Blog post 4

In the preface of Randall Balmer’s book, God in the White House, Balmer introduces the major question that the book will address. That question is “how do we get from from John F. Kennedy’s eloquent speech at the Rice Hotel in Houston on September 12th, 1960, in which  he urged voters effectively to bracket a candidate’s faith out of their considerations when they enter the voting booth, to George W. Bush’s declaration on the eve of the 2000 Iowa precinct caucuses that Jesus was his favorite philosopher?” (Balmer 1). This question is one that takes four decades of presidential politics, and American events that caused major turn in public opinions. Starting with Kennedy in 1960 trying to remove religion in American elections, and becoming more cemented norm for presidential candidates to discuss religious beliefs by 2000. 

     In 1960, when Kennedy was running for president, Anti-Catholic sentiment in America had started to recede from American life, however the establishment was still Protestant. As many know, Kennedy was a practicing Catholic, so when it came to being elected as president would have to make sure religion was not a factor in the election or else he would lose. The change in religion becoming a major role in presidential election didn’t come till the election of 1976. After The Watergate scandal that caused Nixon to resign in 1974, due to Nixon’s original Vice President resigning prior to Nixon, the Speaker of the House Gerald Ford had become Vice President and then President. The American Public was infuriated with the fact the the president was now someone they had not voted on. The Democratic Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter who was a devote southern baptist, vowed to be a “redeemer president”, and get the sins of the last administration out of the White House. In the end he won the 1976 election, but he lost his affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention, and the verge of evangelical nominee Ronald Reagan, Carter lost re-election in 1980. Religion didn’t play a major role in presidential elections again until the election of 2000. 

     After Bill Clinton, a two term president in 1998 became the second president to face impeachment, after it was found out he lied under oath about having an affair with a 22 year old intern. Although Clinton himself couldn’t be elected because he already served two terms, his Vice President Al Gore was the Democratic Nominee. In 2000, a Republican Candidate George W. Bush, at a campaign rally in Iowa before their precinct caucuses, gave a speech where he said his favorite philosopher was Jesus. This showed the undecided voters, in particular those who were religious in the Bible belt and the midwest that he was going to be the newest “redeemer president”, which eventually led to him being able to win the general election by one of the closest margins in history. Which by his second term election in 2004 religion became a major focus in presidential elections.