Dicta on Faith and Morality By Ronald W. Reagan
"KEEP THE FAITH!"
Collected by Rev. Dr. Gommar A. De Pauw
This collection of quotations was originally published in 1989 as a special issue of QUOTE...UNQUOTE–ISSN 1044-0518 under the title
DICTA
by
RONALD W. REAGAN
40th PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PCJ-61884 GOODBYE...WASHINTON – President Ronald Reagan, after 8 years in office, delivered his farewell address to the nation, Jan . 11. In the parting address, Reagan said that during his eight year term, “We meant to change a nation and instead we changed a world.:”
CREDIT: RNS PHOTO / Wide World (Reproduction rights not transferable) 1-13-89
Foreword
When on January 20, 1989, Ronald Reagan left the White House, an unprecedented popular U.S. Presidency, and the first two-term one in almost 30 years, came to an end.
Instead of adding our own page to the almost unanimously applauding editorials of that day, – Reagan's extra-ordinary 58 percent job approval rating was the highest of any U.S. President since World War II – we decided to let “the great communicator” speak for himself. And so we published a special issue of our information bulletin QUOTE…UNQUOTE, containing the 40th U.S . President's outstanding pronouncements on religious and moral topics, especially those which most news media had ignored as not “politically correct”.
President Reagan himself was, obviously most pleased with our decision, so pleased they the sent us a personal handwritten letter, thanking us for “the honor done to him”, an honor of which – with a humility almost unimaginable for the most powerful leader on earth – he considered himself perhaps the “undeserving” recipient.
Ever since the start of the year 2000, we have on several occasions, been urged to provide a “new millennium” edition of those same “Reagan dicta”. – Not only because these pronouncements have lost none of their timeliness, but even more so, because today's younger generation of these United States is unaware of them. And so it is that ,with these young men and women in mind, we herewith publish this dicta – collection under the title “KEEP THE FAITH”, the words spoken by Ronald Reagan upon entering the U.S . Capitol for his last presidential function, attending the inauguration of his successor, George Bush.
And even if the Scripture predicted destruction of today's worldwide Babylon, and the “in glory and power” take-over by the “King of Kings” were as near as some signs all around us seem to indicate, …even then, we are still appealing to the healthy and sane segment of our youth to find in this pamphlet the inspiration to make another, even if final, attempt to add a new glorious chapter to the annals of what we all – Americans by birth or by choice – at one time hailed as “the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave”.
It certainly would be more comfortable for America's young men and women to find themselves part of that minority of “chosen ones”, than to face the “rapturing” returning “King of Angels” as part of that “immoral majority” of their peers, whose cynical civic and religious indifferentism has by now irrevocably reduced them to “we're-having -a-good-time” tow-bit players in a repeat performance of what history has already classified as “the decline and fall of the Roman Empire”.
Good luck...and Godspeed, young America!...
And “Thank You!”, President Reagan!...
Father Gommar A. De Pauw, J.C.D.
Founder-President (1964)
Catholic Traditionalist Movement
Westbury, New York
Memorial Day 2000
“If My people, upon whom My name is called, shall humble themselves, and pray, and search for Me, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them from Heaven and forgive their sins, and heal their land.” – II Chronicles 7:14
Scripture passage in his late mother's Bible, upon which
President REAGAN took his oath of office. –Jan. 20, 1981
“We are a nation under God...Together with God's help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us.”
Inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1981
“If my remarks were a sermon, my text would be lines from the 126th Psalm: 'We were like those who dream. Now our mouth is filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad.' “
At White House ceremonies for returning American prisoners of war, Jan. 27, 1981
“You go in the hands of God and draw on the courage of life...May God bless you, and may God bring you home safely to us, again.”
From his hospital bed, wishing good luck to the Columbia
space shuttle astronauts, April 14, 1981.
“Like the shepherds and wise men of that first Christmas, we Americans have always tried to follow a higher light, a star, if you will...Through war and peace, the twin beacons of faith and freedom have brightened the American sky. At times our footsteps may have faltered, but trusting God's help we have never lost our way.”
Addressing the nation, Dec. 23, 1981.
“There is a great need for such a visit.” –
Finishing a private audience at the Vatican with an invitation
to Pope John Paul II to visit the United States again June 7, 1982.
“Inside the Holy Bible's pages – the greatest message ever written, God's Word – lie all the answers to all the problems that man has ever known.” –
Signing of the official document proclaiming 1983 as the Year
of the Bible, as requested by the U.S. Congress, Feb. 3, 1983.
