https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/reagan-evil-empire/
During the Cold War there were three years that stand out - periods in which tension was high and the world stood on the brink of nuclear conflagration. 1962 easily ranks first with the Cuban Missile Crisis. 1973 usually ranks second in connection to the Yom Kippur War and the US raising of the DefCon alert to an elevated '3' - signalling preparations for potential war. The DefCon was not raised by the Americans in 1983, but Moscow was on high alert and many consider it to be one of the most tense periods of the Cold War.
Reagan had ordered Pershing missiles to be sent to Europe - intermediate range nuclear weapons that if launched from Germany or the UK could hit Soviet targets in under 10 minutes. This spawned protests both in Europe and the USA and many of us will recall the shadow of nuclear war and dystopian despair that hung over many of the pop songs and movies of the period.
Reagan also ordered the Star Wars programme which was certain to create an arms race as the Soviets would have to deploy greater numbers of weapons in order to overwhelm such a system. Moscow viewed these developments as very threatening.
Many Soviet leaders believed that Reagan was likely to launch a First Strike - his rhetoric indicated his willingness to do so. These tensions were further exacerbated by the NATO Able Archer exercises in the fall of 1983 which simulated nuclear war. Soviet leaders feared this was a cover for an actual attack. Driven by fear and the need for caution, the Soviets mobilised in response and some believe this moment was the closest the two powers came to nuclear war since the Cuba crisis of 1962.
In September of 1983, the Soviets shot down KAL 007 near Sakhalin. The US certainly rattled the war sabre as a result - and covered up their intelligence operations and repeated attempts to test and penetrate Soviet radar and defenses in that contested region. That in itself is a pretty fascinating story. This is not to defend the Soviet shoot-down, but to say a little context is needed when considering the tragic event. There's a reason the Soviet forces were on a knife-edge. The US response was all rage and aggression - I remember it well.
These final tense moments connected to KAL 007 and Able Archer occurred in the fall of 1983 but they were exacerbated by the already mentioned arms build-up, Star Wars programme, and the question of Pershing missiles. But another event also needs to be considered to understand the context - Reagan's speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in March of the same year, the so-called Evil Empire speech. It helped to set the stage and tone for the events which followed over the course of the year. It certainly added fuel to an already burning fire. By casting the USSR as 'evil', Reagan indicated (perhaps without meaning to) that there was little point in negotiation or an attempt at coexistence. Detente had ended in 1979 when the Carter administration armed the mujahideen and lured the Soviets into invading Afghanistan in order to give the Russians their Vietnam - as National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski put it. And Reagan had made it very clear that he found a modus vivendi based on Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) to be morally unacceptable. What was Moscow to think? In 1983, it looked like the US wanted war and was preparing for it.
Evangelicals praised the speech and as the Gospel Coalition article indicates - over 40 years later they're still praising it. This is in conjunction with a little Reagan revival that's taking place right, a supplement to the farcical Dennis Quaid movie that was released in 2024 - twenty years after his death.
In 1988 Reagan would repudiate his speech while standing in Red Square. He refused to repeat his evil empire statement in that context - as if anything fundamental had changed in the Soviet Union. It had liberalised under Gorbachev but retained the ideology.
Of course there is an absurdity to the speech that few American Evangelicals will dare to consider. After allying with the USSR in World War II, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Japan, manipulated countless elections across the globe, conducted what was probably the most extensive bombing campaigns in history on the Korean peninsula and in Indochina. The US has sponsored coups throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America leading to millions of dead in the form of civil wars and terror campaigns. It has armed paramilitary forces, allied with terrorists, crushed and exploited economies, assassinated leaders, installed dictators, and with these client states committed genocides. The crimes of the United States are only exceeded by a handful of nations such as the USSR, the People's Republic of China, and Nazi Germany. While some Americans find solace in the fact that some nations are (by common reckoning) 'worse', this is hardly a record to be proud of. The US can hardly claim some kind of moral high ground. Much more could be said about its long legacy of domestic massacres, slavery, apartheid, evil medical experiments, cover-ups and more.
In terms of rank hypocrisy it's hard to find any nation that can compete with the American Empire and its absurd narratives regarding the rule of law, the ''rules based order', freedom, and democracy. These claims are absolutely farcical. The US has long been a plutocratic oligarchy and empire but by keeping its populace fed, distracted, and brainwashed, few Americans know the truth, are curious about it, or are even willing to entertain the question of its true nature.
As I've long argued, the Soviet-type system engaged in systematic propaganda and censorship but the populace didn't trust the state and always looked elsewhere for information and answers. If a book was banned, the people wanted to read it. The system made them curious. In the United States, library shelves are filled with books that if read and understood would lead people to march and would result in blood in the streets - but it doesn't matter because no one reads them and no one cares. At the end of the day most Americans believe in the system and don't really care how many nations have to be destroyed and how many millions have to die in order for them to retain their standard of living and cheap prices. They shrug their shoulders and look away. It is obscene and evil - and for Reagan to denounce the USSR as 'the focus of evil in the modern world' is ridiculous - even the height of absurdity. His denunciation of those who dare to charge that both nations were at fault for the Cold War strikes the student of history as not only laughable and outrageous but a clear case of delusional mendacity - which lives on it would seem.
