Educate me. I was overseas stationed in Europe during most of the 80s and I don't remember hearing about any such thing.
But my sources of information were pretty thin then.
So what, exactly, did he do, other than to encourage the fall of the Soviet bloc. (If you'd like to call the fall of the Soviet bloc defending Christians, I can buy that. But your post alludes to something additional to that)
Are you talking about the support for the Polish "Solidarity" movement?
Reagan worked with Solidarity, Pope John Paul, Havel and many others to promote religious freedom. Reagan also convinced Gorbachev to allow religious freedom. From a review of “Reagan: the Life”:
“Not long after the handshake at the start of the Moscow summit, Reagan raised what he called a sensitive topic. It was so sensitive, he said, that if word he had mentioned it leaked to the press, he would deny it. It had to do with religious freedom.
Saying he was speaking as a friend, he asked Gorbachev, “What if you ruled that religious freedom was part of the people’s rights, that people of any religion — whether Islam with its mosque, the Jewish faith, Protestants or the Ukrainian church — could go to the church of their choice?â€
Religious freedom, besides being valuable on its merits, would make agreements with the United States much easier.
If Gorbachev would guarantee religious tolerance, Reagan said, attitudes in America toward the Soviet Union would change dramatically. “You will be a hero, and much of the feeling against your country will disappear like water in hot sun.â€
Reagan reiterated that he himself would never try to take credit for pushing Gorbachev to make the change. “If anyone in the room would say I had given such advice, I would say that person was lying.—