Ringing the Bell for a Generation’s Heritage of Freedom
By Gretchen Louise Glaser
The bell in the Scio Baptist Church bell tower rang 40 times on June 11, along with bells all across the nation, in honor of our fortieth president, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing, and it is never more than one generation away from extinction.” With his passing on June 5, he left a rich heritage of freedom to this generation. And while you don’t see it on the endangered species list, “freedom” should be listed at the very top. The erosion of our rights has been gradual enough to escape the notice of many. And now that America has lost one of freedom’s finest champions, it is now our job, as the next generation, to keep that freedom from going into extinction.
What were these freedoms President Ronald Reagan sought to protect? What was it about him that made President Reagan such a hero to this country? What inspired him to leave this heritage of freedom?
First of all, President Reagan believed firmly in God, and that America was one nation under God. He stated in 1984, “America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.” Ronald Reagan drew his inspiration from God. He asked, “Do we really think that we can have it both ways, that God will protect us in a time of crisis even as we turn away from Him in our day-to-day life?” And after a close encounter with death, he said, “Whatever days are left to me, they belong to Him.”
Out of his belief in God as the creator of all mankind, President Reagan drew his belief that abortion is equal to murder. In a lecture in 1982 he said, “God’s greatest gift is human life and we have a sacred duty to protect the innocent human life of an unborn child.” He told reporters, “The fact that they could not resolve the issue of when life begins was a finding in and of itself. If we don’t know, then shouldn’t we morally opt on the side of life? If you came upon an immobile body and you yourself could not determine whether it was dead or alive, I think that you would decide to consider it alive until somebody could prove it was dead. You wouldn’t get a shovel and start covering it up. And I think we should do the same thing with regard to abortion.”
What I will remember most about President Ronald Reagan is how he loved his wife. He described her as “the one who can make me lonely just by leaving the room.” He once wrote to his wife Nancy, “When I was young I thought marriage might be this way for a while: I never knew it could go on and on, getting better and better year after year.” In a generation lacking commitment to marriage, theirs is an incredible example of faithfulness to each other and their marriage. In the book I Love You, Ronnie, Mrs. Nancy Reagan wrote, “We’ve had an extraordinary life, and I’ve been blessed to have been married for almost fifty years to a man I deeply love… Alzheimer’s is a truly long, long good-bye. But it’s the living out of love.”
It was that love, that respect for human life, and that faith in God which made President Ronald Wilson Reagan the great man he was. And that is the heritage we are left with in this generation. Will we let it slip away? Will we let marriage be redefined, let abortion become even more prevalent, and let God be taken out of our schools? Or will we fight the good fight to protect our freedoms from extinction? Let us endeavor to do as Ronald Reagan did, and preserve the freedom we love for the next generation.
Published in the Scio Community News, July 8, 2004, Vol. 20, No. 28
By Gretchen Louise Glaser
The bell in the Scio Baptist Church bell tower rang 40 times on June 11, along with bells all across the nation, in honor of our fortieth president, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing, and it is never more than one generation away from extinction.” With his passing on June 5, he left a rich heritage of freedom to this generation. And while you don’t see it on the endangered species list, “freedom” should be listed at the very top. The erosion of our rights has been gradual enough to escape the notice of many. And now that America has lost one of freedom’s finest champions, it is now our job, as the next generation, to keep that freedom from going into extinction.
What were these freedoms President Ronald Reagan sought to protect? What was it about him that made President Reagan such a hero to this country? What inspired him to leave this heritage of freedom?
First of all, President Reagan believed firmly in God, and that America was one nation under God. He stated in 1984, “America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.” Ronald Reagan drew his inspiration from God. He asked, “Do we really think that we can have it both ways, that God will protect us in a time of crisis even as we turn away from Him in our day-to-day life?” And after a close encounter with death, he said, “Whatever days are left to me, they belong to Him.”
Out of his belief in God as the creator of all mankind, President Reagan drew his belief that abortion is equal to murder. In a lecture in 1982 he said, “God’s greatest gift is human life and we have a sacred duty to protect the innocent human life of an unborn child.” He told reporters, “The fact that they could not resolve the issue of when life begins was a finding in and of itself. If we don’t know, then shouldn’t we morally opt on the side of life? If you came upon an immobile body and you yourself could not determine whether it was dead or alive, I think that you would decide to consider it alive until somebody could prove it was dead. You wouldn’t get a shovel and start covering it up. And I think we should do the same thing with regard to abortion.”
What I will remember most about President Ronald Reagan is how he loved his wife. He described her as “the one who can make me lonely just by leaving the room.” He once wrote to his wife Nancy, “When I was young I thought marriage might be this way for a while: I never knew it could go on and on, getting better and better year after year.” In a generation lacking commitment to marriage, theirs is an incredible example of faithfulness to each other and their marriage. In the book I Love You, Ronnie, Mrs. Nancy Reagan wrote, “We’ve had an extraordinary life, and I’ve been blessed to have been married for almost fifty years to a man I deeply love… Alzheimer’s is a truly long, long good-bye. But it’s the living out of love.”
It was that love, that respect for human life, and that faith in God which made President Ronald Wilson Reagan the great man he was. And that is the heritage we are left with in this generation. Will we let it slip away? Will we let marriage be redefined, let abortion become even more prevalent, and let God be taken out of our schools? Or will we fight the good fight to protect our freedoms from extinction? Let us endeavor to do as Ronald Reagan did, and preserve the freedom we love for the next generation.
Published in the Scio Community News, July 8, 2004, Vol. 20, No. 28
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