The Right Rev. Ronald Reagan

By Hugh Sidey

The Presidency

High-power politicians and high-minded evangelicals have a fascination for each other that more often than not gets them both into trouble. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's constituency, but they do. Because they have such large followings, they find the temptation too great. Pols and preachers can't seem to stay away from each other.

So it was that the Right Rev. Ronald Reagan journeyed last week to the holy precincts of the 41st annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in made Fla. His fiery sermon mixed statecraft and religion. He made politicians from Moscow to Washington sore and brought the divinity-school crowd out of their paneled studies with flutters and shrieks.

Those who have heard the bellow and thump of the sawdust trail could recognize such artistry in Reagan's talk. It began with a St.-Peter-in-heaven joke (Reminds me of the story about the politician and the evangelical minister arriving together at heaven's gate) and then unfurled the flag: "Freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly sought and humbly accepted. Well, I am pleased to be here today with you who are keeping America great by keeping her good."

By then Reagan's audience could begin to see a halo glow faintly over his head and hear the rustle of feathers above. He warned against "modern-day secularism" and marched holier than thou into the forbidding swamps of abortion and teen-age sex. Reagan's righteous arm held high the Declaration of Independence ("mentions the Supreme Being no less than four times") and our coinage ("In God we trust").

In the distance the President could see that same "great spiritual awakening in America" that has been coming as long as preachers have preached.

Glowing with moral indignation, the Presi dent applied brimstone, aiming sulfurous blasts at the Soviet Union. "There is sin and evil in the world. And we are enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might . . . America has kept alight the torch of freedom . . . Let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness -- pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware they are the focus of evil in the modern world."

Whew! prayers were smoldering, eyes were moist, a first strike of prayers soared the the Kremlin. As the band played Onward, Christian Soldiers, the collected evangelicals leaped to their feet in awe, realizing that the state of their art had reached a new pinnacle. Of course, the fallout started minutes later, in the media.

Church to state still do not belong together. The Rev. Billy Graham used to pray with Lyndon Johnson during the Viet Nam War, making L.B.J. proud. But when Graham questioned the war, Johnson felt betrayed. Graham was right back in the White House praying with Richard Nixon, only to be shaken himself when himself revealed Nixon covering up crimes. Jimmy Carter, himself an amateur evangelist, had his worst days when he put his faith (and our future) in his goodness instead of the Sixth Fleet. But even he never mixed God and Government as baldly as Reagan did in Orlando.

Maybe the worst thing about Reagan's sermon was that all the trumpets and organ rolls obscured and discredited the truth in his message: the Soviet Union remains the free world's principal disturber of the peace.

But how we deal with the Soviets is not something that can be decided by self-anointed soldiers of God armed with unbending judgments about who and what are good and moral. Who is to say that we have a divine monopoly? At his last summit meeting, Leonid Brezhnev, his health failing badly, said a curious thing:

"God will not forgive us if we fail." So much for godless Communism. Comrade Brezhnev, it seemed, believed in the great Politburo in the sky. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.