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“RONALD REAGAN THE CHRISTIAN”
Tina Krause
Award of Outstanding Merit - $1,000

Tina Krause is a newspaper columnist, freelance writer, author and speaker. Since 1990 over 750 of her columns, editorials, magazine articles and feature stories have appeared in numerous publications and periodicals including Decision and The Christian Woman. Currently she is working on her second book, “Shrink-wrap the Moment.” Tina has won over 40 state and national journalism awards. She is the mother of two grown sons and “nana” to her two precious grandsons. She and her husband Jim reside in Valparaiso, IN.

He was a man of many names: President of the United States, the Great Communicator, a liberator of Eastern Europe and the Cold War, an optimist, a patriot, the “Gipper.” Vice President Dick Cheney called him “a providential man who came along just when our nation and the world most needed him.”

Ronald Reagan had many titles, but the most significant name he carried was that he was a Christian. For in that name originated the roots from which the robust oak of a man – with a steady stride and a glint in his eye – branched and bloomed into an American legacy.

At the ecumenical funeral service in Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush said of Reagan: “He believed that everything happens for a reason, and to know and to do the will of God...Where did his faith come from? The faith of a boy reading the Bible with his Mother, the faith of a man in a hospital room praying for the man who shot him rather than praying for himself...In his last years he saw through a glass darkly, now he sees his Savior face to face.”

Ronald Reagan walked the talk. Having survived a bullet to the chest 70 days into his Presidency, he knew that he was “spared for a purpose.” He expressed his faith throughout his White House years, yet never in a preachy manner. He blended kindness and gentleness with strength of conviction – the attributes to which we all aspire.

In 1994 Reagan wrote a letter to the nation, disclosing his Alzheimer’s. He said, “When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright new dawn ahead.”

His earthly journey ended a few weeks ago, indeed years ago his mind faded into the sunset before his body followed. Yet because this man of many titles held Christ in his heart, Ronald Reagan lives on – his body now glorified, his mind perfectly restored.

The president’s son, Michael Reagan, expressed it this way in a final tribute to his dad: “Today as I joined my family at the memorial services in the Capitol Rotunda, I felt grief at my father’s passing. But as I stood over the casket and kissed my Dad goodbye, I was comforted in knowing he is in heaven. The greatest gift he has given me was the knowledge that at 1 o’clock that Saturday afternoon when he closed his eyes for the last time, he went to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that I would see him in heaven one day.”

The former president often reminded the nation that America’s role should be that of “a shining city upon a hill.” His metaphor paralleled Jesus’ words: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden...In the same way, let your light shine before men...” (Matthew 5:14-16 NIV).

As I watched the president’s beloved Nancy, with aging, frail hands, stroke the flag-covered casket of her husband, I grieved for her and whispered a prayer. I prayed that in her loss she would find comfort in knowing that her husband no longer envisions the shining city on a hill. He resides there.

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