Where was God in the Presidential debate? So asked Christian Today this week, and indeed, although God and faith have received some mention from both Trump and Clinton, religious dialogue has played almost no role in the presidential election.
For some this may seem insiginificant, and—since the US is technically a secular county—a good thing. But despite the Constitution's official separation of church and state, for better or for worse God has historically been a common focus in the White House, a unifying element for Presidents who would otherwise be opposed to one another.
No doubt, God has often been merely a bargaining chip or a vague symbol of piety, and such an approach is typified in Donald Trump and the lip-service he plays to secure the Evangelical vote.
However, if we gaze into the past we can glimpse a profound, though complex, faith which has inspired the offices of America's presidents. Beginning a new series as we run up to election day, here we look at the faith of a daring but divisive president: Ronald Reagan.
Ronald Reagan had a religious upbringing: he was the son of a Catholic father and fundamentalist mother, and grew up in the Disciples of Christ church in Dixon, Illinois. As Jeremy Lott writes, "Though Reagan grew away from his religious upbringing, he never repudiated it." Many religious themes - providence, good versus evil, religious liberty and a belief in the power of faith, hope and charity - were central to Reagan's presidency.
Fighting the Good Fight
Reagan is most famous for his crusade against Communism, which was inspired by a minister who warned him of the Communist threat, shaping American politics domestically and internationally for years to come. Reagan was afraid that ignoring this threat was akin to ignoring the evils of the Nazis - and he was determined to stand up and fight.
He declared the Soviet Union to be the "Evil Empire", a stance which defined his foreign policy. He famously called on Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!" [the Berlin Wall] and once joked: "I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." Reagan's antagonistic rhetoric led some to accuse him of nuclear sabre-rattling, and perhaps Reagan's aggression did generate more heat than light. However for Reagan, freedom was at stake. As biographer Paul Kengor writes: "[Communist Russia] was an atheistic empire, and what really appalled Reagan was you had these inherently religious, good Russian people who were being held captive to an ideology."
In Reagan's words: "To those who would crush religious freedom, our message is plain: You may jail your believers. You may close their churches, confiscate their Bibles, and harass their rabbis and priests, but you will never destroy the love of God and freedom that burns in their hearts. They will triumph over you."
Freedom not Fear
At the heart of his fight against communism was his belief in liberty. Freedom from government interference and freedom for the pursuit of the good. Again as Kengor writes: "He believed that God wanted people to be free...God intended for people to be free, and he believed in those inalienable rights that John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson described: life, liberty, and happiness. Reagan believed in that. God intended people to be free. Any intrusion on those basic freedoms was unbiblical."
In his inaugural address in 1981 he said, "[N]o arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."
Reagan believed that America was the land of the free, and though not a Christian country, and country where you were free to be Christian. At the heart of this was the providence of God which had made it so. As he said in one speech, "I've always believed that this blessed land was set apart in a special way, that some divine plan placed this great continent here...[for] people who had a special love for freedom and the courage to uproot themselves, leave their homeland and friends to come to a strange land. And, when coming here, they created something new in all the history of mankind—a country where man is not beholden to government, government is beholden to man."
Facing the future with the Bible
Reagan fought for traditional socially conservative issues such as anti-abortion legislation, and prayer in schools, but in probably his most overtly Christian move, he declared 1983 to be the Year of the Bible. He announced this in one particularly religious speech, printed here by Christianity Today. Addressing a gathering of Religious broadcasters, he said: "The American people are hungry for your message, because they're hungry for a spiritual revival in this land. When Americans reach out for values of faith, family, and caring for the needy, they're saying, "We want the word of God. We want to face the future with the Bible.''
For Reagan the Bible was not simply a cultural totem of conservative allegiance, but rather the word that had the power to bring hope and revival to a needy land.
He said famously: "I'm accused of being simplistic at times with some of the problems that confront us. But I've often wondered: Within the covers of that single Book are all the answers to all the problems that face us today, if we'd only look there...The Bible can touch our hearts, order our minds, refresh our souls."
Reagan's answer to the terror of Communist Russia was, in this speech at least, not some alternative regime, but the humble Rabbi to whom the Bible pointed. In his words: "Think of it: the most awesome military machine in history, but it is no match for that one, single man, hero, strong yet tender, Prince of Peace. His name alone, Jesus, can lift our hearts, soothe our sorrows, heal our wounds, and drive away our fears. He gave us love and forgiveness. He taught us truth and left us hope...With His message and with your conviction and commitment, we can still move mountains. We can work to reach our dreams and to make America a shining city on a hill."
