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America was forced to confront the Soviet Union’s nuclear arsenal back in the 1980s. Amid that conflict, President Reagan delivered a speech that rings true today.
“I urge you to be aware of 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 yourselves from the struggle of right and wrong, good and evil.”
That March 1983 address to the National Association of Evangelicals became known as the “Evil Empire” speech, and, as we watch events unfolding in Ukraine and at home, Reagan’s remarks guide us.
We see a direct correlation within our own borders, in our own country, of the decline in faith in the eternal principles that keep us free and safe. And with this decline, Americans are gradually, but decisively, choosing to abandon our freedoms.
In a survey published at the end of last year, Gallup reported that 69 percent of Americans self-identified as Christians in 2021 compared to 90 percent who self-identified as Christians in 1971.
In 2021, twenty-one percent of Americans said they have “no religion” compared to only 4 percent in 1971.
In 1965, 70 percent of Americans said religion was “very important” to them. By 2021 this was down to 49 percent.
Coincident with the decline of the importance that Americans give to religion, Americans now have turned over their lives increasingly to more government – government control.
In 1950, government at the federal, state, and local level took almost 23 percent of the American economy. In 2020, that reached almost 45 percent.
So let’s turn back again to what Reagan said.
Reagan said in that same speech, “We must never forget that no government schemes are going to perfect man.”
Our struggle, according to Reagan, is about good and evil.
It’s not an accident that as America retreats in this struggle, as Americans increasingly believe that government can perfect man, and as we relinquish our freedoms that despots like Putin will step forward and try to move the world back to a darker time.
We must not let that happen. We must regain as Americans our moral strength, our moral integrity, our moral character.