“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 are enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might.” –
Addressing the National Association of Evangelicals
in Orlando, Florida, March 8, 1983.
“We have to keep in mind we are a nation under God, and if we ever forget that, we'll be just a nation under.” –
Addressing a group of high school valedictorians from the
Washington, D.C. Area, May 23, 1983.
“You know, I turn back to your ancient prophets in the Old Testament and the signs foretelling Armageddon, and I find myself wondering if–if we're the generation that is going to see that come about.-- I don't know if you've noted any of those prophecies lately, but, believe me, they certainly describe the times we're going through.” –
Phone conversation, Oct. 18, 1983, with Thomas Dine,
executive director of the American-Israel public Affairs
Committee, as quoted in the New York Daily News, Oct 30, 1983.
“The United States of America and the Holy See, in the desire to further promote the existing friendly relations, have decided by common agreement to establish diplomatic relations between them at the level of embassy on the part of the United States of America and nunciature on the part of the Holy See, as of today.” –
Official text of the statement simultaneously issued in Rome
by John Paul II's Secretariat of State and in Washington
by the Reagan administrations, Jan 10, 1984.
“From the poignancy of General Washington's legendary prayer in the snow at Valley Forge to the dangerous times in which we live today, our leaders and the people of this nation have called upon Divine Providence and trusted in God's wisdom to guide us through the challenges we have faced as a people and a nation.” ---
Proclaiming May 3, 1984 a National Day of Prayer, March 5, 1984.
“I think they must be well aware of why I have not been attending church, and frankly, I miss it very much. But I represent too much of a threat to too many other people for me to be able to go to church.” –
Providing the Associated Press with an answer to
Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill and others who had
criticized the President for giving religious speeches
but not attending church regularly, March 10, 1984.
“Only when the fellowship of all men under the fatherhood of God, recognized and acknowledged, only then will the world finally know true peace and understanding...Far more can be accomplished by the simple prayers of good people than by all the statesmen or armies of the world.”--
Returning from a trip to Red China, after meeting
John Paul II in Fairbanks, Alaska, May 2, 1984.
“The 1984 election will decide the course this country takes for the rest of this century. This election offers the clearest choice in many years...The choices this year are not just between two different personalities, or between two political parties. They are between two different visions of the future, two fundamental different ways of governing...”--
At campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia. July 26, 1984.
“About abortion: Why do those who claim to represent the party of compassion feel no compassion whatsoever for the most helpless among us, the unborn? How can they parade down the street wearing compassion as if it were a cloak made of neon...and have no compassion for the most helpless of God's creatures?”--
At campaign rally in Hoboken, New Jersey, July 26, 1984.
“About Central America: Why do those who claim to represent the most enlightened thought on Central America refuse to listen to the testimony of Pope John Paul II who has said that the Sandanista government is oppressing the Catholic Church in Nicaragua? Why can't they come to grips with what is happening there? Why can't they admit that the Sandinistas are only totalitarian thugs squelching freedom in their country, including freedom of religion? We—the Reagan administration—are rather more inclined to listen to the testimony of the Pope than the claims of a Communist clique.”--
At campaign rally in Hoboken, New Jersey, July 26, 1984.
“About school prayer: How can the leadership of the other side, as they did last week, open each session of their great convention with an injunction to the Lord, and end each session with a prayer to God, and still insist on denying that right to a child in a public school?”--
At campaign rally in Hoboken, New Jersey, July 26, 1984.
“About tuition tax credits: Why do those who claim to represent the middle class take such high moral offense at the idea of giving the middle class a break?...Millions of average parents pay their full share of taxes to support public schools while choosing to send their children to parochial or other independent schools. Doesn't fairness dictate that they should have some help in carrying a double burden?”--
At campaign rally in Hoboken, New Jersey, July 26, 1984.
"Governments are passing things in the long history of the world, but faith and belief endure forever...You add to the religious and cultural life of our nation...Thank you for being what you are the backbone and the best.”--
Addressing a Catholic audience in Hoboken, New Jersey, July 26, 1984.
“We should answer the central question of public service: Why are we here? What do we believe in? For one thing, we are here to see that Government continues to serve the people and not the other way around. Yes Government should do all that is necessary but only that which is necessary.”--
Acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention,
in Dallas, Texas, Aug. 23, 1984.
