President Reagan's "Evil Empire" SpeechBy Patrick Mondout
Building on themes previously expressed most strongly in a
speech before the British Parliament, President Reagan refers to the
Soviet Union as the "Evil
Empire" - a term which will forever be linked with him - for the
first time in a speech.
It is important to recognize that this was not primarily a
foreign policy speech. Reagan spoke these words at the National
Association of Evangelicals Convention and the references to the
"Evil Empire" were allusions to his spiritual notions of there
being a battle between "good" and "evil" on earth.
Transcript
Reverend clergy all, Senator Hawkins, distinguished members of the
Florida congressional delegation, and all of you:
I can't tell you how you have warmed my heart with your welcome. I'm
delighted to be here today.
Those of you in the National Association of Evangelicals are known for
your spiritual and humanitarian work. And I would be especially remiss if
I didn't discharge right now one personal debt of gratitude. Thank you for
your prayers. 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.'' But I couldn't help but say to
that questioner after he'd asked the question that -- or at least say to
them that if sometimes when he was praying he got a busy signal, it was
just me in there ahead of him. [Laughter] I think I understand how Abraham
Lincoln felt when he said, "I have been driven many times to my knees
by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.''
From the joy and the good feeling of this conference, I go to a political
reception. [Laughter] Now, I don't know why, but that bit of scheduling
reminds me of a story -- [laughter] -- which I'll share with you.
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, many
servants, and told him that these would be his quarters.
And he couldn't help but ask, he said, "But wait, how -- 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.'' [Laughter]
But I don't want to contribute to a stereotype. [Laughter] So, 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. Its discovery
was the great triumph of our Founding Fathers, voiced by William Penn when
he said: "If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by
tyrants.'' Explaining the inalienable rights of men, Jefferson said,
"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.'' And it
was George Washington who said that "of all the dispositions and
habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are
indispensable supports.''
And finally, that shrewdest of all observers of American democracy, Alexis
de Tocqueville, put it eloquently after he had gone on a search for the
secret of America's greatness and genius -- and he said: "Not until I
went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with
righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America. .
. . America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will
cease to be great.''
Well, I'm pleased to be here today with you who are keeping America great
by keeping her good. Only through your work and prayers and those of
millions of others can we hope to survive this perilous century and keep
alive this experiment in liberty, this last, best hope of man.
I want you to know that this administration is motivated by a political
philosophy that sees the greatness of America in you, her people, and in
your families, churches, neighborhoods, communities -- the institutions
that foster and nourish values like concern for others and respect for the
rule of law under God.
Now, I don't have to tell you that this puts us in opposition to, or at
least out of step with, a prevailing attitude of many who have turned to a
modern-day secularism, discarding the tried and time-tested values upon
which our very civilization is based. No matter how well intentioned,
their value system is radically different from that of most Americans. And
while they proclaim that they're freeing us from superstitions of the
past, they've taken upon themselves the job of superintending us by
government rule and regulation. Sometimes their voices are louder than
ours, but they are not yet a majority.
An example of that vocal superiority is evident in a controversy now going
on in Washington. And since I'm involved, I've been waiting to hear from
the parents of young America. How far are they willing to go in giving to
government their prerogatives as parents?
Let me state the case as briefly and simply as I can. An organization of
citizens, sincerely motivated and deeply concerned about the increase in
illegitimate births and abortions involving girls well below the age of
consent, sometime ago established a nationwide network of clinics to offer
help to these girls and, hopefully, alleviate this situation. Now, again,
let me say, I do not fault their intent. However, in their
well-intentioned effort, these clinics have decided to provide advice and
birth control drugs and devices to underage girls without the knowledge of
their parents.
For some years now, the Federal Government has helped with funds to
subsidize these clinics. In providing for this, the Congress decreed that
every effort would be made to maximize parental participation.
Nevertheless, the drugs and devices are prescribed without getting
parental consent or giving notification after they've done so. Girls
termed "sexually active'' -- and that has replaced the word
"promiscuous'' -- are given this help in order to prevent
illegitimate birth or abortion.
Well, we have ordered clinics receiving Federal funds to notify the
parents such help has been given. One of the Nation's leading newspapers
has created the term "squeal rule'' in editorializing against us for
doing this, and we're being criticized for violating the privacy of young
people. A judge has recently granted an injunction against an enforcement
of our rule. I've watched TV panel shows discuss this issue, seen
columnists pontificating on our error, but no one seems to mention
morality as playing a part in the subject of sex.
Is all of Judeo-Christian tradition wrong? Are we to believe that
something so sacred can be looked upon as a purely physical thing with no
potential for emotional and psychological harm? And isn't it the parents'
right to give counsel and advice to keep their children from making
mistakes that may affect their entire lives?
Many of us in government would like to know what parents think about this
intrusion in their family by government. We're going to fight in the
courts. The right of parents and the rights of family take precedence over
those of Washington-based bureaucrats and social engineers.
But the fight against parental notification is really only one example of
many 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. When our Founding
Fathers passed the first amendment, they sought to protect churches from
government interference. They never intended to construct a wall of
hostility between government and the concept of religious belief itself.
