Ronald Reagan
“Faith and religion play a critical role in the political life of our nation – and always have – and that the church – and by that I mean all churches, all denominations – have had a strong influence on the state.”
Ronald Reagan
Fortieth President of the Unites States
Ronald Reagan spoke eloquently and often about his faith in God and how He inspired him and the nation. In 1984, he wrote In God I Trust, a memoir of his life and faith. On March 8, 1983, he declared the following in an address to an evangelical convention:
I tell you there are a great many God-fearing, dedicated, noble men and women in public life, present company included. And yes, we need your help to keep us ever mindful of the ideas and the principles that brought us into the public arena in the first place. The basis of those ideals and principles is a commitment to freedom and personal liberty that, itself is grounded in the much deeper realization that freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly sought and humbly accepted. The American experiment in democracy rests on this insight.
THE RONALD REAGAN BUILDING
The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was deticated in 1998, it covers more than seven acres and houses nearly seven thousand federal employees, along with private sector, non-profit, and international trade organizations.
Outside the main entrance to the building is a statue called "Liberty of Worship." The figure is shown as leaning against the Ten Commandments, yet another allusion to the close tie between religion and liberty. The inscription on the statue states: "Our liberty of worship is not a concession nor a privilege but an inherent right."
THE FAITH OF RONALD REAGAN
It is especially appropriate that the "Liberty of Worship" statue is found outside a federal building named after Ronald Reagan. President Reagan saw religious liberty as an irreplaceable underpinning of our democratic freedoms. This theme can be seen in many of his speeches as president.
In a speech at Georgetown University on its bicentennial, Reagan commended the theme of the celebration: learning, faith, and freedom. "Each reinforces the others, each makes the others possible. For what are they without each other?" He asked the audience to pray that all of America be guided by learning, faith, and freedom. "De Tocqueville said it in 1835, and it's as true today as it was then: 'Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. Religion is more needed in democratic societies than in any other.”
As president, Reagan frequently invoked the words of George Washington, who said that religion and morality were "indispensable supports" to the prosperity of our political system. During a radio address in December 1983, he described one of his favorite paintings, which shows George Washington praying at Valley Forge. He said the painting "personified a people who knew it was not enough to depend on their own courage and goodness; they must also seek help from God, their Father and their Preserver."
At an ecumenical prayer breakfast in August 1984 in Dallas, Texas, Reagan said:
I believe that faith and religion play a critical role in the political life of our nation—and always have—and that the church—and by that I mean all churches, all denominations—has had a strong influence on the state.
And this has worked to our benefit as a nation. Those who created our country—the Founding Fathers and Mothers—understood that there is a divine order which transcends the human order. They saw the state, in fact, as a form of moral order and felt that the bedrock of moral order is religion.
Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
One of Reagan's most memorable speeches was delivered before the National Association of Evangelicals in March 1983. In it, he famously called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and promised "one day, with God's help" the world's nuclear arsenals would be totally eliminated.
In the same speech, Reagan attacked the government's "attempts to water down traditional values and even abrogate the original terms of American democracy. Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged."
He then closed the speech with scripture: "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increased strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary."
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