A return to anti-Catholic bias of JFK era

[ok_cpu]

Could it be that 45 years have passed since John F. Kennedy felt it necessary to go before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association and confront the deep-seated bigotry that saw Catholics as unworthy to serve as President of the United States?
With the Bush administration's distressingly different defenses of his two nominees to the Supreme Court - Chief Justice John Roberts, a Catholic, and nominee Harriet Miers, a Catholic-turned-evangelical Christian - it seems we're back to 1960.

During the confirmation process, Roberts had to affirmatively state that his Catholic beliefs would not interfere with his ability to fulfill his duties. Miers' religious beliefs, on the other hand, have been advanced as the very reason that she should serve on the highest court in the land.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/356311p-303714c.html

[DemBones DemBones]

1. Excellent article -- thanks for posting it.

I never knew this bit about people thinking Al Smith" was somehow plotting to build a (presumably figurative) tunnel to Rome."

But I remember when Kennedy was elected and one of the jokes told was that the motto "In God We Trust" would be changed to "In the Pope We Hope."

:eyes:


(more from article)


Catholics have a long history of confronting the idea that they are somehow different than mainstream America. In 1928, when Democratic New York Gov. Al Smith became the first Catholic nominated for President by a major party, fears were expressed that he was somehow plotting to build a (presumably figurative) tunnel to Rome.

Decades later, in 1960, Kennedy had to confront that same bias, in a remarkable speech that warned against using any religious test for public office, "even by indirection."

"Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you," Kennedy told the ministers in Houston, "until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril."

Catholics understand all too well the underpinnings of the Bush administration's tawdry attempt to use Roberts' and Miers' religious beliefs - even, in Kennedy's word, by "indirection" - in the furtherance of their political agenda.

[tjwmason]

2. There was a documentary on British television recently

One of its claims was that the current strength of the religious-right was the end result of a process which began with the attacks on Kennedy. That evangelical anti-Catholicism was the catalyst which spured the formation of political protestantism.

[hedgehog]

3. There is a weird kind of ignorance about Catholics among some here.

That is the assumption that the Church is a vast monolith working in lock step under orders from Rome. Heck, I challenge anyone to find two adjacent parishes with exactly matching practices. We're all together on the important stuff, but we all have our own little quirks.

The other fact that outsiders don't quite get is that the farther the parish is from the bishop, the less what the bishop says matters. If the bishop says a particular version of the Our Father is too "protestant", it may not be used in the Cathedral parish, but 60 miles away? Don't bet against it.

[bobbieinok]

4. I remember that he met with the Houston BAPTIST ministerial alliance

it was a 1 hour national broadcast

that was my senior year in college in Houston; I was very unhappy b/c all my friends could vote and I could not (voting age was still 21) and I had admired JFK since he was nominated for Veep in 56 (good ole SoBapt OK senator Robert Kerr rallied the troops to stop the catholic)......as a 'good' SoBapt we got a lot of anti Catholic stuff

the summer of 1960 at the college SundaySchool class at the First Baprtist Church in Tulsa we had a devotional from a man who had attended the Rep Natnl Convention......it was all about how he could feel God's presence at the convention......as SoBapts we knew very well God was at the republican convention b/c the democrats (horrors) nominated a Roman Catholic

[MinM]

5. GOP Dirty Tricks Alert: anti-Catholic ad attributed to group supporting "Democrat Party"

Trying to have their cake and eat it too? Making a blatant anti-Catholic ad and trying to pin it on the Democratic Party.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x489428

[hedgehog]

6. In the US, the "official" Church is increasingly aligned with the Right Wing.

Actually, I think the ad in question addresses that very notion, that all too often "Christians" are following the Gospel of Anyn Rand.

[47of74]

7. The hierarchy seems to be little more than an arm of the GOP

The hierarchy seems to be little more than an official arm of the GOP these days.