall College in September of 2000 was rebroadcast on C-SPAN on Saturday, August 25, 2001 at 8:01 PM.

Anyone who is still capable of rational thought would have seen in the course of this debate verification that Dershowitz is a "wholly owned subsidiary of the radical left wing of the Democratic Party," which of late means the entirety of the Democratic party.

Keyes clearly showed, through the course of the debate, that the "Emperor had no clothes" in regard to the exposure of the hypocritical Marxist socialist totalitarian agenda of the liberal elite in this county whose modus operandi is to confuse "authentic freedom - to do what we ought" with "license - to do what we want." The hysterical demagogue that Dershowitz has become was evident in his diatribes of organized religion, which he claimed, wants to force a state religion on America, when he has the unmitigated gall to give unqualified support to the state religion of secular humanist amorality (a religion can be any belief system) at all costs that is being demanded by liberalism run amuck's number one hit man, the ACLU. Keyes made the clear distinction that he wasn't forcing anything on anybody, but rather was doing nothing but following the dictates of the Declaration of Independence to the letter. Keyes repeatedly told the audience that the difference between him and Dershowitz was that he advocated the rights of people to their religious beliefs, while Dershowitz demanded that they compromise them in no uncertain terms, e.g., Dershowitz actually had the unmitigated gall to encourage this college audience not to support the Boy Scouts of America because they had the courage to stand up for what's right, justly discriminating between right and wrong, in not allowing those celebrating sexual perversion as a civil right to be members.

I recommend watching this debate in total if C-SPAN ever reschedules it. It might be worthwhile to get a tape of it for educational purposes to show our impressionable youth the levels of insanity that are reachable by the supposed intellectuals at our institutions of higher learning whose social engineering agendas carry precedence over the inalienable rights that God gave mankind upon creation.

The shrill, screeching, intolerable tones of Dershowitz, who unmistakably proved that he tolerates the views of anyone with one exception, those who have the audacity to disagree with him, is in stark contrast to the rational, articulated presentation of Keyes who destroyed Dershowitz in this debate, a truth that should have been evident to all whose minds have not been turned to putrefied mush by the indoctrination masking as education that they are receiving at our colleges and universities. Keyes gave an excellent Christian witness to the culture-of-life over the culture-of-death, and is to be congratulated. He rightly showed that what Dershowitz was advocating wasn't freedom at all but rather another form of slavery to man's, erroneously conjectured by liberals, uncontrollable passions, which makes him indistinguishable from the animals.

In the atheistic world of Alan Dershowitz, of course, man has no soul, which makes him an animal unable to see that his demand for his unencumbered rights at all costs, given his allegiance to his own moral universe, is on a collision course with his neighbor's in the absence of universal, immutable moral norms. What Dershowitz's atheism leaves us with is anarchy as a result of its "nothingness", while Keyes' faith in God gives hope for the perfection of man in a metaphysical sense toward his final end intended by God at his creation.

Of course, the deck was stacked at Franklin & Marshall as illustrated by the closing remarks of someone who was associated with the name of this series of lectures/debates, who had the last word by reciting for the audience the same tired old liberal lies that Kennedy & Co. have been using as public policy to take away what remains of our freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution. Thus, the last thing that the audience at F&M heard was "what about concerns for a world population that will double very soon" with the contraceptive mentality that is driving this country to social, economic, and political ruin, let alone the spiritual consequences, clearly evident.

If you want to see something scary, check out Alan Dershowitz's performance at Franklin & Marshall. The prospect that individuals like Dershowitz are in prestigious teaching positions of great influence at our major universities ought to be a huge, sobering, wake-up call to all people of faith in America that they can no longer remain silent while the state subtly takes away what little rights they have left under the guise of perversity masking as diversity and multiculturalism.

A friend put this debate in perspective when he observed, “How interesting that a man who doesn't know what ‘right’ is (Dershowitz) seems to know exactly what's ‘right’ for you and me and will bring the full force of law down upon your head to enforce it.”