Reagan's religious beliefs

[Kidlicious]

I came across some information about Reagan's religious beliefs in a book I'm reading. It claims that Reagan believed that he was the president in the biblical end times, the USSR was the evil empire and the US would destroy them with nukes. I'm seeing sources for it online now. Is this true?

It would mean of course that he never actually planned to destroy communism himself, as republicans claimed, he just built all the nukes for that destruction.

Pat Robertson and most of the politically inclined dispensationalists speak about the Soviet Union in this vein. It is indicated that President Reagan shares this view also. James Mills of the California State Senate reported on 1971 conversations with the then Governor Reagan (San Diego Magazine, August 1985). Mr. Reagan referred to the Ezekiel prophecy, noting that "Gog, the nation that will lead all the other powers of darkness against Israel, will come out of the north. Biblical scholars have been saying for generations that Gog must be Russia." And since the only powerful nation on the north is "Russia," the question is settled. Earlier it did not make sense, said Mr. Reagan. "Now it does, now that Russia has become communistic and atheistic, now that Russia has set itself against God."

http://www.religion-online.org/showc...itle=406&C=148

[Dinner]

Reagan was a religious nut and Nancy (his second wife) was even worse with her astrologers.

[LordShiva]

[BeBMan]

Re: Reagan's religious beliefs

Originally posted by Kidicious
I came across some information about Reagan's religious beliefs in a book I'm reading. It claims that Reagan believed that he was the president in the biblical end times, the USSR was the evil empire and the US would destroy them with nukes. I'm seeing sources for it online now. Is this true?

These sources are telling lies. The USSR wasn't destroyed in a nuclear war.

[C0ckney]

I'm seeing sources for it online now. Is this true?

there are sources online! well in that case it must be true.

[jkp1187]

Re: Reagan's religious beliefs

Originally posted by Kidicious
I came across some information about Reagan's religious beliefs in a book I'm reading. It claims that Reagan believed that he was the president in the biblical end times, the USSR was the evil empire and the US would destroy them with nukes. I'm seeing sources for it online now. Is this true?

It would mean of course that he never actually planned to destroy communism himself, as republicans claimed, he just built all the nukes for that destruction.




http://www.religion-online.org/showc...itle=406&C=148

I find this source lacking credibility for three reasons.

Reagan, in fact, was very interested in nuclear disarmament, and came close to agreeing with Gorbachev to total US-USSR nuclear disarmament at Reykjavik. (See, for example, John Newhouse's book "War and Peace in the Nuclear Age" (companion book to the PBS series,) among others.)

The author of this work is relying on notoriously unreliable sources such as Falwell and Robertson, as well as some mere hearsay testimony from a conversation reportedly held in 1971.

Finally, I also find that the author -- "a former staff member of the Program Agency of the United Presbyterian Church and later Associate for Faith and Order in the Theology and Worship Ministry Unity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)--" has not presented any qualifications that indicate we should trust her historical analysis.

[Tuberski]

Who cares? Reagan's dead.

ACK!

[BeBMan]

Also there are gross errors in what you quoted in the op:

And since the only powerful nation on the north is "Russia,"

I'm sure they meant Finland

[Arrian]

Re: Re: Reagan's religious beliefs

Originally posted by jkp1187


I find this source lacking credibility for three reasons.

Reagan, in fact, was very interested in nuclear disarmament, and came close to agreeing with Gorbachev to total US-USSR nuclear disarmament at Reykjavik. (See, for example, John Newhouse's book "War and Peace in the Nuclear Age" (companion book to the PBS series,) among others.)

The author of this work is relying on notoriously unreliable sources such as Falwell and Robertson, as well as some mere hearsay testimony from a conversation reportedly held in 1971.

Finally, I also find that the author -- "a former staff member of the Program Agency of the United Presbyterian Church and later Associate for Faith and Order in the Theology and Worship Ministry Unity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)--" has not presented any qualifications that indicate we should trust her historical analysis.

The first point is enough. Reagan, whatever his faults, was anti-nukes. He did think the Soviet Union was evil, and he wasn't going to get rid of our nukes lightly, but he did work seriously with Gorby on the issue.

-Arrian

[SlowwHand]

Soviet Union was evil. No think to it.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Soviet Union was evil. No think to it.

I disagreed with Reagan on almost everything. But when he referred to the U.S.S.R. as an Evil Empire, he hit the nail on the head.

[chequita guevara]

Reagan was a dispensationalist. There was a big article about it in the Village Voice a couple decades ago. While we can't know for certain what Ronnie thought, or for that matter, if Ronnie though, but we do know that his co-religionists believed what Kid has written in the OP.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I disagreed with Reagan on almost everything. But when he referred to the U.S.S.R. as an Evil Empire, he hit the nail on the head.

So what does that make the U.S.?

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Soviet Union was evil. No think to it.

Then that means that all the think tanks we had were just... tanks.



Actually that makes a fair bit of sense, come to think of it.

[Dr Strangelove]

Reagan wanted nuclear disarmament because it became apparent that "Star Wars" wasn't going to work. That, and he had to cover up for the "We begin bombing at midnight" remark.