No Religious Test: A Letter to Candidate John F. Kennedy

Among the records kept in the historic courthouse of Fairfax County, Virginia, is an oath that officeholders in 1751-52 were required to sign. Public servants declared that there was no transubstantiation "in the sacrament of the eucharist or in the elements of bread and wine at or after the consecration thereof." This religious test thus excluded Roman Catholics from public office in Fairfax County, and its use was the rule rather than the exception in colonial America.

Following the Revolutionary War and the disestablishment of the Church of England in the United States, however, many states adopted measures to promote greater religious toleration. The national government, too, advanced religious freedom, first in the Northwest Ordinance, then in the Constitution, and finally in the First Amendment. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution stipulated "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." This measure was far too radical for the states, most of which retained in their constitutions religious tests for state office. These persisted as late as 1961, when Maryland’s requirement that officeholders declare a belief in God was challenged and found unconstitutional. In Torasco v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488, the Court unanimously ruled that the "religious test for public office unconstitutionally invades the appellant’s freedom of belief and religion and therefore cannot be enforced against him."

A more insidious evasion of the Constitution’s prohibition against religious tests was the informal requirement for public office that candidates belong to a mainstream Protestant sect. Because members of other religions were prevented from seeking and holding office, they were relegated to second-class citizenship, compromising the integrity of the government.

The presidential election of 1928, which was marred by religious bigotry, illustrates this informal test. The Democrats nominated New York Governor Alfred E. Smith, a Roman Catholic of Irish extraction, as their candidate for President. Conservative Protestants turned his religion into a political issue, claiming that Smith, if elected, would be a puppet of the pope. Smith rebutted in a May 1927 article in Atlantic Monthly.

Smith’s distinguished record as a public servant bore out his assertion that the religious issue was a straw man; but the Republicans did little to dispel the slurs against Smith, and their nominee, Herbert Hoover, won the election in a landslide.

It was not until 1960 that the nation was asked to reconsider its decision of 1928. John F. Kennedy, another Roman Catholic, had swayed voters even in Protestant strongholds such as West Virginia, defeated Protestant candidates, and won the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency. Nonetheless, his faith was an issue in the campaign. Kennedy’s most important speech on religion and public service was made before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in Houston, Texas, on September 12, 1960. In part, he said, "I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church. on public matters—and the Church does not speak for me… [I]f the time should ever come—and I do not concede any conflict to be even remotely possible—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… [I]f this election is decided on the basis that 40 million Americans lost their chance of being President on the day they were baptized, then it is the whole Nation that will be the loser." When Kennedy won the election, it was viewed by many as a victory for religious freedom.

The issue of religious tests did not end in 1960. By the 1980s, Christian evangelicals emerged as a political force. Public response to former ministers’ candidacies, including presidential candidates Pat Robertson and Jesse Jackson, has raised new questions about religion and public office.

The featured document comes from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Kennedy received so many letters on religious issues that a staff member was assigned to handle the load. This document is a particularly thoughtful example selected from tile many letters sent to the candidate in response to his speech to Houston’s ministers.

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Teaching Activities

1. To ensure a close reading of the document, ask students to write responses to these questions:

a. Who wrote the letter?

b. To whom was the letter written?

c. What is the date of the letter?

d. Why, according to the author, has she written the letter?

e. What advice does she give Senator Kennedy?

f. What is the tone or attitude of the letter?

g. List the major points made in the letter about anti-Catholic feeling.

h. Do you think the letter would have been helpful to Senator Kennedy? Why or why not?

Follow up with a class discussion of the questions and responses.

2. Examine Article VI of the Constitution with your students. Ask them to think about examples of religious tests that may have been used in the past. One or two students could research the Torasco v. Watkins case and report to the class. Ask all students to find other instances when minorities have been officially or informally excluded from participation in the democratic process.

3. Ask students to refer to the Constitution and to list the formal qualifications of the office of president of the United States. Have students brainstorm the informal qualifications of the first 10 presidents. Then consider the first 20 and list the informal qualifications for them. Then consider the first 30 and, finally, take all presidents to the present and list informal qualifications. (The list should shrink over four examinations.) Ask students to hypothesizereasons for the former attitudes that Catholics were not suited for civil office. Assign to a pair of students a project for researching the "Catholic issue" in the campaigns of Al Smith and John F. Kennedy. Ask students to account for differences and similarities between the two campaigns.

4. The recent presidential election raised new questions about religion and public office. Divide the class into groups of three to five students, and ask them to draft election guidelines for political campaigns that would allow people, including religious leaders and nonbelievers, to seek public office.