God save me from Christianity
In the midst of Hanukkah -- which is not about oil lasting for eight days, but about liberating Jews from religious persecution -- when all around is awash in another too-early Christmas season (pretty, but not our god, thanks), it takes very few straws to strain this camel's back.
Kennedy's speech, from 1960:
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.
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.
...
Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end; where all men and all churches are treated as equal; where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice; where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind; and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.
Full text (and a recording) here. Emphasis in the above, mine.
Why can't we live like that now? Why do I have to hear Mitt Romney, or anyone else, profess "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind," to win votes???
I wonder how many votes he lost... probably none. Why would any non-Christian vote for a member of the Church Militant, a.k.a. the Republican Party?