Kengor, co-author of The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand, writing for Christianity Today (April 4th) on recent news about Gorbachev becoming Christian/remaining atheist:
Reagan and Gorbachev would talk about religion at other summits, going deeper than using colloquial phrases. Gorbachev informed Reagan that while his wife, Raisa, was an atheist and even taught a course on atheism, he had the Bible read to him as a child by his Christian grandmother — though he refused to openly commit as to the precise effect. Reagan, however, was convinced, according to Press Secretary Larry Speakes, that "the childhood exposure … had an influence."
All of this suggested to Reagan that the leader of the Evil Empire might be a "closet Christian." He prayed for Gorbachev.
Still, Gorbachev kept his beliefs to himself, even after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 — made official by Gorbachev's resignation on Christmas Day. Gorbachev's memoirs gave no indication of his being a Christian, nor did his other writings — in clear contrast to Reagan's memoirs, which are rich with a sense of the guiding hand of Providence.
But, Gorbachev's books made it evident that he had a guiding spirituality, but not much more than that. In On My Country and the World, Gorbachev referred to homo sapiens as "God's highest creation." Yet overall the book is extremely humanistic. Immediately after the homo sapiens remark, Gorbachev wrote, "A return to age-old, spiritual, moral, life-affirming values, to a humanist and genuinely optimistic worldview is one of the decisive tasks of our era." In this work, he makes statements suggesting he believes in God, but infused his views with a lot of New Age-isms and enviro-speak.
The "green" element is especially notable. In an April 2001 interview with Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, Gorbachev said, "We need a new … environmentalization of consciousness." Such, he said, was "precisely the main task" of his aptly named Green Cross International, his odd environmental adaptation of the Red Cross.
I have always wanted to grill Gorbachev on these questions, but getting an interview with him is not only nearly impossible but, from what I have been told, extremely expensive. The former Marxist, who (inexplicably) still speaks glowingly of Vladimir Lenin, charges big bucks for an interview. I did not have enough cash to pay to play.
Read the entire piece.
• William P. Clark: The Quiet Catholic Who Changed the World | An interview with Paul Kengor, co-author of The Judge: William P. Clark,
Ronald Reagan's Top Hand
• The Mission: The Introduction to The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand | Paul Kengor and Patricia Clark Doerner
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