Said American democracy’s future rests not primarily on economic or military strength, ‘but on a moral and religious people’
By Andrew Fowler, Real Clear Wire
Ronald Reagan is remembered for many great speeches — from A Time for Choosing to his address at the Berlin Wall. In those moments, he spoke to the defining crisis of the generation: the struggle between American democracy and liberty and the Soviet Union’s “Evil Empire.”
Yet a lesser-known speech Reagan delivered at the centennial celebration of the Knights of Columbus (KofC) — the world’s largest Catholic fraternal organization — on Aug. 3, 1982, in Hartford, Conn., speaks powerfully to today’s moral conflict: that the preservation of American democracy rests not primarily on economic or military strength, but on a moral and religious people.
Reagan had familial ties to the KofC. His father Jack, who was Catholic, had been a Knight. The president, on the other hand, grew up in the Disciples of Christ and later attended Presbyterian services as a “born-again” Christian. As such, faith and prayer formed the pillars of his conservative values, which were woven throughout many of his addresses. The Aug. 3 speech was no exception; nevertheless, his remarks that day coalesced the intrinsic connection between freedom, limited government, and man’s inherent dignity.