Posted on 07/04/2005 9:49:05 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Conservative radio talk show host Michael Reagan is a man with a mission. In his new book Twice Adopted, Reagan recounts his path through a painful and confused childhood to becoming a man of faith – a history he thinks can speak to many.
Reagan was adopted into a life of privilege shortly after his birth. This good fortune imposed a high cost on the young Reagan, however, including years spent at boarding schools, the divorce of his parents (“where two adults take everything that matters to a child, smash it up, leave it in ruins on the floor, then walk out and leave the child to clean up the mess”), sexual molestation, and the lost years of young adulthood when he tried to put the broken pieces back together.
Adoption and molestation figure prominently in the book because they figure prominently in Reagan's life. Adoption gives a child a second chance at life even though adopted children often have difficulty coming to terms with their adoption. Reagan is no exception. He was taunted by peers and secretly believed his adoption was a liability to his famous parents.
The molestation created even more conflict. When he was nine years old, young Reagan attended summer camp when a counselor he admired began to abuse him. It was a catastrophic betrayal that sent him into a spiral of anger, shame, and rebellion that would take years to sort through. The tale is told with an insightful candor that shows the grasp that abuse has on the soul of a child.
Reagan's childhood conflicts did not abate until adulthood when he encountered God through the love of his wife. “When I was once adopted, I was full of rage, shame, guilt and self-hatred. I didn't know who I was or where I belonged," he says. "My search ended when I was twice adopted. God is my father and I am his child.”
When Reagan confessed the abuse to his wife and found compassion instead of rejection, the door to healing creaked open. The antidote for any trauma to the soul is agape love, writes Reagan, by which he means the love that flows from God. God's love is an unconditional love capable of transforming the damaged places of the soul into wellsprings of compassion.
A mark of maturity is when a child realizes that his parents are fallible. A mark of wisdom is when a child forgives his parents for the mistakes they made. Reagan shows both. The gratitude he expresses for his birth mother Jane Wyman, for Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and for other persons who shaped his life despite their faults affirms a central Christian precept that rests deep in Reagan's heart: we must love others as God loves us.
Why did Reagan write the book? He believes that his rootless childhood and estrangement from his family are typical of many children today. “We are raising an entire generation of young people who look at the world the way I did when I was in my teens,” says Reagan. “They feel rootless and without a sense of belonging. Today divorce and family chaos are the norm. They live under a cloud of impending doom. Young people today are afraid of dying but even more afraid of living. Just as I was, today's young people are racing to nowhere.”
Reagan's conservatism is drawn from his early life mediated through his Christian faith as an adult. He is a cultural rather than ideological warrior:
"When I put away my excuses and took responsibility for my life, I was finally able to become a success in life. I don't have to read a book about child molestation because I know about it – I was molested. I don't have to research the effects of child pornography on children because I live with the memory. I don't have to do research on adoption, illegitimacy, divorce or the effect of broken homes on children because I have been there."
One danger when a person draws on his own life is that some experiences are better left untold. Reagan falls into this trap on occasion (we don't need or want to know how he lost his virginity, for example), but not enough to draw from the overall value of his story.
Reagan is not a theologian, preacher, or psychoanalyst, but just like his adoptive father, he knows how to communicate. This story isn't only about Michael Reagan, however – it's a story of how God worked in the life of one man through the love of others. Through Twice Adopted, Reagan passes the gift of his testimony on to others.
Char :)
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free"
-- Ronald Reagan
Thanks
Thanks very much, Happy. I appreciate this Ronald Reagan quote very much. It is superb. Totally, magnificently REAGAN!
Char :)
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