God in the White House: Blog Post #4

On September 12^th, 1960 John F. Kennedy gave a speech in Houston, Texas about his belief that separation of church and state is absolute. Kennedy begins with mentioning that he knows religious issues is necessarily and promptly a key topic for them in 1960, but that he wants to emphasize there are more “critical issues to face in the 1960 election”. Kennedy argues that these critical issues in the election are things like war, hunger, ignorance, and despair. These issues that come up in 1960 should have no religious barrier according to Kennedy. Kennedy also argues how he believes in an American where religious intolerance can end, and where any man and church are seen as equal as well as having the right to attend any church of his choice. He asks that he is judged based on his work and his abilities rather than on his declared religious beliefs. Kennedy delivers this speech in order to give him a chance in the race towards presidency. Never before had someone who identified as being Catholic been elected President. He also delivered this speech on the basis that his church would not speak for him on his political stances and values as he would not speak for his church in the same way. Kennedy delivered this speech to prove what he saw in America and for what kind of American he believed in.

            Kennedy’s election wanted to displace the Protestant establishment in 1960 by arguing “that a candidate’s religion was not a legitimate criterion for voting decisions” (2), but it began to change in later decades in incidents when Jimmy Carter’s election is trying to cleanse with faith after the Nixon-era of the Watergate scandal or when George W. Bush’s election would be to cleanse the Oval office of Clinton’s affairs. Religion has continued to play as a large role in elections even up until today. Today, religion is tied closely to the major political issues we see today such as in abortion. More conservative as pro-life while more liberal and less conservative based stand as pro-choice. Today, Donald Trump who grew Protestant and has Christian ties to his beliefs, also found a Vice President who was once Catholic but converted to Evangelical Protestant. I would say that Pence has stronger ties to his Protestant beliefs today more than Trump has, but it is not foreign to Trump. Pence was said to help Trump get those Protestant and Catholic voters who share similar beliefs on political issues such as abortion. Today, if a presidential candidate was to make a similar speech to Kennedy, I think it would have to be a democratic presidential candidate especially someone with a true belief between religious freedoms. Not that, president Trump doesn’t believe in that, but I will say that he is president that has used more and more Christian religious speech than presidents in the past such as in his speech after the Vegas shooting.