February 6, Thursday, is President Ronald Reagan’s 92nd birthday. Reagan is suffering from Alzheimer’s and has not been seen in public for some time. But what a career this man had.
Ronald Reagan’s 92nd Birthday
By mere coincidence while searching for something on the Internet I came across the Reagan website and spent lots of time reviewing his life, movies, awards, favorite books, food, and music. When you admire someone you look for things you have in common and I found a few.
Some of his favorite foods are meat loaf and split pea soup, with which I can relate. His favorite Christmas song is “Silent Night” and John 3:16 his favorite scripture passage: “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son so that all who believe in Him may not perish but have life everlasting.”
Our Gift to Reagan on Display
Shortly before Reagan became President I sent him a birth year coin set, dated 1911. I had found a photograph of him as a baby and put this in a frame with the best 1911 coins I could find and wrote in the space under his name and birth date, “Who knows, mom, maybe some day Ron might be president, signed Dad Reagan.”
In his long career Reagan received more than half a million gifts but if you visit the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA, when you enter the display called The Young Years, you will see this small framed coin set on a tiny gold pedestal. I was floored when I saw it, and unless in reorganizing the displays they’ve removed it, you’ll still find it there. Out of curiosity I called the library and displays are all being reorganized, but it may still be in the new exhibit.
Reagan’s Genuine Concern for the Unborn
We met with president Reagan twice in the oval office and I still recall his genuine concern for the unborn despite his unfortunate support and signing of the California abortion bill when he was governor there. He had been convinced by his advisers that women would commit suicide if their pregnancies could not be terminated and so he signed a bill permitting abortion for mental causes.
He said he genuinely regretted having signed that bill after being pressured and lied to. It was hard not to believe he was sincere in his remorse. I believed him, especially after he wrote the powerful and accurate book “Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation.”
True, he did not do what he should have done as President and we never forgave him for appointing Sandra Day O’Connor to the high court. We picketed his arrival in Chicago shortly after he had made that huge mistake. But we pray for Reagan daily and ask our callers to do the same on his 92nd birthday Thursday.
George W. Bush Doesn’t Hide His Faith
When George W. Bush made it clear in his state of the union message last week that he believes in God he got a lot of flak from some die hard separation-of-church-and-state media moguls.
Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State called the religious content unprecedented. She said Bush seems to be on a religious crusade.
Bush talked about the wonder-working power in the goodness and faith of Americans, said that God does miracles in people’s lives, and called America a blessed country. He said that the liberty we prize is not America’s gift to the world but God’s gift to humanity, and that we place our confidence in the loving God behind all of life and all of history. May he guide us now.
Bush made it plain, according to Cathleen Falsani, that he is an Evangelical Christian with a personal relationship with Christ. Falsani also believes in separation of church and state, but says Bush’s religious language is refreshing. Faith in Christ should, she admits, pervade every part of a person’s life and will naturally come out in his words. She says Bush should be careful, though, not to go too far and make us all good and our enemies all bad. Whatever. America could sure use a little more of Christ’s teachings in its government.
Bush’s AIDS Program Disappointing
We were of course disappointed in the AIDS program Bush is pushing since it includes distribution of condoms. As we mentioned earlier, we have written some letters to the editors on the wrong notion that condoms will help stop AIDS, but we don’t expect the media to give the scientific evidence that condoms don’t prevent AIDS the time of day. We don’t think the secular press folks really much care if methods work, but only that lots of money is poured into the causes they espouse.
