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JFK: Pioneer Of Religious Freedom
Mike McConachie
Email: mmcconachie@collin.edu
I have always been intrigued by the intersection of American politics and religion. In the fall of
2013, I completed a Courseara course, “The Kennedy Half-Century,” by Dr. Larry Sabato,
Professor of Political Science and director of the UVA Center for Politics at the University of
Virginia. In a video lecture titled, “Religion and Politics,” Dr. Sabato revisited the famous speech
to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in which Senator Kennedy declared he would not
be guided by his faith in making decisions as president. Dr. Sabato pointed out that while that is
the well known part of the speech, the speech itself was one of the clearest articulations of the
separation of church and state in American history.
The purpose of this study will be to examine JFK’s speech as a pioneering moment in the history
of American politics and religion. Using JFK’s 1960 Houston speech as a pivot, I would like to
look at the broader issue of separation of church and state in America since then. If Dr. Sabato is
correct in his assessment of the speech as a clear view of the Constitution’s freedom of religion
clauses, then it stands in stark contrast to the religious right of today.
The First Amendment begins with 16 words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It is hard to believe that
those 16 words could generate so much controversy, fire and heat. What makes it especially
interesting is that most of the controversial issues in freedom of religion such as prayer in public
school, government aid to parochial schools, religious monuments on government property and
even religious exemptions to the Affordable Care Act have come in the years since the 1960s.
Other than the famous 1879 case of Reynolds vs. United States, which involved polygamy; and
the flag salute cases prior to and during World War II, the Supreme Court delivered only a
handful of freedom of religion decisions prior to the 1960s. Then beginning in 1962 with Engle
v. Vitale (the first school prayer case), the Supreme Court was thrust into the area of freedom of
religion.
Two years prior to Engle, a young Massachusetts senator was selected as the Democrat nominee
for President. JFK would only be the second Catholic nominated for president. Al Smith,
Democrat Governor of New York in 1928 and a Catholic had previously been nominated by the
Democrats. Smith lost to Herbert Hoover, and a contributing if not overriding factor was Smith’s
Catholicism. Americans had long harbored suspicions about a Catholic in the White House. The
fear was that such a president would take his orders from the Pope. JFK faced the same
prejudice in 1960. That is why Kennedy agreed to speak to the Greater Houston Ministerial
Association. JFK’s speech diffused the controversy (except for the most hard core anti-Catholic)
and he would go on to become the first Catholic to be elected as President.
After Kennedy’s election, the separation of church and state issue shifted to the Supreme Court
as a number of significant and controversial decisions came down. Then freedom of religion
arose again in presidential politics in 1976. With the exception of Kennedy’s speech, the
tradition had been for most presidents to keep their faith private. Not that they would deny their
Christian faith, but they didn’t publicly talk about it or make a big deal of it. That changed in
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1976 when Jimmy Carter ran for president. He taught Sunday School at the Plains, GA First
Baptist Church and introduced America to the phrase, “born again Christian.” President Ford
then had to acknowledge that he, too was a “born again Christian.”
During Carter’s Administration, Jerry Falwell started his Moral Majority. Ronald Reagan used
the Moral Majority and overwhelming support from evangelical Christians to win two terms as
president. For better or worse, it sealed a marriage between the Republican Party and the
religious right. Even George W. Bush indicated he thought “God called him to run for
president.”
How far have we come since that speech of JFK in Houston in 1960? And to paraphrase and
apply a famous Ronald Reagan saying, “Are we better off now than we were 54 years ago?
That is what this study will seek to find out. I propose to begin by looking at an overview of
freedom of religion in general. What did the writers of the First Amendment intend in regard to
freedom of religion. I will reread Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association
and reading Louis Fisher’s Religious Liberty in America: Political Safeguards (2002). Hopefully
this will establish a baseline about freedom of religion.
I will then move to an overview of presidents and their faith up to JFK. Darrin Grinder, Steve
Shaw and Anna Marie McHargue’s, The Presidents and Their Faith: From George Washington
to Barak Obama (2012) will be a good beginning and overview. Randall Balmer’s God in the
White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidents from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush
(2009) will also be examined. Mark Rozell and Whitney Gleaves’ Religion and the American
Presidency will be looked into. I will also look at a chapter titled, “Catholics in the Political
Arena: How Faith Should Inform Catholic Voters and Politicians.”
Then I propose to look directly at JFK and how he diffused the anti-Catholic bias he faced.
Thomas J. Carty’s, A Catholic in the White House (2004) will offer a detailed examination of this
situation. I also plan to go back and view Dr. Sabato’s lecture, “Religion and Politics.” Reading
and/or viewing JFK’s speech will clearly take place in this part of the study. I believe further
insight can be gained by reading the relevant chapters concerning this matter in Robert Dallek’s,
Ted Sorensen’s, and Larry Sabato’s biographies of JFK.
