Remarks of JFK, in regards religion in politics, 9/12/60 -

[pinto]

I think it's a good time to revisit this ~ pinto

But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected president, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured — perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again not what kind of church I believe in — for that should be important only to me — but what kind of America I believe in.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials; and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew— or a Quaker or a Unitarian or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you — until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16920600

[pinto]

1. And I liked his clear statement here -

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.
John F. Kennedy

We need to get religion out of American politics, once again, as much as possible. The constitutional separations are clear. ~ pinto

[ChicagoSuz219]

2. Thanks for posting this!

I need to copy it & send to someone who keeps insisting that the US is a "Christian Country" because that's what the Forefathers said...

I said pretty much what JFK said -- only not as eloquently... ;-)

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Just posted at FB. Thanks. :)

Religious extremism -- be it Muslim, Christian or whatever -- are the biggest threat to America, IMHO.

K&R

[Octafish]

4. ''Today I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you —

until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril."

President Kennedy understood what America was really about.

Thank you for reminding us, pinto.