“Another part of our future, the greatest challenge of all, is to reduce the risk of nuclear war by reducing the levels of nuclear arms...A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. For the sake of our children and the safety of this earth, we ask the Soviets, who have walked out of our negotiations, to join us in reducing and, yes, ridding the earth of this awful threat.”--
At convention rally in Dallas, Texas, Aug. 23, 1984.
“In the party of Lincoln there is no room for intolerance and, not even a small corner, for anti-Semitism or bigotry of any kind. Many people are welcome in our house, but not the bigots.”--
At convention rally in Dallas, Texas, Aug. 23, 1984.
“Those who created our country, the founding fathers, and mothers, understood that there is a divine order which transcends the human order. They saw the state, in fact, as a form of moral order, and felt that the bedrock of moral order is religion.--The truth is, politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide...--The churches of America do not exist by the grace of the state...They exist apart. They have their own vantage point, their own authority...We established no religion in this country nor will we ever...But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings...If we ever forget that we're one nation under god, then we will be a nation gone under.”--
At prayer breakfast in Dallas, Texas, Aug. 23, 1984.
“The American sound is hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic-daring, decent and fair. That's our heritage, that's our song. We sing it still. – For all our problems, our differences, we are together as of old. – We raise our voices to the God Who is the Author of this most tender music. And may He continue to hold us close, as we fill the world with our sound, in unity, affection and love. – One people under God, dedicated to the dream of freedom that He has placed in the human heart, called upon now to pass that dream on to a waiting and hopeful world. – God bless you, and may God bless America” –
Closing words of the second inaugural address, Jan. 21, 1985.
“I think it is morally right to do what I am doing, and I am not going to change my mind...All those in the cemetery have long since met the Supreme Judge of right and wrong, and whatever punishment or justice was needed has been rendered by One Who is above us all.” –
To reporters, defending his scheduled May 5 visit to a
German military cemetery in Bitburg April 29, 1985.
“Liberalism erects walls to lock out God and keep Him away from our school children, but has trouble locking up drug pushers, thieves and murderers...The real walls of separation we need in this country, are prison walls that will keep criminals off the streets and away from our children.” –
Speaking on “Separation of Church and State.” in Crystal City, VA, Oct. 9, 1985.
“The nation will long feel the loss of her seven sons and daughters...We can find consolation only in faith, for we known in our hearts that you who flew so high and so proud now make your home beyond the stars, safe in God's promise of eternal life.”--
Mourning the space shuttle Challenger's astronauts, Jan . 28, 1986.
“We must remember that the Soviet Government is based upon and drawn from the Soviet Communist Party, an organization that remains formally pledged to subjecting the world to Communist domination...--Our greatest treasure has been that you, our children, have been able to grow up in prosperity and freedom...It falls to us now —as it soon shall fall to you—to preserve and strengthen the peace. Surely no man can have a greater goal than that of protecting the next generation against the destruction and pain of warfare that his own generation has known.” –
Addressing the graduation class at Glassboro, New Jersey High School, June 19, 1986.
“Our Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) is the most positive and promising defense program we have undertaken. It's the path, for both sides, to a safer future; a system that defends human life, instead of threatening it.”--
State of the Union Address to Congress, Jan. 27, 1987.
“We've created a welfare monster that is a shocking in-dictment of our sense of priorities. Our national welfare system consists of some 59 major programs and over 6,000 pages of federal laws and regulations on which some more than $132 billion was spent in 1985. – I will propose a new national welfare strategy, a program of welfare reform through state-sponsored community-based demonstration projects. This is the time to reform this out-moded dinosaur and finally break the poverty trap. – No, we will never abandon those who, through no fault of their own, must have our help. But let us work to see how many can be freed from the dependency on welfare and made self-supporting, which the great majority of welfare recipients want more than anything else.” –
State of the Union Address to Congress, Jan. 27, 1987.
“What you and your traditionalist “prayer regiment” on Long Island are doing is more important to this country than all that the politicians are doing here in Washington”. –
To Father Gommar A. De Pauw, in the White House Oval Office, March 12, 1987.
“We join with the Holy See in our concern for a world of peace where armaments are reduced and human rights respected; a world of justice and hope where each of God's creatures has the means and opportunity to develop to his or her full potential.”--
Formal remarks during a meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, June 6, 1987.