And so 42 years later it is distressing to read a pastor (of all people) state that 'the United States is unique in its founding' - agreeing with the mythology Reagan sought to present regarding the United States.
Additionally Reagan was a long-time ally of those who had promoted racism and segregation in the United States and he as governor of California had proven quite the libertine when it came to issues like abortion and divorce. As many historians have argued, he was playing to his audience and like all politicians could play the chameleon game as needed. Decades later he still holds a large mass of people under his spell.
Additionally during the 1970's and 1980's the ranks of the GOP were being filled with former Southern Democrats who fled the party after Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights and voting legislation in the 1960's. These old segregationists like Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, and many others became the backbone of Reagan's party and key allies.
While all Christians must reject Marxism and in particular the totalitarianism of Stalin, Bateman's argument rings hollow in light of US crimes and atrocities. The truth is capitalism's hands are also dripping with blood. Markets must be found and opened - by force if necessary. Efficiency and profit are put over people and nations who resist must be crushed. War is utilized to destroy opposition and it also becomes an economic engine in its own right. No one can really doubt the evil of the Soviet system - particularly under the likes of Stalin, but this blindness regarding capitalism and in particular the United States does not represent the application of Christian thinking - but wilful blindness, idolatry and frankly, judgment.
American Evangelicals celebrate prosperity and believe their wealth is a sign of God's blessing. On the contrary they glory in their shame and worldly compromise. They fail to see that their moral compass is not just astray but shattered. Having given themselves over to idolatry and mammonism it is clear to this author that many of their consciences are in fact seared. Their decadence testifies to the rotten state of their hearts and souls.
Capitalism cheapens life, and in its utilitarian approach to ethics, it confuses good with evil. In the capitalist West, the press is owned by big business and it represents its interests. The state serves Wall Street and promotes its interests abroad. Wall Street likewise is heavily invested in the state and in particular the Pentagon. The relationship is symbiotic and pure evil. The fact that Christians participate in this evil, invest in it, and profit from it is nothing less than satanic.
And capitalism doesn't need to control religion - it seduces it. The Church flourishes under hostile systems but under the aegis of capitalism and liberal democracy the Church is compromised and loses its way. In the end, it's far more dangerous and soul-destroying - though the worldly wisdom that dominates the Church cannot understand this.
The rejection of moral equivalence is also rooted in the myth of American Exceptionalism - the idea that America is unique and cannot be judged by the standards of other nations. When individuals think and act this way they're called sociopaths and the prisons are filled with these people. When Christians embrace this notion and apply Exceptionalism in Christian terms to the United States it becomes a heresy and a negation of New Testament ethics. The US functionally becomes a substitute (and counterfeit) expression of the Heavenly Kingdom.
There are no Biblical principles to be found in the Enlightenment Liberalism of the American Founders and its blood-soaked rebellion. The regime of rights, democracy, social contract, and revolution are not Biblical concepts but ones born out of the epistemological crisis that emerged with the demise of Christendom in the 17th and 18th centuries. Bateman is promoting a mythology every bit as anti-Christian as the ideology of Marx.
'Where would your rather live?' has nothing to do with it. Undoubtedly had Assyria and Rome been contemporaneous, people would have preferred to live within the borders of the Roman Empire. But in the visions of Daniel and Revelation, Rome is the most terrible beast of all - one that exceeds Babylon, Persia, and the Hellenistic empires. Bateman is thinking like the world, like an American - not like a Christian.
Don't misunderstand me. In no way do I wish to defend or promote the Soviet Union. Far from it. But just because it was evil - it does not follow that the USA is good. Or to put it another way, just because I would prefer to live in the United States over the DPRK, it does not mean that the US is somehow therefore 'good' or virtuous. It's simply a lesser evil.
Bateman's fifth point (Pray for Peace, Prepare for War) is nothing short of disgusting. Christian prayer and expectations are to be buttressed with militarism and threat of violence and war? Given America's record over the course of the 20th and 21st century this is particularly chilling and offensive. Militarism begets militarism. It is astonishing how the lessons of history are not learned and thus are repeated over and over again.
And Bateman's commentary and application to today's situation is just as skewed and misguided. Abortion is murder but the political machinations of a corrupt political apparatus and its Evangelical allies are nothing to celebrate. But Bateman clearly embraces the chief ethical axiom of both capitalism and post-war American Evangelicalism - the end justifies the means. Consequentialist Ethics and Social Darwinism dominate the Christian Right and its approach to politics and economics. I can only shake my head.
He clearly does not understand the events and fallout from the post-Cold War period as his comments regarding Russia make all too clear. It's too much to address here, but such thinking reminds me of those who seem to think the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 exists in a vacuum. They treat the incident sui generis, as if the previous seventy-five years of history and Israeli brutality weren't somehow connected to those events.
