On March 8, 1983, Ronald Reagan addressed the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida. The speech became one of the most consequential of his presidency because of one word used eight times: “evil.” The most memorable line refers to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.”
It was an imperfect speech by an imperfect man, but the thrust of Reagan’s message is worth remembering as we face the evils of our own day.
Reagan’s Speech
I’ve summarized the “evil empire” speech below in five points.
1. The United States is unique in its founding.
Reagan knew America’s founders were informed by the ethical system Jesus taught. Thus, he says the First Amendment was designed to “protect churches from government interference.” He also knew his audience embraced “the Judeo-Christian tradition” with its clear distinction between good and evil. But before he aimed the spotlight on the evils of the Soviet Union, Reagan turned his attention to the evil in the United States.
2. We must oppose evil in the United States.
In another speech, Reagan articulated the pro-life argument with precision and passion. In Orlando, Reagan continued his argument by predicting that legislation protecting unborn children would “someday pass Congress,” and declaring, “You and I must never rest until it does.” When addressing racism, Reagan acknowledged America’s “legacy of evil,” proclaiming that “there is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred” in the United States. He implored evangelical pastors, “Use the mighty voice of your pulpits . . . to denounce and isolate these hate groups in our midst.” Then, Reagan turned to the USSR.
3. We must oppose evil in the Soviet Union.
Karl Marx stated, “Communism begins where atheism begins.” Denying God’s existence yielded a moral system that freed totalitarian leaders like Joseph Stalin to murder nearly a million of his own people and to deny freedom to millions more. The Soviet Union confused good with evil, cheapened life, suppressed the truth, controlled the press, and condemned religion. The state brazenly replaced God, brutally persecuted the church, and actively hindered the spread of the gospel. This kind of evil, argued Reagan, couldn’t be restrained by “simple-minded appeasement.”
4. There’s no moral equivalence between the two nations.
The Soviet Union confused good with evil, cheapened life, and condemned religion. This kind of evil, argued Reagan, couldn’t be restrained by ‘simple-minded appeasement.’
The evil that stained the United States wasn’t morally equivalent to the Soviet Union’s evil. Reagan’s opponents reasoned that the evils of each nation carried the same moral weight, giving the United States no moral standing to criticize the Soviet Union. Reagan denied this false equivalence (and invoked C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape), warning evangelicals to beware the proud temptation to “label both sides equally at fault.”
While biblical and democratic principles shaped America’s founding and the Constitution guaranteed religious freedom, Marxist atheism permeated the USSR’s government. These two political philosophies yielded drastically different fruit. Reagan could’ve asked in 1983, “Where would you rather live?” The United States, with all its faults, received a steady stream of immigrants and asylum seekers from the Soviet Bloc, but few (if any) American citizens sought refuge in the Soviet Union.
5. Pray for peace; prepare for war.
Evangelicals in 1983 cared for people in places like Russia who desperately needed Jesus. They also knew of Moscow’s evil effort to silence the gospel. Reagan called on America’s evangelicals to “pray for the salvation of all those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray they will discover the joy of knowing God.”
Then, Reagan asked for evangelical support to build a mighty military, not to bully or extort free and peace-loving nations but to dissuade brutal regimes from expanding their borders, murdering their neighbors, and stealing people’s freedom. He couldn’t ignore “the aggressive impulses of an evil empire.” If America was to be an instrument of peace, it would be a “peace through strength.”
State of Evil in 2025
The Evil Empire speech arguably hastened the Soviet Union’s dissolution. There’s much to celebrate 42 years after an American president stood up to the menace in Moscow, yet we still live in an evil world. We thank God that Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, but the number of abortions in the United States increased in 2023. We’ve seen progress in racial justice, but we’ve also suffered setbacks in recent years as pastors who once denounced racial hatred now fear the “woke” label. We rejoice in the demise of Moscow-based communism, but we regret that it was replaced by another ideology that now threatens religious freedom.
American evangelicals commit two common errors when considering how the Soviet Union of 1983 relates to Russia in 2025. Some see complete correlation, but Russia isn’t the Soviet Union. Others see complete disconnect, though many similarities exist. Today’s Moscow-based ideology is that of the Russian World (Russkiy Mir). Communism envisioned global dominance, and Vladimir Putin similarly envisions dominance of the region controlled by the former Russian Empire (1721–1917), which includes Ukraine.
Religious Freedom in Russia and Russian-Occupied Ukraine
One can argue Russia has more religious freedom today than in 1983, but the only religion with freedom is the one that supports Putin’s agenda (and, even then, it doesn’t have true freedom). The Russian Orthodox Church provides theological justification and moral cover for Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine by deeming it a “Holy War.” Patriarch Kirill assured his national flock that Russian soldiers dying in battle will have all their sins forgiven since a soldier’s sacrifice “washes away all the sins that a person has committed.”
Russian law severely restricts evangelicals’ freedom to worship and evangelize. Pastors who question the war can be fined or imprisoned. As Catherine Wanner observes, evangelicals are “especially targeted.” She says, “There is no place for Protestants in the Russian world.”
The only religion with true freedom in Russia is the one that supports Putin’s agenda.
Evangelicals may disagree about whether Russia attacked Ukraine because of NATO expansion or NATO expanded because of Russia’s history of attacking its neighbors and assassinating its critics. But we can agree that Ukraine has been a model of religious freedom in eastern Europe, allowing for growth of the evangelical church. By contrast, evangelicals in Russia-occupied Ukraine have faced harsh persecution. This seems to be part of Russia’s battle plan. Russia’s war against Ukraine is, in effect, “Russia’s war against evangelicals.”
God Rules over Raging Nations and Evil Empires
As news broke last week that Ukraine was losing American support, a young pastor from Ukraine stood in our church’s annual missions conference to give a sober but hopeful report on the progress of the gospel in that war-weary nation:
We serve a people who are deeply broken and have experienced the depth of human cruelty and depravity. We don’t know when and how the war will end or what will happen to us at any given day. But one thing remains true. God is sovereign over all and he remains loyal and steadfast to his people at all times. That’s why we stay in Ukraine.
For our brothers and sisters in Russia and Ukraine, the immediate future looks bleak. With the psalmist, they ask, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” (Ps. 2:1). And they confess that because God’s purposes can’t be thwarted by earthly rulers, “he who sits in the heavens laughs” (v. 4). With these believers, we pray that proud leaders of raging nations would heed Psalm 2’s counsel: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (v. 12).
In 2025 as in 1983, we believe the day is quickly coming when the Lord of raging nations will vanquish every evil empire. Until then, we pray and we preach, rejecting any false equivalencies. It’s just as important today as it was 42 years ago to name evil for what it is. We’ll continue to do so even if that means we must prepare to suffer.