Blog 4: God in the White House

With John F. Kennedy running for president and successfully becoming the first Catholic to become president it brought to the forefront the stereotypes that Protestant Americans had of Catholics. These are beliefs that were engrained in American beliefs since the inception of the country and these are stereotypes that would oppress Catholics and which JFK would have to overcome. Many protestant Americans feared that the Pope would control the President and that this would mean the end of democracy, playing on long time fear of the Pope and Catholicism somehow scheming to take control of American government. It took a lot of convincing from JFK to get people to believe him when it was the Cold War and there was a growing sense of fear from the American people of outside forces infiltrating the federal government. George W. Bush's comment about Jesus being his favorite philosopher is something that seems rather simple but it is interpreted many different ways. For religious Christians it may seem like the candidate is openly endorsing Christianity and thus encourage their support for him. For others the comment may also be viewed as Bush being another typical Christian candidate who places his faith over what is the best thing to do for the country. 

Today religious beliefs when running for office is a complicated topic if one doesn't conform to the standard Christianity. When candidates who have different beliefs, Mitt Romney, or are believed to have different beliefs, Barack Obama, it becomes a huge controversy that can turn off some voters from these candidates. Religion only seems to acceptable for political office if the candidate is a conventional Christian and why some people seemed to make a huge deal over Barack Obama potentially being Muslim. The tactic of using religion for one's advantage was used by Trump and his attacks on Muslims and associating them with terrorism and using scripture and Christianity to gain support from many Christians for his advantage.