“The basic difference between East and West...is a question of values, of beliefs, of moral principles.--You can see it in a thousand ways. --How did the Soviets treat Germany and the German people after the war? How did the democracies?--How do the Soviets treat Third World nations like Afghanistan or Ethiopia today? How does the West? – What is the condition of Eastern Europe today? What is that of Western Europe? – Or take a simpler thing. What do the Soviets mean by words like democracy, freedom and peace?, I'm sorry to say, what we mean.-- Negotiations between East and West do not imply moral equivalency of our two systems or ways of life. We must never forget to say this publicly, and say it repeatedly.” –
Speaking over the voice of America to the citizens of the North Atlantic Alliance, on the eve of the NATO summit meeting in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 23, 1988.
“We know that to stop striving for the freedom of other nations could soon bring our freedom into question...Despite decades of suffering, the will to freedom is alive; it has survived its tormentors, it will outlast the communists. – And truly, I can think of no time in my adult life when the prospects for freedom were brighter than they are today. The free world is strong and confident. The communist idea is discredited and, around the world, new progressive forces are emerging as political change and liberation sweep the globe... And America shall light the path as the whole world climbs out of the dark abyss of tyranny to freedom...”--
During White House Rose Garden signing ceremony for Captive Nations Week Proclamation, July 13, 1988.
“We commemorate the many freedom fighters and individuals such as the Polish Father Jerzy Popieluszko...who have given their lives in the imperishable cause of liberty. We cannot and will not shrink our duty and responsibility to insist on the speediest end to subjugation, persecution, and discrimination in the captive nations...”--
Captive nations Week Proclamation, July 13, 1988.
“This morning my thoughts go to her who gave me many things in life, but whose most important gift was the knowledge of the happiness and solace to be gained in prayer. It's the greatest help I have had in my presidency...--I think of her and others like her in the small town in Illinois, gentle people who possessed something that those who hold positions of power sometimes forget to prize...I think they would have been a bit disappointed if I had not spoken here for what they knew so well: that when we grow weary of the world and its troubles, when our faith in humanity falters, it is then that we must seek comfort and refreshment of spirit, in a deeper source of wisdom, One greater than ourselves. – Thank you for you hospitality over the years. I bid you now farewell, and God bless you.”--
Farewell address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 26, 1988.
“I've spoken of America as the 'shining city upon a hill' all my political life...In my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind swept, God blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace...And as I walk off in to the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across American who for eight years did the work that brought America back: My friends, we've done our part. We did it. We weren't just marking time, we made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. – All in all, not bad...Not bad at all...And so, goodbye...God bless you...And God bless the United States of America.”--
Farewell address to the nation, Jan. 11, 1989.
“Our critics call themselves pro-choice, but have they ever stopped to think that the unborn never have a choice?...When 'Roe v. Wade' goes, as I have faith it must, the way of 'Dred Scott' and 'separate but equal,' a new debate will rise in the statehouses of our land. And the voice that I believe must be heard and, in the end, shall be heard over all the others is the voice of life.”--
Address to the Knights of Malta in New York, less than a week after the Supreme Court agreed to decide the constitutionality of a Missouri law intended to limit access to abortion, in spite of the Supreme Court 1973 landmark decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, declaring the right to abortion part of the constitutionally protected right to privacy.--Jan. 13, 1989.
“My prime weakness?...Well, that's difficult for me to assess..I known I have a soft heart...My prime strength?...Well, I don't know whether it's my strength or not, but I believe very much now in what Abraham Lincoln said in this job...He said he could not perform the duties of his position for fifteen minutes, if he did not know that he could call upon One Who is stronger and wiser than all others...I have come to understand this very, very well...”--
White House interview over the Cable News Network (CNN), Jan. 16, 1989.
“In just seven days I will lay down the mantle of this great office the American people have bestowed upon me...I won't leave the battle...As long as there is breath in me, I will fight for the principles in which I believe.”--
Addressing the Knights of Malta in New York, on his final trip
of his presidency, Jan. 13, 1989.
“I've always believed that the Lord put this great continent here for those people, wherever they may be in the world, who had a special love for freedom and courage to uproot themselves, leave family and friends, and come to this country to start a new life. And I still believe that this country should offer that.”
Last White House meeting with the press, Jan. 18, 1989.
“Keep the faith!”--
Entering the U.S. Capitol for his last presidential function. – attending the inauguration of his successor, – when asked by reporters for “some last words.” Jan. 20, 1989.
“I have unshakable faith in the power of prayer”. –
From a handwritten letter to Father Gommar A. De Pauw, February 9, 1989.
