Community, Country, & Creator We’re Working to Bring Citizens Together for the Common Good July 2006

by Dr. Ron Reagan
Photos by Russell Byrne

I’m a patriotic American. Those words become less popular as the years go by. I think that many of us, however, continue to believe that America, for all her faults, is a wonderful country, blessed by God, and worthy of dying for or killing for. Such expressions are becoming increasingly more suspect, however, because a growing cynicism in this country regards patriotic affirmations as expressing at best shallow sentiment and at worst national and racial jingoism.

Misguided patriotism can lead to an unworthy sense of political superiority or racial arrogance, but those are ultimately un-American attitudes. When Nathan Hale spoke his unforgettable words, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country,” he did not, thereby, imply anything about the loyalty that British citizens might appropriately have for their country, nor was he making any judgment about the intellectual or moral character of American Tories. He simply believed that it was the correct choice for him to put the affairs and the needs of his country before his own.

Proud to Be an American
I’m a Nathan Hale patriot – one who is glad to serve my country even at the cost of personal sacrifice. I cheerfully and enthusiastically use my resources to advance the welfare of my country with absolutely no intention of seeking to leverage those activities for my own advantage.

From the beginning my life was a God-and-country sort of thing. I was bred, raised, and served amidst patriotic circumstances. Some of my earliest memories include singing gospel music with my military family in our living room. My dad served in the army for 20 years and compiled a resumé that could have been made into a John Wayne movie. He began his service as a trained Special Services Officer and retired as Commandant of the “Little West Point” at the San Francisco Air Defense Academy.

Since Dad was in the military I traveled the world as an army brat and later enlisted myself. I received training in radar electronics at the San Francisco Air Defense School. They taught me to manage guidance systems for the Ajax and Hercules missiles that formed the backbone of our nation’s air defense system during the Cold War.

At the end of my three-year hitch, I got a college education through the GI Bill, and worked for a decade with the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District. My wife, Pat, and I are now running our own accounting practice. We use our business as a resource for community service. For example, we’ve been involved in helping 20 or so non-profits prepare their paperwork. We’re playing a role in supporting the work they are doing by helping them with such things as filing the forms necessary for maintaining their non-profit status.

These time-consuming activities that bring no profit to us provide a means by which we can give back to our community in supporting a wide range of public services. For example, we prepare the taxes for a Catholic organization in Concord that supports a group-living facility enabling independent living and employment for people with Downs Syndrome.

I’ve also served on a number of commissions and boards. I was the representative of the Christian community to the county’s first Human Relations Commission. I served as a member of the Mount Diablo Hospital Advisory Board, and am currently a member of the board of the Noah Webster Educational Foundation. We’ve always tried to provide a resource for change in any community where we lived.

I believe that there’s a trickle up dynamic in political action. The moral fiber upholding the greatness of our nation is a direct result of individuals and families discharging their responsibilities under God to take care of themselves, their neighbors, and their communities. If we all work together to do that family-by-family and neighborhood-by-neighborhood then everything will ultimately work out on state and national levels.

For God and Country
Our fervor for service to God and country took a leap forward in 1985 when Pat and I became Contra Costa County Coordinators for the National Day of Prayer. We were invited to Washington D.C. as part of the project. I hadn’t been in D.C. for several years, and Pat had never been there. The visit greatly influenced both of us. I remember as our plane descended into the Dulles Airport, it flew over the Washington Monument. The sight of that magnificent symbol shining in the sunlight stirred the hearts of both of us. After that visit we became increasingly more involved in the patriotic activities that seemed appropriate to that experience and that also grew out of our belief in God and in the Bible.

We never made any decision to become involved in patriotic activities simply for the sake of patriotism. We are not activists in that sense, but are merely operating out of the commitment to our country engrained in both of us, and to the heritage that forms the foundation of American society. We are encouraging people on the local level to get to work for the good of our nation, and we are trying to model that behavior ourselves.

We strongly believe that our country must conduct its activities on every level under divinely ordained principles of righteousness and justice. If America fails in this, then everything will collapse into ruin. Our founding fathers never intended to establish a state religion nor to conduct government as a sectarian religious activity. The ideal was for government not to operate according to the teachings of any particular denomination, but that all citizens, on the basis of their own conscience, acknowledge loyalty to God as providing structure and content for their subsequent loyalty to our country.

