Nostalgia

“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 — where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials — and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.”-John F. Kennedy.

I find it distressing that if JFK were making that statement today, what was seen as a principled statement of freedom of religion back then would be condemned as anti-religious bigotry.
I know the statement had a political purpose: The idea of a Catholic president raised fears in Protestant America about the Pope pulling the strings in the White House. That doesn’t change the merits of JFK’s sentiment.
In 2004, on the other hand, we had Republicans demanding that Catholic politicians who didn’t want to ban abortion (such as John Kerry) should be denied communion (my favorite was the Repub Catholic who said that punishing all dissenters would be unreasonable, so they just excommunicate Kerry). During this year’s health-care debate, we had Bart Stupak demanding Congress delay its vote so he could get direction from Catholic bishops on whether his proposed amendment satisfied them. I know it’s SOP to consult with special-interest lobbyists on legislation, but delaying it so they can lay down their views?
And in Florida, my former home state, Gov. Jeb Bush rammed legislation through to intervene in a court case(regardless so that a man named Michael Schiavo couldn’t have his wife’s life-support turned off (she was permanently vegetative and a court sided with Schiavo over her family). The press talked a lot about Bush’s deep pro-life convictions but he had several years as governor when he could have intervened in some more legal way (friend of the court brief, say) or pushed to change Florida’s right to die laws. Instead, he only acted when right-to-life activists told him that inaction would cost him support if he ran for president.
Things didn’t improve much when the U.S. Congress weighed in—look up the details if you like.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not just a matter of right-to-life issues. I also object to Bush’s faith-based initiative, and mandatory prayer in schools. Or the idea the government can’t allow gay marriage because some Christians don’t like it. Or the demands of some Muslim taxi-drivers that they should be able to refuse passengers who violate some tenet of their faith.
And it’s not just about my personal views. The Catholic Church condemned the invasion of Iraq back in 2003, and so did I, but I wouldn’t want Catholic pro-war politicians excommunicated as a pressure tactic, or told that they should build their vote around the bishops’ instructions.
I also support the right of religious leaders to speak on public issues, whether it’s the pope, Jesus freaks or Fred Phelps (the guy who claims soldiers are dying in Iraq because America doesn’t hate gays the way Phelps does). What I don’t support is anyone who thinks their religious views or their church’s teachings should be passed into law for no secular reason whatsoever—only religious ones.
JFK was hardly perfect, but on this issue, he was spot on.