President Ronald Reagan. (AP)
During an interview with televangelist Jim Bakker in 1979, one year before he was elected president in an electoral landslide, Ronald Reagan expressed concern about the anti-Christian agenda of liberals and wondered if America becomes "another Sodom and Gomorrah," will we be "the generation that sees Armageddon"?
“Do you ever get the feeling sometimes that if we don’t do it now, if we let this be another Sodom and Gomorrah, that maybe we might be the generation that sees Armageddon?” said Reagan in the Nov. 5, 1979 interview that is being sold by The Jim Bakker Show and which the liberal Right Wing Watch blog posted a segment to YouTube.
Leading up to that remark, Jim Bakker said, “The thing you keep saying all the time and the thing that I think is the most important thing about your candidacy is that you are the man. You’re not just saying, unlike Mr. [Jimmy] Carter who spoke some things that were right but he doesn’t appoint evangelicals. He doesn’t act like an evangelical Christian. This has bothered all of us."
"But your stand all the way back on all of these issues, issues that are so very important to us – we appreciate that so much," said Bakker.
He further said he agreed with Reagan's comment about Armageddon and added, "This is the most important election ever to face the United States. I really believe that. And with the controls on religion -- I don’t think anyone knows what has happened in our leadership in the crushing of religion in this country.”
Ronald Reagan served two terms as president of the United States, from Jan. 20, 1981 to Jan. 20, 1989. In the first election, Reagan won 44 states, gaining 489 electoral votes; Democrat Jimmy Carter earned only 49 electoral votes.
In the second race in 1984, Reagan won 49 states and 525 electoral votes; Democrat Walter Mondale carried his home state Minnesota (by only 3,800 votes). Reagan's electoral vote win was the biggest in U.S. history.