Is the Russian Orthodox Church disgusting, corrupt, and apostate? Certainly, but American Evangelicals need look no further than the mirror. They play the same role in supporting the American Empire - which after 1991 and 2001 has sought to dominate the globe and has played the critical role in fomenting the crises throughout the Middle East and in Ukraine - resulting in wars, spin-off wars, and well over a million dead. And while Kirill's statements are indeed odious, it is very common to find American Evangelicals treat US soldiers as martyrs automatically admitted into the glories of heaven - often blasphemously comparing their bloodshed with that of Christ. One need only think back to America's wars - especially in Afghanistan and Iraq to recall many instances in which the wars were treated as all but holy endeavours and the Christians involved in the invasion were engaged in a sanctified task.
Bateman also ignores much of what is going on in contemporary Ukrainian society and one cannot help but wonder how much in recent years Ukrainian Evangelical perceptions of Christianity are wed to Americanism and its bankrupt liberal ideology - a sphere of thought and ethics that encompasses both parties. It's certainly the case in many parts of the world. Putin is an enemy of the gospel to be sure and much could be said about Russian intellectual influences and ideology that have emerged since 1991, but at the same time Western-connected Evangelicalism has proven to be politicised and invariably corrupt. This reality does not excuse Putin's actions but a little context is needed. Now where Putin must absolutely be condemned is when it comes to a group like the Watchtower which (though heretical) has no political aspirations. They are viewed as a sect and that designation is one that American Christians would do well to revisit and consider because most are also hostile to the idea and the reality that the New Testament expectation is not a Church of wealth, status, and power (the Evangelical ideal) but one of second-class pilgrim status, poor and disenfranchised - a 'sect' of the back street and upper room as opposed to the steeple-temple model given prominence in the modern version of the forum. Both Evangelicalism and Eastern Orthodoxy are satiated with water from the polluted wells of Constantine. Both stand in opposition to the Christianity of the New Testament.
Bateman may lament the war but he promotes nationalism and as such he is a proponent of war - though he fails to understand this. The war is tragic - all wars are. Christians should never support war, participate in it, or profit from it. Bateman cannot say the same. He doesn't realize that the removal of all evil empires will mean the demise of the Evil Empire he idolatrously supports - the United States of America.
He would do well to reconsider Isaiah 10 and Jeremiah 25 and understand that America is no different than Assyria or Babylon. It may have been used by God as a 'servant' - but not in the way Evangelicals think. How surprised they will be to learn that America too will be punished for its evil - and not just the evil of the 'Left' but the evils the apostate Christians of this land also celebrate and continue to promote with murderous zeal.
He fears coming persecution. Christians in the United States would have faced it generations ago if they had remained faithful. Contrary to the delusional fantasy theories of some, the world has always been 'negative' to the faithful. Small groups have suffered persecution but this is largely unnoticed and at times even approved of by Christo-Americans - the Christians who have confused and conflated the ideologies and ethics of the American state with the Church. Faithful Christians have always been second class citizens in the United States, struggling with poverty - the result of being faithful and trying to live with integrity. Faithful Christians do not benefit from Wall Street and since we refuse to utilize the courts, the seeking of wealth is an exercise in futility as the corrupt system that is the United States will simply steal it by one means or another. We would do well to remember that it is Caesar's coin after all.
In the end Reagan's speech is best described as akin to Ashurbanipal denouncing Nebuchadnezzar - the Assyrians denouncing the Babylonians. It's laughable. It's evil trying to call out evil - while pretending to be good. Again, Rome may have been seemingly 'good' when compared to the other bestial empires - but it was still a beast and there was something about it that made it more terrible and destructive in the end. The picture is clear in Daniel. This last point has not been properly reflected upon. Instead we find so many Christians looking with appreciation on Rome and as the Church slipped into apostasy during Late Antiquity and the advent of the Dark Ages, bestial pagan Rome was appropriated by the Church and that unfortunate and tragic development still clouds the thinking of Christians today. It was no accident that the American Founders sought to emulate Greece and Rome and looked to their lawgivers and thinkers for inspiration. Make no mistake, the Founders were not following the likes of Calvin, Knox, and Rutherford - and certainly not Aquinas. These are myths perpetuated by revisionist historians and myth-makers who pollute the Church. The Founders looked to Lycurgus and Solon, and Enlightenment thinkers like Locke and Montesquieu. Drinking from the wells of Freemasonry, they paid lip-service to a deistic Christianity at best but everything they pursued was contrary to the patterns of Christendom that had dominated Western political thought since the days of Constantine, Theodosius, and Charlemagne. The United States was the first explicitly non-Christian nation that emerged since the Dark Ages.
For my part since I believe the so-called Christendom which emerged after Constantine was an expression of apostasy, I do not lament its fall. But I cannot celebrate the Enlightenment and the revolutions it spawned and the world it has created - the world Reagan celebrated. The man was not a Christian and so I cannot be moved by his statements regarding knowing God and salvation or even good and evil. The religion of Reagan was an idol and he lived in the grip of ignorance and superstition. We can only lament that over 40 years later there are still so many Christians that cannot discern this and still labour to promote these myths and lies.