Forgiveness: President Ronald Reagan

FORGIVENESS: RONALD REAGAN FORGAVE HIS ATTACKER

This is a short series on forgiveness.  In this series I will feature short posts on people who forgave people who either tried to take their lives or took the lives of a loved one.  The first profile will be on President Ronald Reagan.

“I didn’t feel I could ask God’s help to heal Jim, the others and myself, and at the same time feel hatred for the man who had shot us, so I silently asked God to help him deal with whatever demons had led him to shoot us.  That day I asked the Lord to heal him, and to this day I still do.”  President Ronald Wilson Reagan

It was March 30, 1981 at 2:27 p.m., outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, only 69 days into his new administration that John Hinckley, Jr. stood less than twenty feet away from the new President and pulled out a 22 caliber pistol and shot President Ronald Reagan.  Also shot by Hinckley was the President’s Press Secretary James Brady, Washington Patrolman Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy.

At the hospital, President Reagan heard that his Press Secretary was probably not going to make it.  He offered a prayer for Jim Brady.  Later, the President was quoted as saying “I didn’t feel I could ask God’s help to heal Jim, the others and myself, and at the same time feel hatred for the man who had shot us, so I silently asked God to help him deal with whatever demons had led him to shoot us.  That day I asked the Lord to heal him, and to this day I still do.”

While the President and Jim Brady were both near death they both survived, although Press Secretary Brady did suffer life altering injuries.  It is worthy to note that President Reagan is the only President to survive being shot in an assassination attempt.  The President attributed his survival to God’s having more work for him to do.

My next post will feature the story of Pope (now Saint) John Paul II.