From JFK, I will move on to the 1976 campaign and Carter’s introduction of religion into the
presidential campaign. This leads to or coincides with the rise of the religious right. Clyde
Wilcox and Carin Robinson’s Onward Christian Soldiers: The Religious Right in American
Politics, 4th edition (2010)will be examined. Far different from how JFK articulated the
separation of church and state, the religious right has turned it into a litmus test. In fact, it might
be argued that elements of the religious right really want American government to be an
“evangelical Christian theocracy.” Some of the writings and speeches of Pat Robertson may be
investigated in this section.
Throughout this study, I would like to revisit and read the major U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
In particular, I would like to read the majority, concurring and dissenting opinions in at least the
following cases:
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Reynolds v. United States (1879) [polygamy]
Engle v. Vitale (1962) [stated mandated school payer]
Abington School District v. Schemp (1962) [state mandated Bible reading and recitation
of the Lord’s Prayer]
Marsh v. Chambers (1982) [state paid chaplain giving invocation at start of the daily
session of the Nebraska legislature]
Lynch v. Donnelly (1983) [city sponsored nativity scenes on city property]
Van Orden v. Perry (2005) and McCreary County v. ACLU (2005) [plaques of The Ten
Commandments on state government owned property]
Other cases may be examined as my reading and research lead. The same could be said for
articles as well. Writings by religious commentators such as Niebuhr and Marty may be brought
into this study.
The direction of this study will be to determine if JFK’s views on the separation of church and
state might serve the republic better than some of the current views that have developed since
1960.
I believe this proposal will have great relevance for teaching freedom of religion and the
American Presidency. Collin County is a conservative/heavily GOP with numerous megachurches that fit the religious right category. One of the goals of this study is to use JFK’s speech
as something of a standard for a better understanding of how politics and religion function in
modern America. The relevance for the student audience is obvious since Civil Liberties is a
major topic in federal government. I also believe that this topic would play well in civic and
community organizations and dare I say establishments of religion.
Plan of Study
Weeks 1-2
Read Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association
Read Religious Liberty in America: Political Safeguards
Weeks 3-5
Read The Presidents and their Faith: From George Washington to Barak Obama
Read God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy
to George W. Bush
Read Religion and the American Presidency
Read “Catholics in the Political Arena: How Faith Should Inform Catholic Voters and
Politicians”
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Weeks 5-8
Read A Catholic in the White House
Read relevant parts of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963; The Kennedy
Half Century; and Kennedy: The Classic Biography
Weeks 9-10
Read and view JFK’s Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association
Watch Dr. Larry Sabato’s lecture, “Religion and Politics”
Weeks 11-12
Read Onward Christian Soldiers: The Religious Right and American Politics
Weeks 13-14
Read Supreme Court Cases and Decisions
Weeks 15-16
Catch Up and/or explore additional readings discovered in studying the above
Begin work on presentation
Prepare Annotated Bibliography
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Bibliography
Justification: I have chosen the following sources after searching online and reviewing other
scholarly works related to this topic. Louis Fisher is considered one of the greatest political
science authorities on the U.S. Constituiton and the workings of government. Fisher’s works are
some of the most cited in the field. The Dallek and Sorensen biographies are classics on JFK and
his presidency and need no further explanation. Carty’s book directly takes up the case of JFK, a
Catholic and how he governed in his short presidency. Some of the other sources are newer, but
show promise.
Balmer, Randall. 2009. God in the White House: A History of How Faith Shaped the Presidency
from John F Kennedy to George W. Bush. New York: HarperOne.
Carty, Thomas J. 2004. A Catholic in the White House. New York: Palgrave McMillan.
Dallek, Robert. 2003. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. New York: Back Bay
Books.
Fisher, Louis. 2002. Religious Liberty in America: Political Safeguards. Lawrence: University of
Kansas Press.
Grinder, Darrin, Shaw, Steve and McHargue, AnnaMarie. 2012. The Presidents and Their Faith:
From George Washington to Barak Obama. Boise: Russell Media.
Heyer, Kristin E. “Catholics in the Political Arena: How Faith Should Inform Catholic Voters
and Politicians, ” in Heyer, Kristin E, Rozell, Mark J. and Genovese, Michael, eds. 2008.
Catholics and Politics: The Dynamic Tension between Faith and Power. Washington,
D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
Jefferson, Thomas. 1803. Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. Accessed at
http://www.usconstitution.net/jeffwall.html
Kennedy, John F. 1960. Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. Accessed at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16920600
Rozell, Mark and Gleaves, Whitney, eds. 2012. Religion and the American Presidency. New
York: Palgrave McMillan.
Sabato, Larry J. 2013. Video Lecture: Religion and Politics. Accessed at
https://class.coursera.org/kennedy-002/lecture
Sabato, Larry J. 2013. The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination and Legacy of
John F. Kennedy. New York: Bloomsbury USA.
Sorensen, Ted. 2009. Kennedy: The Classic Biography. New York: Harper Perennial.
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Wilcox, Clyde and Robinson, Carin. 2010. Onward Christian Soldiers? The Religious Right
in American Politics. Boulder: Westview Press.