While I was off-line (now I understand why everyone whines about Blogger), I posted portions of this to the comments at
Archpundit:
It looks like Keyes is trying to say that the media put words in his mouth this time, too. See an interview
where Keyes says:
One fellow asked me, by the way, a question about whether or not I had actually said that Jesus Christ would not vote for Obama. OK?
. . .
And so, this fellow asked me, "Well does this mean that Jesus Christ wouldn't vote for Barack Obama?" and I had to allow as how I think, as a conscientious Christian, no, Christ would not vote for such a person.
And then they tried to get me to say, "Well, does that mean that Christ would vote for you?" and I said, look, that's not what I'm saying. You know, because I think that that's something that other people would have to judge, based on where I stand and how they feel in conscience about what I offer.
But that's just not true. Keyes invoked the name of Jesus first. In his
Tavis Smiley interview, he specifically mentioned Jesus (and Catholicism) completely uninvited:
SMILEY: Glad to have you on. Let me start with a question that I'm sure you have not been asked, and the question is simply this: is there anything in all these interviews that you have done that you have wanted somebody to ask you that you have not been asked?
KEYES: Actually, there is. I've been very curious about it, because Illinois is a state that, among other things, is heavily Roman Catholic, and no interviewer has asked me yet how I plan to get the Roman Catholic vote.
. . .
KEYES: I think I plan to get it by appealing to the clear conscience of Catholics, and Christians, as well, in general, because the stands I take on the issues are the stands that are in fact required by the moral conscience that is shaped by the precepts of Christianity. I think that that's a really important element of this election that everybody's overlooking.
...
I think that it behooves someone of the Christian faith to ask themselves, would Jesus allow Himself to be represented in that action? A matter of fact, we know He wouldn't, because we know that when we're thinking the way we're supposed to think, and we're asking ourselves, "What would Jesus do?" we know that Jesus would not let a helpless child die, simply because somebody else wanted to take its life.
