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Thank you (thank you thank you) for the ping, Jeff.

Michael Reagan, in the foreword to Mary Beth Brown’s book, ‘Hand of Providence: The Strong and Quiet Faith of Ronald Reagan,’ writes:

It is an inspiring story of how a seed of faith is planted in the life of a young man by a diligent and caring mother, how that faith blossomed and changed his life, and how, through him, that faith changed America and the entire world.

I teach the adult Sunday school class at our church on a rotating basis, so it works out that I teach the class (generally between forty and fifty adults) about every four to six weeks. The topic of one of my lessons maybe two years ago was 'Abortion: What is the Christian's Duty?'. For the first time since I have been a teacher, I decided not to center the lesson around interpretation and application of scripture. Instead, what I did for that particular class was simply read Reagan’s ‘Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation’ (I had purchased a hardcover copy from the Human Life Foundation back in the late 80s) to the class, and then open the class for discussion.

For the first time, I walked into class with no intention of opening the Bible. Ronald Reagan’s life is much more spiritually and scripturally inspired than is the life of anyone I, personally, have ever studied. So I felt that, in reading his words on such a controversial subject, we would be hearing and studying scripture through those words. (Shortly after the assassination attempt, Reagan confided in Terence Cardinal Cooke, ‘I have decided that whatever time I have left is for Him … whatever happens now I owe my life to God and will try to serve Him in every way I can.’ I believe Reagan’s life reflected that promise, long before he voiced it.)

That particular Sunday school class was probably the most insightful, participatory, enlightening, heart-rending class I have ever taught. Even people who generally remain quiet during the class opened up and took part in deep, spirited, personal discussion. And what served as the spark that animated even normally quiet, ‘passive’ members of that class to eagerly take part in the discussion was Reagan’s forthright, heartfelt, conscience-driven words. His simple, yet inspiring, prose struck an eternally ‘human’ chord in every person there.

In writing ‘Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation’, Reagan was blazing a new, and characteristically courageous, path. Even Time Magazine observed that ‘an essay by a recently sitting President is rare.’ And an essay by a recently sitting President (this essay was published toward the end of Reagan’s first term), written on such a controversial moral issue, is unheard of. But Reagan’s conscience led him to write it, as the foreword to the book says,’to respond to the dictates of his conscience and speak to the conscience of the nation.’

Thank you for posting it here, in its entirety!

The bound copy of Reagan's essay is appended by two very powerful essays: 'The Slide to Auschwitz', by C. Everett Koop, and 'The Humane Holocaust', by Malcolm Muggeridge. Muggeridge comments on Reagan [brackets are mine]:

On such vital moral issues as abortion, politicians tend to sit on the fence, hoping to pick up a few votes from both sides [witness Hillary Clinton’s recent abhorrent, self-serving, politically-motivated swing toward the pro-life cause]. Your President Reagan is the only example I’ve come across in half a century of knockabout journalism of a political leader ready to stand up without any reservations for the sanctity of life rather than for what passes for being the quality of life. All honour to him!

A brief, pertinent quote from Marvin Olasky in yesterday’s Federalist Patriot:

We have a license to kill unborn children (and young born ones) because they lack ‘higher mental capacities’ according to Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer. Hmmm ... Maybe T-ball players are useless because they lack higher baseball capacities. Maybe acorns are worthless because we can’t make oak furniture from them.

~ joanie