QUOTE OF THE DAY
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.
… I would not look with favor upon a president
working to subvert the First Amendment’s guarantees of religious
liberty. Nor would our system of checks and balances permit him to do
so. And neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to
subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test —
even by indirection — for it. If they disagree with that safeguard, they
should be out openly working to repeal it.
I want a chief
executive whose public acts are responsible to all groups and obligated
to none; who can attend any ceremony, service or dinner his office may
appropriately require of him; and whose fulfillment of his presidential
oath is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual or
obligation.
Whatever issue may come before me as
president — on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any
other subject — I will make my decision in accordance with these views,
in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national
interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates.
And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide
otherwise.
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