Rick Santorum on Sunday attacked John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech
affirming separation of church and state. With two-thirds of
Americans saying religion is 'losing influence' in US life, he may
be playing to those who worry about that.
Rick Santorum's latest foe, rhetorically at least, is a
politician from half a century ago: John Kennedy.
The Republican candidate for president has loudly condemned a
1960 speech in which then-Senator Kennedy outlined a limited role
for religion in politics.
The cross-generational dust-up is serving as a reminder of how
American attitudes about the interplay of religion and politics have
evolved since President Kennedy's time.
Back then, the Democratic presidential contender's speech served
to soften widespread public worries that a Roman Catholic president
might be beholden to the views of a church hierarchy. Today, former
Senator Santorum sees points to be scored by defending the role of
faith in public life (he is also Catholic), not downplaying it.
Here's Santorum in February 2012:
"I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and
state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or
no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely
antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country," said
Santorum in a Sunday interview on ABC News. "This is the First
Amendment. The First Amendment says the free exercise of religion."
Here's Kennedy in September 1960:
"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," Kennedy said in a speech at
the Greater Houston Ministerial Association.
Kennedy's comments helped his candidacy. Today, Santorum's very
different comments may also work in his favor - in the Republican
primary at least.
"Back in 1960, John Kennedy had to stress the distance between
public life and religion," says Robert Schmuhl, a Notre Dame
University expert on US politics, in an e-mail interview from
London, where he is teaching this spring. For Santorum, "catering to
social conservatives is one way he can appeal to an important
Republican Party constituency in the primaries and caucuses."
Public concerns about whether a Catholic would make a dangerous
president, while they may not have disappeared, have faded. By
contrast, two-thirds of Americans today see religion as "losing
influence" in US life, rather than gaining, according to a 2010 poll
by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. And many, especially
among Republicans, see that as a problem.
When Kennedy was seeking the presidency, only a small minority of
Americans felt that religion was "losing its influence," according
to Gallup polling at the time. …
