Legacies are the gifts that predecessors leave behind for future achievement — one, final benevolence left for those who follow afterwards out into the future. In this regard, much attention has been given in recent years to what each passing presidential administration leaves behind for the next, and has apparently even been the subject within administrations as to how they would be had in remembrance once they left office.

While we cannot speculate fully on what such a legacy might be by the current contenders, we can certainly reflect back on those who have gone before. One overriding goal in each administration dating back to at least that of President Carter has been, and continues to be, that of peace in the Middle East.

Biblically speaking, this is poor policy since it reveals their ignorance of the Word of God, which says that there will be no peace there until the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, returns to this earth and establishes peace by force. It is also poor policy because in order to broker peace between the two main parties, our loyalty to Israel is at least compromised, if not betrayed, and this is tantamount to national suicide. But today I am thinking of quite a different legacy, and as I do, my mind travels back to the days of President Reagan, the very first president I had the opportunity to vote for. Perhaps at the mention of his name, you thought about the falling of the Berlin Wall, which indeed is a very notable attainment. Or perhaps you thought about the Iranian hostage crisis, which conveniently ended just before he took office. But my mind goes back to a far more significant, yet largely overlooked, legacy that he left behind.

I can still remember the day when it was pointed out to me that Ronald Reagan was the first divorced and remarried president our country had ever had, a distinction he continues to hold today. I had further cause to ponder this recently when I learned that he had been the governor who had signed California’s no-fault divorce statute into law.

The significance of this is not really about President Reagan himself, but that the American people elected him despite his background. To understand this, one needs to realize that when a people, who claim a Judeo-Christian heritage, choose a national leader who does not honor the Word of God in his life, that it is an open declaration to God that neither do they.

The Bible says in II Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

The time certainly is here that the bulk of professing Christianity cannot endure what God’s Word plainly says, so they look for those who will tell them what they want to hear. As one preacher has observed, the rejection of truth brings darkness, and America certainly was ripe for such a president as they were already enamored with the practice.

Now, that marriage itself is a biblical doctrine there can be no dispute as the Bible has much to say about it. In fact, God’s Word points out that the institution of marriage is God-given, whereas the practice of divorce and subsequent remarriage is man made.  That Moses found it necessary to regulate divorce does not detract from this at all, but that he did so due to the hardness of their hearts (Matthew 19) only adds to this assertion.

But there is a second ramification to this legacy, and that is that it is a step in the wrong direction. While we live in an era where we have come to believe that the loosening of moral restraint is enlightenment, when the results are honestly evaluated, we find addiction, bondage and poverty.

Though divorce and remarriage are so prevalent now that it is largely considered a personal decision even within the Christian community, there can be no doubt as to the damage it has caused. With emotional wreckage left in its wake, neither male nor female, parent or child, has escaped its carnage.

Sadly, we find divorce and remarriage being a legacy of death unto the American family. Strong marriages make strong families, and strong families make strong nations.

Isn’t it about time we come to our senses and bring this legacy to an end?

Ron Hamman is pastor for Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. Contact him at

357-4229.