John F. Kennedy explains why religious tests aren't OK in America

Tolerant stance should guide Barrett nomination for Supreme Court

By WND News Services
Published September 30, 2020 at 2:50pm

Share on FacebookTweetShareEmailPrint

(THE FEDERALIST) – Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, has already faced anti-Christian bigotry. "The dogma lives loudly within you, and that's of concern," Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., famously ridiculed Barrett during her 2017 confirmation hearing for the Seventh Circuit Court.

Sixty years ago this month, a Democrat defended his Catholic faith in a history-making speech that warned against imposing a religious test on government officials. Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy told Protestant ministers he didn't "look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test — even by indirection."

In a speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on Sept. 12, 1960, Kennedy reiterated: "I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish – where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source."

https://www.wnd.com/2020/09/john-f-kennedy-explains-religious-tests-arent-ok-america/