One of the framers of the Constitution, John Adams, wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Even more to the point, William Penn wrote, “Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.” We’re working hard on the community level to hold back the tyranny that Penn predicted.

John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, spoke for many of us when he wrote the challenging and frightening words,

The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.

America’s position in this world has derived from the presence of God guiding and moving through the history and life of our nation. We strongly affirm the principle that “America is great because America is good.” For all our flaws and failures our political ideal is one of perfection and freedom. I picture such an ideal as a magnificent black stallion galloping across a high plain with the wind whipping through his mane. At that point the animal is fulfilling everything God intended for that horse to be when He created him. If any person or nation simply becomes what God intended, the result is the joyful freedom illustrated by that horse.

Government by the People
Our U.S. Government is based upon “We the People,” so the highest political activity we can engage in is to encourage citizens to participate in working out the processes belonging to the good of our nation. That has been our vision as we have labored over the past 26 years trying to involve churches and community leaders in political processes. We’ve set up legislative briefings for church leaders and have taken pastors on fact-finding trips to Sacramento where legislators could talk to them about challenges our state government was facing. Pastors and ministers were learning how bills became law; we were helping church people to become involved in the legislative process.

Last year Pat & I organized the CCMC (Contra Costa Ministers Conference) seeking to help churches better serve their appropriate role as change agents in the community, and to understand the challenges facing our elected leaders. We conduct monthly luncheon meetings bringing in speakers representing many levels of public service – from Brentwood Police Chief Mike Davies to U.S. Congressman Richard Pombo. On the other hand, we help local elected officials understand the appropriate role of faith-based organizations in supporting needy people in the community.

CCMC was the result of some street-level research on our part. We asked community leaders, “What do you do to maintain moral standards in a rapidly growing community?” We asked the question of people who have their fingers on the pulse of the community – Brentwood City Manager Donna Landeros, for example, and local politicians Annette Beckstrand, Bob Taylor, and Mike McPoland. They all shared a common opinion that communication is fundamental in maintaining community standards.

Many people are wishing for change, but don’t know how the processes of governance work. We can help such people learn from their leaders about what is happening, as well as to communicate their wishes to their leaders and thus help them bring about the changes they desire.

We Gather Together
We began sponsoring our monthly CCMC luncheons to bring together pastors for an opportunity of interdenominational fellowship. Other civic-minded residents and some local elected officials wanted to be a part of this so we put into place an effective networking mechanism that enables people to find the resources they need to accomplish their purposes in our community. Even some long-term residents have very little idea of all the people who are trying to work for faith-based changes in our community and state. We are working with a number of local pastors.

We are serving in a natural role of channeling the resources of community service organizations as they work with each other, and as we in turn help make others aware of their services. The CCMC meets once a month, by invitation, at a local restaurant. Each attendee represents a segment of our community. We’re “equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry,” to borrow a phrase from the Bible. We also try to coordinate our efforts in order to influence political processes to oppose such things as misdirection of public funds and the abuse of eminent domain.

I attend the CCMC meetings in a dual role, both as a sponsor and as representative for the Project Area Committee, which is a subcommittee of the Redevelopment Agency. In this role I represent the downtown businesses at the meetings and serve as liaison, taking information gleaned from the meetings back to the business community. We’re doing all these activities without using a penny of taxes or even 501(c)3 tax-free donations. Brentwood residents are entrepreneurial and warm-hearted; they love to help. We come together with a common passion.

Doing What We Can
We love Brentwood! I’ve seen more entrepreneurial spirit in this town than in any place I’ve ever lived. The political climate in East County encourages anyone who believes in capitalism. This area provides a great example showing the American system of free enterprise in action. I’m encouraged by the common desire I find all around me to create a better community. We don’t agree with each other in everything, but the local consensus is that Brentwood is a great place to live and most of us want to keep it that way and to make it even better. Our elected officials share that attitude with us. We want to do whatever we can to encourage them in that.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote,

I have lived a long time and am convinced that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? I move that prayer imploring the assistance of Heaven be held every morning before we proceed to business.

More than 150 years have passed since Benjamin Franklin wrote those words, but they still make perfect sense to me. We’re “imploring the assistance of Heaven” ourselves so that our lives, our community, our state, and our nation might follow in whatever direction God would have us go.

In our opinion Pat and I have done unextraordinary things. We’re simply two people who are trying to work out the purpose for our lives. Each of us as citizens are obligated to do what we are able to do, and bringing people together is the thing that Pat and I are called to do.