Who was Reagan's theologian of apocalypse?

January 15, 2006 10:54 PM

A tough one: I remember reading that during the Reagan years, as part of the campaign to convince the Russians that the US really would launch a second strike if faced with a preemptive Russian attack, Reagan turned to a religious figure or theologian who explained that a retaliatory attack, even if it resulted in the extinction of the human species, would be morally approvable and even required by God, and that it would serve the glory of God, despite the unfortunate consequences it might have for human beings. I don't think I just imagined all this, so I wonder: who was the religious person that articulated this position? What source can tell me about this stuff? Many thanks for any clues.
posted by washburn to Religion & Philosophy (7 answers total)

This sounds like a tinfoil-hat type conspiracy theory (and it may yet be) but a cursory glance through Google returns this.

Please note that the source doesn't exactly ring in as being on the level-headed side of things.

The Armageddon Policy

And yet, during the Reagan years, there was an eerie confluence between Reagan's indifference to environmental standards, regulatory process, skyrocketing national debt, his occasionally taunting remarks in the direction of the former Soviet Union, and the lust of the evangelicals for Armageddon and the Rapture it is purported to bring. As Edward Johnson mentions in "The Journal of Historical Review," Armageddon and policy might be subtly entwined:

"At a 1971 dinner, Reagan told California legislator James Mills that 'everything is in place for the battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ.' The President has permitted Jerry Falwell to attend National Security Council briefings and author and Armageddon-advocate Hal Lindsey to give a talk on nuclear war with Russia to top Pentagon strategists.

"If Mills, Halsell and other observers of the presidency are correct, Reagan's personal belief in the Dispensationalist scenario explains the mystery of the seeming fatalism of so many of his military, domestic and monetary policies. According to Mills, Reagan's attitude can be summed up as, 'There's no reason to get wrought up about the national debt, if God is soon going to foreclose on the whole world.'"
posted by frogan at 11:01 PM on January 15, 2006

More here on Armageddon Policy:

When asked during the Presidential debates if he believed in Armageddon, President Reagan said: "Yes, Armageddon could come the day after tomorrow." During his 1980s Presidential campaign, Reagan told Fundamentalist Christian groups that he believed in the Biblical prophecy of Armageddon and that this could be the generation that sees Armageddon.
- Reagan, Oct. 1984

posted by acoutu at 11:10 PM on January 15, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the links. Very interesting. Still, I do sort of remember that under Reagan people were freaked out that he had discussed parallels between nuclear Armageddon and the Biblical end-times story.

My question is a little more specific and philosophical, since it concerns an attempt by the Reagan admin to address the morality of a "second strike"--that is, to convince the Russians that we would retaliate massively in the face of an attack, and maybe also to convince the staff of nuclear weapons facilities to follow orders even if doing so meant the end of the human race.

I'm not sure if this anti-utilitarian "second-strike ethics" was discussed by someone in the administration or some sympathetic religious intellectual.

Ok; off to bed for me now. Goodnight!
posted by washburn at 11:49 PM on January 15, 2006

Note that the source that the Democratic Underground are embracing as the source of their current "Reagan was just as nutty as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" meme is The Journal of Historical Review, put out by The Institute for Historical Review.

Which, as they proudly put it themselves, is the "World's leading Holocaust denial organization". Something else they'd agree with Ahmadinejad about, I guess-
posted by bemis at 12:05 AM on January 16, 2006

To me it seems pretty clear that fomenting the end of the world or trying influence God's will is a sin. I am no Biblical scholar. But there are plenty of people with support who long for God to come to clean house and carry them home.
posted by roboto at 3:58 AM on January 16, 2006

Just want to take this opportunity to enlighten or remind Mefi readers of the man who saved your life and the world.

Stan Petrov, the man who saved all our asses and got fired for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
posted by SwingingJohnson1968 at 8:58 AM on January 16, 2006

Best answer: Reagan's fundamentalist religious influences were discussed at a conference in 1984. They ranged from the obvious -- Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham -- to the fringe-wacky James Robson and Hal Lindsey. The latter's series of books such as The Late, Great Planet Earth were a lucrative business for him -- a sort of Left Behind of the 70s and 80s. Copies were everywhere.
posted by dhartung at 12:24 PM on January 16, 2006