03 Apr America’s 250th Birthday and Good Friday – Remembering the Faith of Ronald Reagan
On this Good Friday in the year marking the 250th Birthday of the United States of America, and instead of recounting the Easter story per se, consider the quote below from President Ronald Reagan.
It can be fashionable in the secular enclaves of 2026 to question Jesus’ life and teachings, especially among those who would ‘fundamentally transform’ the USA or, more accurately, who would destroy America by destroying her Judeo-Christian foundation.
Ronald Reagan didn’t question Jesus’ life and teachings. And Reagan as President showed uniquely powerful moral clarity and courage when he publicly proclaimed (largely against the wishes of his advisers and speechwriters) that the atheist Soviet Union was an ‘evil empire’ and that Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev ought to ‘tear down this wall!’ (referring to the Berlin wall separating East from West Germany).
Reagan did not attend a seminary and was not known as a Bible scholar. Yet he apparently had the grace and common sense and humility to see the divine authority of Jesus in a way that helped make Reagan into an extraordinarily powerful leader who led the defeat of the Soviet Union in the Cold War…without firing a shot.
Critics liked to refer to Reagan as ‘folksy’ as a kinder substitute for ‘stupid’ or ‘ignorant’.
Call this Reagan quote whatever you like, but it is not stupid. And it would do wonders for America if more Americans of all ages, and especially those not sure of their faith or of the reliability of Jesus’ teachings as a divine moral compass, gave it some serious thought:
I still can’t help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest miracle of all, which is recorded in history.
No one denies there was such a man, that he lived, and that he was put to death by crucifixion.
Where … is the miracle I spoke of?
Well, consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our own time — possibly to your own hometown.
A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father’s shop.
One day, he puts down his tools and walks out of his father’s shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside, walking from place to place, preaching all the while, even though he is not an ordained minister.
He never gets farther than an area perhaps 100 miles wide at the most.
He does this for three years. Then he is arrested, tried, and convicted. There is no court of appeal, so he is executed at age 33 along with two common thieves.
Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing — the only possessions he has.
His family cannot afford a burial place for him, so he is interred in a borrowed tomb.
End of story?
No, this uneducated, property-less young man has, for 2,000 years, had a greater effect on the world than all the rulers, kings, emperors, all the conquerors, generals, and admirals, all the scholars, scientists, and philosophers who have ever lived — all of them put together.
How do we explain that — unless He really was what He said He was?
(bold italics and underline, and paragraph breaks, added)
Happy Good Friday.
Eric Georgatos