The evidence of this permeates our history and our government. The
Declaration of Independence mentions the Supreme Being no less than four
times. "In God We Trust'' is engraved on our coinage. The Supreme
Court opens its proceedings with a religious invocation. And the Members
of Congress open their sessions with a prayer. I just happen to believe
the schoolchildren of the United States are entitled to the same
privileges as Supreme Court Justices and Congressmen.
Last year, I sent the Congress a constitutional amendment to restore
prayer to public schools. Already this session, there's growing bipartisan
support for the amendment, and I am calling on the Congress to act
speedily to pass it and to let our children pray.
Perhaps some of you read recently about the Lubbock school case, where a
judge actually ruled that it was unconstitutional for a school district to
give equal treatment to religious and nonreligious student groups, even
when the group meetings were being held during the students' own time. The
first amendment never intended to require government to discriminate
against religious speech.
Senators Denton and Hatfield have proposed legislation in the Congress on
the whole question of prohibiting discrimination against religious forms
of student speech. Such legislation could go far to restore freedom of
religious speech for public school students. And I hope the Congress
considers these bills quickly. And with your help, I think it's possible
we could also get the constitutional amendment through the Congress this
year.
More than a decade ago, a Supreme Court decision literally wiped off the
books of 50 States statutes protecting the rights of unborn children.
Abortion on demand now takes the lives of up to 1\1/2\ million unborn
children a year. Human life legislation ending this tragedy will some day
pass the Congress, and you and I must never rest until it does. Unless and
until it can be proven that the unborn child is not a living entity, then
its right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must be
protected.
You may remember that when abortion on demand began, many, and, indeed,
I'm sure many of you, warned that the practice would lead to a decline in
respect for human life, that the philosophical premises used to justify
abortion on demand would ultimately be used to justify other attacks on
the sacredness of human life -- infanticide or mercy killing. Tragically
enough, those warnings proved all too true. Only last year a court
permitted the death by starvation of a handicapped infant.
I have directed the Health and Human Services Department to make clear to
every health care facility in the United States that the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 protects all handicapped persons against discrimination based
on handicaps, including infants. And we have taken the further step of
requiring that each and every recipient of Federal funds who provides
health care services to infants must post and keep posted in a conspicuous
place a notice stating that "discriminatory failure to feed and care
for handicapped infants in this facility is prohibited by Federal law.''
It also lists a 24-hour, toll-free number so that nurses and others may
report violations in time to save the infant's life.
In addition, recent legislation introduced in the Congress by
Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois not only increases restrictions on
publicly financed abortions, it also addresses this whole problem of
infanticide. I urge the Congress to begin hearings and to adopt
legislation that will protect the right of life to all children, including
the disabled or handicapped.
Now, I'm sure that you must get discouraged at times, but you've done
better than you know, perhaps. There's a great spiritual awakening in
America, a renewal of the traditional values that have been the bedrock of
America's goodness and greatness.
One recent survey by a Washington-based research council concluded that
Americans were far more religious than the people of other nations; 95
percent of those surveyed expressed a belief in God and a huge majority
believed the Ten Commandments had real meaning in their lives. And another
study has found that an overwhelming majority of Americans disapprove of
adultery, teenage sex, pornography, abortion, and hard drugs. And this
same study showed a deep reverence for the importance of family ties and
religious belief.
I think the items that we've discussed here today must be a key part of
the Nation's political agenda. For the first time the Congress is openly
and seriously debating and dealing with the prayer and abortion issues --
and that's enormous progress right there. I repeat: America is in the
midst of a spiritual awakening and a moral renewal. And with your Biblical
keynote, I say today, "Yes, let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream.''
Now, obviously, much of this new political and social consensus I've
talked about is based on a positive view of American history, one that
takes pride in our country's accomplishments and record. But we must never
forget that no government schemes are going to perfect man. We know that
living in this world means dealing with what philosophers would call the
phenomenology of evil or, as theologians would put it, the doctrine of
sin.
There is sin and evil in the world, and we're enjoined by Scripture and
the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might. Our nation, too, has a
legacy of evil with which it must deal. The glory of this land has been
its capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past. For example,
the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights, once a source of
disunity and civil war, is now a point of pride for all Americans. We must
never go back. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms
of ethnic and racial hatred in this country.
I know that you've been horrified, as have I, by the resurgence of some
hate groups preaching bigotry and prejudice. Use the mighty voice of your
pulpits and the powerful standing of your churches to denounce and isolate
these hate groups in our midst. The commandment given us is clear and
simple: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.''
But whatever sad episodes exist in our past, any objective observer must
hold a positive view of American history, a history that has been the
story of hopes fulfilled and dreams made into reality. Especially in this
century, America has kept alight the torch of freedom, but not just for
ourselves but for millions of others around the world.
