LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) -- Michael Reagan, the adopted son of the late President Ronald Reagan, suffered a terrible trauma at the age of 8 when he was sexually molested by a camp counselor.

Dan Wooding interviewing Michael Reagan

“At 8 years old, I thought I was going to hell,” he explained while speaking at the opening of the Michael Reagan Center in Spring, Texas, on October 7, 2005.

He went on to say that the experience drastically changed him, adding: “I cussed God and his Son. I wanted to do anything I could to earn my way into hell.”

Michael said he was horrified that the suggestive pictures [that were taken of him] would be made public and ruin the lives of his family, especially his adoptive father.”

But eventually, Michael, who was adopted by Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman, found a peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and, in 2005, he wrote “Twice Adopted” about his feelings of rejection being adopted, parents divorcing and becoming a Christian.

Ronald Reagan at home with first wife Jane Wyman and their two children, Maureen and Michael

I caught up with Michael Reagan last Saturday (September 22, 2012) at the 14th Annual Media Fellowship International Praise Brunch in Los Angeles, and there he shared how, after the trauma of his own experience, he now devoting much of his life to help molested children and those who are trafficked for money.

He began by saying that people often wanted to hear him talk about politics, but he said, “To be honest with you, I had to learn politics because that’s all people wanted to talk to me about, but if I had my druthers [choice or preference], I would be talking to children and dealing with this issue of sexual abuse.

“It’s rampant here in the United States of America, with what happened at Penn State, the Boy Scouts, even in the church, and in the home. We always talk about protecting children, but we always, though, seem to protect the molester over the molested and, if I could help put a stop to that in the world we live in today, I certainly would.

“I would much rather be in that game, because it really affects people more than in the political game, which is just a bunch of people yelling at each other.”

I then asked Mr. Reagan if he thought there was an answer to sexual abuse.

“Part of the problem is that today we live in such a world that we let other people raise our children,” he said. “So we think of everybody as a babysitting service. And you know, sex is so prevalent on the Internet and everywhere.

“One of the major problems we face in America today is sex trafficking. It is horrendous and there’s no money, in fact, to do anything to stop it. There’s only two-hundred beds in America for young girls brought in here for sex trafficking. There are no beds for kids who are American citizens who run away from home. And you never see a story on it. I mean you never see a story on it in America. And that saddens me. In fact, I’m talking to some people now about doing a television show called ‘America’s Least Wanted.’”

Michael and Ronald Reagan

I then asked him about his relationship with Ronald Reagan, and wondered if he had been problematic, and he replied, “I never had difficult thoughts about him. I was always supported by my dad and he and I were always close.

“You’re thinking of my brother Ron, but not me. No, my dad and I were always very close. Yeah, I came from a broken home and all that, so that was difficult as a child, because you had got two sets of children. But my father and I were always close; always had a great relationship.”

He went on to say, “That relationship was also not only because I was his son, but ultimately both of us were the Christians in the home. Even though he disagreed with my brother’s politics -- as I do -- he was more concerned about my brother’s soul than he was about his politics.”

I concluded by asking Michael Reagan how he felt when he heard so many people quoting his late father.

Michael smiled and then said, “Yes because they have nobody else to quote. I mean, yeah, that’s a good feeling, but what bothers me is people seem to be looking for the next Ronald Reagan and are not happy with the Ronald Reagan that we had, so that [they feel] we need another one.

“Listen, we were lucky to have Ronald Reagan in our lifetime and I don’t want to walk right past the next great leader by looking for Ronald Reagan, because they’ll pale in comparison. We weren’t looking for Abraham Lincoln when we found Ronald Reagan!

“I think all of us are missing having a leader and what this world, not only the United States, is missing. There’s no Maggie Thatcher, Lech Walesa, Helmut Kohl, Pope John Paul and Mikhail Gorbachev, to lead us. None of those people exist today. So the world is in turmoil because there’s nobody to say ‘stop.’”

With that Michael Reagan and I shook hands and then went into the event the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California, and joined a “Who’s Who” of Christian working in Hollywood and the media, who all share a common faith in Jesus Christ. It is an annual event that is put on by Bob Rieth, a Lutheran pastor, and you can find more information about it at: www.mediafellowship.org.

Note to the broadcast media. I have a short audio file of this interview that is available for broadcast. If you would like to air it, just send me an e-mail at: assistnews@aol.com and then give me your name, media organization and country where you are based, and I will e-mail it to you as an MP 3 file. This is just for the media and not for personal use.

* I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.

Dan Wooding, 71, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 49 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and he hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on the KWVE Radio Network in Southern California and which is also carried throughout the United States and around the world. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries. Dan recently received two top media awards -- the “Passion for the Persecuted” award from Open Doors US, and as one of the top “Newsmakers of 2011” from Plain Truth magazine. He is the author of some 45 books, the latest of which is “Caped Crusader: Rick Wakeman in the 1970s.” To order a copy, go to: http://www.amazon.com/CAPED-CRUSADER-Rick-Wakeman-1970s/dp/1908728302/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335474883&sr=1-1 .