The Kennedy Men_ 1901-1963 - Laurence Leamer [289]
Jack went on to say that he would do what his conscience told him to do, not his church, but “when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the same.” Only a few months before, the Vatican newspaper, L’ Osservatore Romano, had stated that the pope and his cardinals had “the right and duty to intervene” in politics and that “the Catholic may never disregard the teaching and direction of the church.” Jack stood before the Houston preachers that morning in as much opposition to these certitudes, as he was to the certitudes of the Protestant clergy.
Jack knew one simple fact. There were twice as many Protestants as there were Catholics, and if most Americans voted for a man of their own faith, he had no chance of winning this election. Although Jack may not have won any votes that morning, he partially dammed off that foul tributary of religious prejudice. It was dammed off too by Americans who may not have heard his voice that day but showed that they did not want their political system polluted by attacks on a man’s faith.
Jack’s speech that morning was magnified a hundredfold. Bill Wilson, a television producer hired to oversee the debates and other live events, had insisted that the lengthy speech be kinescoped. He cut the speech down to a half hour to be shown again and again on television stations across America. This crucial element of the campaign was essentially a political infomercial unlike anything Nixon’s campaign was doing.
Most Americans were not about to vote against Jack simply because he worshiped at a different church. The Reverend Peale learned that in early September, when he chaired the Washington meeting of a new group, Citizens for Religious Freedom, whose intent was the opposite of its name. The most pernicious of prejudices are not shouted in the street but spoken in sonorous tones, garnished with reason and plausibility. The ad hoc group issued a statement with a disingenuous disclaimer that the “religious issue” was “not the fault of the candidate.” It was his church that was the problem, and as much as Jack might swear obeisance to the First Amendment, he could never be free of the Roman church’s “determined efforts … to breach the wall of separation of church and state.” Peale said that he doubted that, as president, Jack would be able to stand up to what was “both a church and also a temporal state.”
Peale and his followers had every expectation that the mainstream American clergy and prominent newspaper editors would greet these comments positively. That would have been a strong signal for the ministers to make a public issue of Jack’s faith, possibly ensuring his defeat. Instead, the ministers’ statement roused the dormant leaders of liberal Protestantism. But it was not just Democratic-leaning clergy who were outraged. The Methodist Outlook, the Presbyterian Outlook, and the Christian Century all condemned Peale as well. Many newspaper publishers were appalled, and almost 10 percent of the newspapers carrying “Confident Living” canceled Peale’s popular column. Even the editor of the Saturday Evening Post criticized him.
Peale backed off and retreated to the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, where he preached to a white, well-fed, increasingly suburban congregation who were a fair representation of what the minister thought America to be. After the election Peale said that “Protestant America got its death blow on November 8.”
Jack had more than his faith to worry about. He was so apprehensive about his father’s potential negative impact on the campaign that when the British journalist Henry Brandon asked to interview Joe, the candidate told him: “Henry, if you do, you’ll never speak to me again.” Jack’s worries were well founded. Later in the campaign a secret report on Jewish voters noted their apathy toward Jack based in part on “anxiety about Joseph P. Kennedy and his alleged America First leanings.”
Joe was as sensitive as Jack to the detrimental