And this brings me to my final point today. During my first press
conference as President, in answer to a direct question, I pointed out
that, as good Marxist-Leninists, the Soviet leaders have openly and
publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is that which will
further their cause, which is world revolution. I think I should point out
I was only quoting Lenin, their guiding spirit, who said in 1920 that they
repudiate all morality that proceeds from supernatural ideas -- that's
their name for religion -- or ideas that are outside class conceptions.
Morality is entirely subordinate to the interests of class war. And
everything is moral that is necessary for the annihilation of the old,
exploiting social order and for uniting the proletariat.
Well, I think the refusal of many influential people to accept this
elementary fact of Soviet doctrine illustrates an historical reluctance to
see totalitarian powers for what they are. We saw this phenomenon in the
1930's. We see it too often today.
This doesn't mean we should isolate ourselves and refuse to seek an
understanding with them. I intend to do everything I can to persuade them
of our peaceful intent, to remind them that it was the West that refused
to use its nuclear monopoly in the forties and fifties for territorial
gain and which now proposes 50-percent cut in strategic ballistic missiles
and the elimination of an entire class of land-based, intermediate-range
nuclear missiles.
At the same time, however, they must be made to understand we will never
compromise our principles and standards. We will never give away our
freedom. We will never abandon our belief in God. And we will never stop
searching for a genuine peace. But we can assure none of these things
America stands for through the so-called nuclear freeze solutions proposed
by some.
The truth is that a freeze now would be a very dangerous fraud, for that
is merely the illusion of peace. The reality is that we must find peace
through strength.
I would agree to a freeze if only we could freeze the Soviets' global
desires. A freeze at current levels of weapons would remove any incentive
for the Soviets to negotiate seriously in Geneva and virtually end our
chances to achieve the major arms reductions which we have proposed.
Instead, they would achieve their objectives through the freeze.
A freeze would reward the Soviet Union for its enormous and unparalleled
military buildup. It would prevent the essential and long overdue
modernization of United States and allied defenses and would leave our
aging forces increasingly vulnerable. And an honest freeze would require
extensive prior negotiations on the systems and numbers to be limited and
on the measures to ensure effective verification and compliance. And the
kind of a freeze that has been suggested would be virtually impossible to
verify. Such a major effort would divert us completely from our current
negotiations on achieving substantial reductions.
A number of years ago, I heard a young father, a very prominent young man
in the entertainment world, addressing a tremendous gathering in
California. It was during the time of the cold war, and communism and our
own way of life were very much on people's minds. And he was speaking to
that subject. And suddenly, though, I heard him saying, "I love my
little girls more than anything -- -- '' And I said to myself, "Oh,
no, don't. You can't -- don't say that.'' But I had underestimated him. He
went on: "I would rather see my little girls die now, still believing
in God, than have them grow up under communism and one day die no longer
believing in God.''
There were thousands of young people in that audience. They came to their
feet with shouts of joy. They had instantly recognized the profound truth
in what he had said, with regard to the physical and the soul and what was
truly important.
Yes, 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 that while they preach the supremacy of
the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its
eventual domination of all peoples on the Earth, they are the focus of
evil in the modern world.
It was C. S. Lewis who, in his unforgettable "Screwtape Letters,''
wrote: "The greatest evil is not done now in those sordid `dens of
crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration
camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result. But it is
conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clear,
carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white
collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to
raise their voice.''
Well, because these "quiet men'' do not "raise their voices,''
because they sometimes speak in soothing tones of brotherhood and peace,
because, like other dictators before them, they're always making
"their final territorial demand,'' some would have us accept them at
their word and accommodate ourselves to their aggressive impulses. But if
history teaches anything, it teaches that simple-minded appeasement or
wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of
our past, the squandering of our freedom.
So, I urge you to speak out against those
who would place the United States in a position of military and moral
inferiority. You know, I've always believed that old Screwtape reserved
his best efforts for those of you in the church. So, in your discussions
of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of
pride -- the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and
label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the
aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race
a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle
between right and wrong and good and evil.
I ask you to resist the attempts of those who would have you withhold your
support for our efforts, this administration's efforts, to keep America
strong and free, while we negotiate real and verifiable reductions in the
world's nuclear arsenals and one day, with God's help, their total
elimination.
While America's military strength is important, let me add here that I've
always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never
be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real
crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral
will and faith.
Whittaker Chambers, the man whose own religious conversion made him a
witness to one of the terrible traumas of our time, the Hiss-Chambers
case, wrote that the crisis of the Western World exists to the degree in
which the West is indifferent to God, the degree to which it collaborates
in communism's attempt to make man stand alone without God. And then he
said, for Marxism-Leninism is actually the second oldest faith, first
proclaimed in the Garden of Eden with the words of temptation, "Ye
shall be as gods.''
The Western World can answer this challenge, he wrote, "but only
provided that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as
communism's faith in Man.''
I believe we shall rise to the challenge. I believe that communism is
another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now
are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in
the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it
knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who
would enslave their fellow man. For in the words of Isaiah: "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. . . .''
Yes, change your world. One of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine, said,
"We have it within our power to begin the world over again.'' We can
do it, doing together what no one church could do by itself.
God bless you, and thank you very much. |
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