Reagan on the reality of sin and evil—and what his message means for us today

We all know about President Reagan’s famous statement that Soviet Communism is the “focus of evil in the modern world,” which made liberals go mad with fury when he uttered it in a speech to an audience of evangelicals in 1983, known as the Evil Empire speech.

But just now for the first time, I came upon the full context of the remark. Reagan said:

There is sin and evil in the world. And we are enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might…. America has kept alight the torch of freedom … 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.

Soviet Communism is no more, and Ronald Reagan has gone to his reward. But as the Soviet Empire crumbled and died, two new evils were rising up to replace it, the evil of Islam, which, empowered by oil money and carried into the West by immigration, was reignited in its ancient program to subdue all mankind under sharia slavery; and the evil of Western left-liberalism, which, while bringing unheard-of sexual and expressive freedom to people, seeks to bring man under spiritual and statist slavery—and which, notwithstanding its apparent utter differences from Islam, cooperates with Islam to facilitate the increase of Islamic power in the West. So there are two foci of evil in our postmodern world. And we are enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus Christ to oppose them with all our might.

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Kilroy M. writes:

For what it’s worth, that brief comment is one of the best things I’ve read on this site for a long time. Very well analysed. Succinct, to the point, clear, and how very true.

Roberrt B. writes:

Other than sexuality, the left is not so far off from Islam on its statism. Iran’s “A’jad” made the anti-capitalism speech at the UN declaring capitalism “dead” and responsible for all of the world’s pain. Further, in his book, “The Grand Jihad,” Andrew McCarthy makes this same point. That is, that Islam is much more aligned with Communism than it is with a free market system, right down to property rights. Islam holds that all property belongs to Allah (the state) and humans only hold it in tenancy. Therefore, Allah may tax it as much as need be. History shows us that most Islamic countries aligned themselves with the Soviet empire during the Cold War—the exceptions being Iran under the Shah and the Saudis and some of their adjacent (more wealthy) neighbors.

Mercedes D. writes:

BRAVO to your comments on Reagan’s speech posted today.

Truer words were never said … I am forwarding that post to everyone I am trying to persuade to vote Conservative in November and 2012.

Keep up the excellent work!

Robert B. writes:

I like your analysis a lot too. You and Reagan are both right. We are at war with evil—which comes in many forms but is no longer recognized as such due to the dumbing down effect that PC has had on our society over the last 30 years.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 23, 2010 07:35 AM | Send