Reagan: The Life by H.W. Brands

Author:H.W. Brands [Brands, H.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780385536400
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-05-11T22:00:00+00:00

NOW AND THEN, however, Reagan spoke openly about religion. He had done so briefly at the Republican convention in 1980, and he did so at greater length in March 1983, when he traveled to Florida to address the annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals. Conservative Christians had become a pillar of Republican politics about the time southern Democrats became Sunbelt Republicans; a Republican fund-raiser featuring the president and including many of those in the audience was scheduled for the same hotel right after his address. Consequently, Reagan wasn’t surprised at the warm welcome he received. The ovation that greeted him went on and on; when it finally ended, he thanked the members of the audience not only for their applause on this afternoon but for the more potent support they offered on other occasions. “Thank you for your prayers,” he said. “Nancy and I have felt their presence many times in many ways. And believe me, for us they’ve made all the difference. The other day in the East Room of the White House at a meeting there, someone asked me whether I was aware of all the people out there who were praying for the President. And I had to say, ‘Yes, I am. I’ve felt it. I believe in intercessionary prayer.’ ” He practiced what he believed, he said. “I couldn’t help but say to that questioner after he’d asked the question that if sometimes when he was praying he got a busy signal, it was just me in there ahead of him.” Reagan’s audience laughed appreciatively.

He had another joke. “An evangelical minister and a politician arrived at heaven’s gate one day together. And St. Peter, after doing all the necessary formalities, took them in hand to show them where their quarters would be. And he took them to a small, single room with a bed, a chair, and a table and said this was for the clergyman. And the politician was a little worried about what might be in store for him. And he couldn’t believe it then when St. Peter stopped in front of a beautiful mansion with lovely grounds and many servants and told him that these would be his quarters. And he couldn’t help but ask, ‘But wait, there’s something wrong. How do I get this mansion while that good and holy man only gets a single room?’ And St. Peter said, ‘You have to understand how things are up here. We’ve got thousands and thousands of clergy. You’re the first politician who ever made it.’ ” Reagan’s listeners roared laughter and shouted approval.

Yet Reagan didn’t want the evangelicals to feel they and their religion had no place in politics. On the contrary, he asserted historic roots for the Christian religion in American politics and public life. He quoted William Penn: “If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants.” And Thomas Jefferson: “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” And

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