Thus the reason Fredheads helped bring down their candidate.
As my post above explains, their lukewarm at best encounters with anything remotely Christian didn't help. Sending out some unknown spokesman to tell about something that happened 30 years ago instead of dealing with this subject head-on was a disaster to say the least. Christians wanted to know if Fred was ashamed of them or not, is that so hard to fathom? Christians understand judging by fruits, and when even secular web sites offer big money to anyone that could produce a picture of Fred darkening the door of a church, and ANY church (with no takers), there was interest in the subject. Reagan could have pulled this off with charm, Fred could not, and it is a bitter pill to Fredheads to this day. Slipping on a barbed wire fence is not a fun place to be, lukewarm does get spewed at times.
Except many of them were Christians. So maybe your "anything remotely Christian" could be replaced by "cynical pandering to Christianity." You won't get that. Which will only further make my point. And you think it will make yours. Such is the way of worldviews.